The Movie and Book Writing Thread

[40hz]

Since there seems to be a fair number of us here who either are writing or have written something (i.e. kyrathaba) for publication or film, I thought it might be useful to have central thread where we can discuss and share "all things writing." 'Writing' would include: books, articles, poetry, essays, song lyrics, movie/TV scripts, e-publishing, etc. And could cover such things as writing advice, useful software, web resources, how-tos, samples of work, 'war' stories, etc.

I'll kick it off with a link to a MovieMaker Magazine article by Jesse Zwick about what he did to make his small ensemble movie About Alec a reality.

How They Did It: Jesse Zwick Dives Straight into About Alex
By Jesse Zwick on August 13, 2014


Two years of working on a movie—three weeks to prep it. How Jesse Zwick found himself making his directorial debut, the seven-person ensemble piece About Alex, with high-profile actors and no film school buddies to call upon for favors.

——————————————————–

Writing a movie, not a script

A couple of years into my attempted life as a screenwriter—after several scripts had received the damning praise of being “good writing samples”—I became convinced that the best thing I could do for my career was to stop waiting for someone to hire me and, instead, write a very contained story that I could make on any budget. In other words, I decided to stop writing scripts and instead write a movie,...<more>

Note: MovieMaker Magazine runs a very good website that regularly publishes DIY and "how we did it" articles on film making. While not just about writing, there's a lot in there about the mechanics and process of making a movie that a budding scriptwriter absolutely needs to know if they ever hope to see their work up on the screen.

Recommended.

[Renegade]

Hey, I've never mentioned my pron-script moonlighting... Have you been reading my email?

[Renegade]

The vast majority of what I do is all corporate stuff. Emails, documentation, software UIs, web sites, brochures, video scripts, communications, planning documents, blah blah blah etc. etc. etc. Extremely boring stuff for most people.

But I don't really do pron scripts. Thank god. Though I did do a campaign for a pron company once upon a time...

I certainly have my pet peeves when it comes to language and grammar though. One of the big ones is the general inability of English speakers to account for number when they write or speak. It's not that hard to tell the difference between "1" and "other than 1". Sigh... There are others though. (That was a concise demonstration of the issue.)

[superboyac]

I certainly have my pet peeves when it comes to language and grammar though. One of the big ones is the general inability of English speakers to account for number when they write or speak. It's not that hard to tell the difference between "1" and "other than 1". Sigh... There are others though. (That was a concise demonstration of the issue.)

Que?  I'm curious, but I don't think I understand what you are saying?  Clarification?

[Renegade]

I certainly have my pet peeves when it comes to language and grammar though. One of the big ones is the general inability of English speakers to account for number when they write or speak. It's not that hard to tell the difference between "1" and "other than 1". Sigh... There are others though. (That was a concise demonstration of the issue.)

Que?  I'm curious, but I don't think I understand what you are saying?  Clarification?

Most people are incapable of understanding that "2" is not "1".

The typical error is:

There is 5 glasses on the table.

WRONG!

There ARE 5 glasses on the table.

That's just one of my pet peeves.

Most people can't even speak their own language properly. It's pathetic.

[4wd]

Most people can't even speak their own language properly. It's pathetic.

That's because languages have been standardised ... which leads in to:

The good thing about standards is that there's so many to pick from.

[40hz]

That's just one of my pet peeves.

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds.  

[superboyac]

That's just one of my pet peeves.

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds. 

[KynloStephen66515]

That's just one of my pet peeves.

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds. 

I see what you did their.

[Stoic Joker]

That's just one of my pet peeves.

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds. 

I see what you did their.

All right now, you guys is just being mean.

[Renegade]

That's just one of my pet peeves.

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds. 

I see what you did their.

All right now, you guys is just being mean.

Hahaha! Those are all pretty good.

Now... time to drop the gears into grammar Nazi mode!

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds. 

"It" in that case refers to "pets", so there is no number agreement there.

However, there is a case to be made for "It must be hundreds."

"Take the expression '10<5' for example. This is false because 10 is greater than 5."

The grammar there is fine. '10' is taken to be 'a number', which is singular. This happens quite often in English, and in other contexts as well.

All right now, you guys is just being mean.

This case is excluded from that class though as there is no ambiguity about number with 'guys'. (I'll get back to this below.)

However, there is a class of subjects where number can be assigned more or less freely as the speaker wishes. For example:

"Intel is/are introducing a new class of processor next week."

DC'ers from North America are more likely to choose "is", while those in the UK are more likely to choose "are".

The question is about whether "Intel" is an organisation that requires singular verb agreement for number, or is a collective that requires a plural form.

If you look into the issue, you will find little agreement on it from those that adhere to prescriptive grammatical rules (as opposed to normative). For prescriptive grammar, the debate is about whether or not collectives are to be treated as plurals or not, and whether or not number penetrates through qualified singular nouns. For example,

The class of students is waiting. vs. The class of students are waiting.

Compare that to:

The class is waiting.

You would never say:

The class are waiting.

Because you reserve the use of "are" there for:

The classes are waiting.

The ambiguity arises when "class" is qualified as a collective by "of students".

You can ask that question like so:

Which is the correct underlining for the subject in the following sentence (<to be> is left in the infinitive):

1. The class of students <to be> waiting.
2. The class of students <to be> waiting.

In #2, <to be> is clearly "is". In #1, there is a degree of ambiguity that leaves the speaker to decide on whether or not the subject should be treated as singular or a collective, and whether or not to treat collectives as plural, as is done in British English very often.

Getting back to the "guys" example, there is no ambiguity for number there. This is similar to the case:

"There are <plural>."

The dummy pronoun "there" (and others) takes its number from the object, which is understood to be the actual subject of the sentence. 

"Guys" is definite, while "there" is a dummy pronoun that can be either singular or plural. In both cases they have the same position as the subject of the sentence. However, "guys" is the subject proper, while for dummy pronouns, they are not the subject proper, but rather refer to it in the object position.

Another ambiguity arises for dummy pronouns when a plural object is a list of singular objects, e.g. "a cat, a dog, and a mouse". For example:

There is/are a cat, a dog, and a mouse in the house.

In this version:

There are a cat, a dog, and a mouse in the house.

The actual subject is clearly "a cat, a dog, and a mouse." (NOTE: The previous sentence sets up another case for number. I'm skipping it.)

However, in this version:

There is a cat, a dog, and a mouse in the house.

It makes sense to understand that as a shortened version of:

There is a cat (in the house), and there is a dog (in the house), and there is a mouse in the house.

That may seem counterintuitive for some, but consider the following case for number agreement:

There are 2 beers.

"Beers" is simply nonsensical. There is no such things as "beers"... until you understand that what is meant is:

There are 2 bottles of beer.

We truncate "bottles of beer" to "beers". (The same goes for 'glasses', etc., but not for 'cases' or 'kegs' or 'pitchers'.)

"Beer" itself is a liquid, which is non-countable. Bottles, on the other hand, are countable.

(I'm going to skip the case for "waters" as that issue diverges into other cases not related to number agreement.)



Blah... Time to get on to some work.

[KynloStephen66515]

I can't believe I just read that at almost 6am......

[Vurbal]

If you look into the issue, you will find little agreement on it from those that adhere to prescriptive grammatical rules (as opposed to normative). For prescriptive grammar, the debate is about whether or not collectives are to be treated as plurals or not, and whether or not number penetrates through qualified singular nouns.

Here's the problem I see with your entire line of reasoning. The rules aren't for writers. They're for people who aren't writers, but need to write nonetheless. Writing is like music. It's something you need to feel to do it well. In fact what I usually tell people is the rules are for people who can't hear the music.

Don't get me wrong. Some people have fantastic stories to tell, but simply aren't writers. Tolkien is perhaps the most famous example. He was a horrible writer but had some wonderful (and other less than wonderful) stories. But everything he ever wrote pales by comparison to Shakespeare's work and Shakespeare broke every rule in the book and then made up more rules just so he could break those too.

[Renegade]

If you look into the issue, you will find little agreement on it from those that adhere to prescriptive grammatical rules (as opposed to normative). For prescriptive grammar, the debate is about whether or not collectives are to be treated as plurals or not, and whether or not number penetrates through qualified singular nouns.

Here's the problem I see with your entire line of reasoning. The rules aren't for writers. They're for people who aren't writers, but need to write nonetheless. Writing is like music. It's something you need to feel to do it well. In fact what I usually tell people is the rules are for people who can't hear the music.

I think that you've mistook what I was saying there. I wasn't trying to dictate rules for writers. You're right there - writers know the rules well enough that they can become creative with them for effect. Or perhaps in other words, mastering the rules frees you of them.

But you simply don't find good writers using bad or sloppy grammar like you would find in the comments sections of major news sites, Youtube, or Facebook.

Carrying on with the music metaphor, take the intro to Purple Haze and the dissonance in it. Dissonance is generally to be avoided, but Jimi simply makes it work. Masters get to break the rules, and we know that it was someone who has actually mastered the rules by how the end results are.

Incidentally, this would be an interesting question for AI.

[KynloStephen66515]

Let's put this through the "Ren Test"  

Here is a short section from a book I am writing, which I would love to get some opinions on


Really, there is no way he could have seen this coming.  Spending every day locked away in his own little world; friends all around, but loneliness so vivid.  Darkness was his companion, the light; his enemy.  Yet, somehow, through the mist, he saw something that made no sense, something he couldn't explain.  Words cannot describe the feeling that had come over him, and all he knew, was that something was changing...something strange, something wonderful, but also absolutely terrifying.  It took only a few moments for things to become clear, and he could see through the mist, he could feel the breeze.  Something whispered out to him, and he knew then, what he must do, to survive.

(New Chapter)

Things just didn't seem quite right, what with everything that was happening.  Days seemed short, the nights long, no matter what he said, there was nothing getting through, nothing had the power to break through the wall, and that left him with a heart so powerless, his soul fading like sheets blowing into the distance.  Hidden away, lost, and with an overwhelming loneliness thrust through his soul, he had no clue how to overcome the feelings of darkness that passed through him on a minute-by-minute basis.  Nothing seemed to help.  Life was slipping past him at an incredible rate, yet the world seemed to stay without motion, words resonating without echo, quickly evaporating into a hazy mist.

People move so quickly these days, but for reasons that are unknown, his feet are stuck in the quicksand he has created, lost in his own spirit, drowning in solitude, and with painful angst, he muttered slowly with every breath he could muster, hoping for some release, something to help him climb up from the bottom of this endless cliff, but that was a path he could not see.  It is amazing to think, that for a long time, these feelings where locked, like an ocean liner trapped in a bottle or a firefly lost in the sunset.

His mind twisted like branches around an old oak tree, trying to find resolve, desperate for an end, a way through, some meaning, some light, but nothing would go right, every turn was littered with voids.  He spent his days locked behind a glaring screen, sound coming through was muffled and empty, but it gave him a reason, a way forward, and a path on which to travel where he couldn't feel.  Every word he tried to say, came out backwards, and it was breaking him.

The sun was falling from the sky, causing shadows to leap and bounce along the building tops.  This was something he could enjoy, something that still felt right, which is why he got in the car so often at the end of the day, to find a spot to sit, somewhere to find solitude, even for a moment.  Sitting there, he could think clearly, so clearly.  He felt warm, and safe, while on his own, but nobody could understand.  The pain in his heart, was breaking him.  Simply staying here, in the place he was, and the situation he was in, was going to kill him, no other way I could put that, so much easier to be blunt about it, and there lies the problem...on several occasions, it almost did.

Skeletons littering his mind,  ghosts of the past screaming into his soul, he needed an opportunity to relinquish some of the pain he was feeling, yet, there was no way out.  No matter how much they spoke, their words fell before reaching the intended destination.  He screamed out, but to no avail, his heart twisting with every word, beating faster than the wings of a Hummingbird in a calm summers breeze.  Every ounce of his being was on fire, and yet, he was, actually, happy...once.

[Renegade]

Let's put this through the "Ren Test" 

Here is a short section from a book I am writing, which I would love to get some opinions on

Here are some free-form comments inline. I'm only addressing grammar and style. I'm going to avoid any artistic decisions for the sake of focus.

(When I say "style", I mean the style of grammar used.)

I'm marking my comments with "R - ".


Really, there is no way he could have seen this coming.  Spending every day locked away in his own little world; friends all around, but loneliness so vivid. 

R - Your use of semi-colons is jarring. Semi-colons join related sentences, but don't replace commas.


Darkness was his companion, the light; his enemy. 

R - Same issue. Consider using commas.

R - If you're looking to jar the reader with some kind of shock, then, well, I'm not so sure that it works as it also introduces a bit of confusion. Perhaps an ellipsis there would work better. e.g.

Darkness was his companion, the light... his enemy. 



Yet, somehow, through the mist, he saw something that made no sense, something he couldn't explain.  Words cannot describe

R - Consider using:

Words could not describe...

R - That sticks to the same tense.

the feeling that had come over him, and all he knew, was that something was changing...something strange,

R - Ellipses styles vary. I'm not fond of the lack of a space following an ellipsis, but others prefer it when the first letter is lower-case.


something wonderful, but also absolutely terrifying.  It took only a few moments for things to become clear, and he could see through the mist, he could feel the breeze. 

R - That's where a semi-colon is needed. Right now you have a comma splice. Consider the following:


It took only a few moments for things to become clear, and he could see through the mist; he could feel the breeze. 

R - Or, this:

It took only a few moments for things to become clear, and he could see through the mist, feel the breeze. 

R - Now, that's not a strict grammatical style, but it fits. Here's a stricter style:

It took only a few moments for things to become clear as he could see through the mist and feel the breeze. 

R - There are many ways to work that out. Styles differ, but sticking to more common styles that don't violate basic grammar rules is the best way to go unless there is a very compelling reason.


Something whispered out to him, and he knew then, what he must do, to survive.

R - Now, for the specific style that I prefer, I'd use ellipses there instead of commas. They simply work better in many cases as they indicate to the reader that the reader needs to imagine something or fill in the blanks. Here's an example with ellipses:


Something whispered out to him, and he knew then... what he had to do... to survive.


R - I also swapped out "must" there as it doesn't work well in the past tense. "Had to" or "needed to" are better choices as they inflect for the past tense. But, I think this would still be better:


Something whispered out to him, and he knew then what he had to do... to survive.


R - You might get flak from some people for the comma there, but there's nothing wrong with it at all. Commas are also used to indicate pauses, and that works there.


(New Chapter)

Things just didn't seem quite right, what with everything that was happening. 


R - You are adopting a very conversational tone there with how you're phrasing things. Nothing wrong with that. Just an observation. (The "what" triggers that.)

Days seemed short, the nights long, no matter what he said, there was nothing getting through, nothing had the power to break through the wall, and that left him with a heart so powerless, his soul fading like sheets blowing into the distance. 


R - There again I'd say go back and examine how you're using commas. You've got comma splices in there with no apparently good reason for them.


Days seemed short. Nights long.

R - That punctuates it a bit better. The next part is a bit hairy.

No matter what he said, there was nothing getting through, nothing had the power to break through the wall, and that left him with a heart so powerless, his soul fading like sheets blowing into the distance. 


R - Now, in that part the second comma would be better as a period. Check this:

No matter what he said, there was nothing getting through. Nothing had the power to break through the wall, and that left him with a heart so powerless, his soul fading like sheets blowing into the distance. 


R - The second sentence there could use some tightening up:


Nothing had the power to break through the wall, and that left him with a heart so powerless, his soul faded like sheets blowing into the distance. 


R - Faded vs. fading. "Fading" simply doesn't work as you're then changing the tense which is jarring, grammatically wrong, and simply not working well there.



R - Everything here works fine. No issues at all.

Hidden away, lost, and with an overwhelming loneliness thrust through his soul, he had no clue how to overcome the feelings of darkness that passed through him on a minute-by-minute basis.  Nothing seemed to help.  Life was slipping past him at an incredible rate, yet the world seemed to stay without motion, words resonating without echo, quickly evaporating into a hazy mist.




People move so quickly these days, but for reasons that are unknown,

R - Here you can cut out some clutter. Consider this:

People move so quickly these days, but for reasons unknown,

R - Eliminating "that are" makes that flow better. Also, tense.

R - Continuing:

People move so quickly these days, but for reasons unknown, his feet are stuck in the quicksand he has created,


R - You're drifting through tenses without any kind of purpose there. -- "are stuck"

R - Now, you **can** shift through tenses, but you really need to work hard on making that tense shift obvious **AND** acceptable to the reader.

R - Also, consider your use of past participles: "he has created".

R - British English is far less direct than American English. The simple past works much better for effect as it is more definite.

R - Going over that part so far...

People move so quickly these days, but for reasons unknown, his feet stuck in the quicksand he created, lost in his own spirit, drowning in solitude, and with painful angst, he muttered slowly with every breath he could muster, hoping for some release, something to help him climb up from the bottom of this endless cliff, but that was a path he could not see. 


R - I tighted up the tense there. Now we can see that this is a recent story with better clairity.

R - For "this endless cliff", I'm not fond of that. Consider this:

something to help him climb up from the bottom of his endless cliff,

R - Also, instead of "but that was a path he could not see", consider:

but that was a path he was blind to.

R - Above I quibbled about comma use, but in that passage there I think you've nailed some good usage and it works.


R - Here, I have to wonder if you're guilty of a typo or trolling me:

It is amazing to think, that for a long time, these feelings where locked, like an ocean liner trapped in a bottle or a firefly lost in the sunset.

R - This instead:

It is amazing to think, that for a long time, these feelings were locked, like an ocean liner trapped in a bottle or a firefly lost in the sunset.

R -


His mind twisted like branches around an old oak tree,

R - The word you're looking for is "ivy". Just a simple word choice there:

His mind twisted like ivy around an old oak tree,

R - Here:

His mind twisted like ivy around an old oak tree, trying to find resolve, desperate for an end, a way through, some meaning, some light, but nothing would go right, every turn was littered with voids. 


R - You've got the effect going quite well, then you ruin it here:

some light, but nothing would go right

R - That comma doesn't work very well. It's "ok" (in a horrible sense), but you've shown that you can do much better. Consider a period or rewriting that section.

R - Here:

but nothing would go right, every turn was littered with voids.

R - The comma doesn't work well.


R - Here:


He spent his days locked behind a glaring screen, sound coming through was muffled and empty, but it gave him a reason, a way forward, and a path on which to travel where he couldn't feel.  Every word he tried to say, came out backwards, and it was breaking him.


R - "glaring screen, sound" -- Comma use again. It could work, but you need to rewrite that passage to make it flow better. Here's a quick "out of my butt" example:

R - From:

He spent his days locked behind a glaring screen, sound coming through was muffled and empty,

R - To:

He spent his days locked behind a glaring screen with sound coming through muffled and empty,

R - For this:

where he couldn't feel

R - I think I'd like this better:

where he could be numb

R - A positive assertion often works better than a negative one.

R - Here:

Every word he tried to say, came out backwards, and it was breaking him.

R - The first comma doesn't seem to have any purpose. Try this:

Every word he tried to say came out backwards, and it was breaking him.

R - I'm skipping the last 2 paragraphs there. Except for this:

Sitting there, he could think clearly, so clearly.

R - When using "so", make sure that what should follow is clear. The general construct is "so X that Y", and the "Y" needs to be clear unless there's a good reason, e.g. You purposefully want to leave that question unanswered so that the reader can discover it through some sort of revelation later on. You use "so" in a few places. Double-check that you have used it properly.

R - From what I can see there, you're using commas as a crutch, and it's not working well. This is the biggest problem I see there.

R - For tense, you really need to pay more attention to get your tenses agreeing better. Right now you're switching between tenses with no focus. From what I can see, you're trying to get the "immediacy" of the present tenses, but how you transition is simply unacceptable. Now, that's not to say that it can't be done. However, those transitions need to be planned and orchestrated very carefully. I can't give you an example because, let's face it... that shit is hard and takes time.

R - As it stands, you have some work to do to get that up to publishable standards. A lot of that work is almost trivial to fix. A couple hours of reading on grammar and you're good to go.

R - In any event, that's just a very (not "so" ) quick technical analysis of some grammar and style.

R - I focused on a lot of negative things there, but that's basically what I do -- corrections.

R - Today I did some work for a medical instrument company, and had to come back to them with some much worse news than I've given you. Sigh... I hate being the "bad guy" sometimes.

R - Anyways, my home brew is f**king awesome! I'm not going to be able to type much of anything soon.

[40hz]

The Digital Reader blog has a nice little daily feature called The Morning Coffee which gathers a handful of interesting article links that should be interest to both actual and will-be authors and publishers. Perfect for...well...when you're drinking your morning coffee.

Add this URL to your favorite feed reader to get it:

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/category/morning-coffee/feed/

[TaoPhoenix]

That's just one of my pet peeves.

@R - Out of curiosity....just how many of this pets do you have? It must be hundreds. 

Find a way to crossbreed something never before done, then call it a Peeve!

[tomos]

^ never having laid claim to grammatical powers - I'm enjoying the slagging Ren is getting, but dont understand why...
Should we be saying 'our pets the peeves' maybe ?
or what?

[40hz]

^ never having laid claim to grammatical powers - I'm enjoying the slagging Ren is getting, but dont understand why...
Should we be saying 'our pets the peeves' maybe ?
or what?

S/B - ...just how many of these pets do you have? There must be hundreds.

[tomos]

^ never having laid claim to grammatical powers - I'm enjoying the slagging Ren is getting, but dont understand why...
Should we be saying 'our pets the peeves' maybe ?
or what?

S/B - ...just how many of these pets do you have? There must be hundreds.

Okay, I got that - but presumed you were slagging some fault in Ren's post
hang on,
I should read the whole thread, shouldn't I


EDIT// I understand everything now (and my grammar is now perfect :p)

[40hz]

@Stephen66515 - here's some food for thought courtesy of Raymond Chandler:

By the way, would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of barroom vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed and attentive. The method may not be perfect, but it is all I have.

Raymond Chandler

[40hz]

There's a new Suse Studio compilation called the Wallstone Creativity Desktop.

Description

Are you a writer? Do you do heavy blogging? Do you edit other people's works? Are you a (self-) publisher? Do you need the ability to write, edit, or publish works on-the-go? Are you sick of paying Microsoft hundreds of dollars for software that doesn't work right?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then the Wallstone Creativity Desktop was made for you. This (mostly) complete system, Powered by OpenSUSE, has plenty of tools for writing, editing, converting documents, scanning documents, handling images and photos, planning, and much more.

In addition, if you work on audio or video projects, we're working on making your lives better as well, with programs like OpenShot and Cinelrella, Mixxx, and Audacity. The Wallstone Creativity Desktop wants to be YOUR favorite Linux distribution, so tell us what you'd like to see!

This effort takes a kitchen sink approach by bundling all the wordsmithing tools the dev distro creator could find and putting them into one convenient collection.

I have mixed feelings about doing a distro like this. First, because this approach leads to a bloated installation that sometimes develops dependencies issues or experiences slowness down the road. Second, because there's a huge amount of functional overlap since so many similar apps are included. Seriously, do you really think you'll need over a dozen separate wordprocessors and text editors for your daily work?

That said, "kitchen sinking" can be a handy thing if you are new to Linux and don't have much experience with what software is available. This distro helps out with that by the simple expedient of taking a large amount of what’s out there and including it by default. (see below)

What&#039;s included...

MAJOR PROGRAMS (by Category)

Word Processors

   LibreOffice
   AbiWord
   Blogilo
   LyX
   Gnome Blog
   Scribus

Editors

   Bluefish
   Cherry Tree
   Gedit
   Nano
   Red Notebook
   Tomboy
   Markdown
       Multimarkdown
       Discount
       Retext

Dictionaries

   Aspell
   Myspell
   Golden Dictionary
   Gnome Dictionary
   Ispell
   Star Dict

Thesaurus

   Artha
   LibreOffice English Thesaurus

OCR

   Cuneiform
   Tesseract
   Gocr
   OCRad
   GimageReader

Document Conversion

   Calibre
   Pandoc
   HTML to Postscript
   PDFChain
   Sigil

Typesetting

   LaTeX
   TexMaker
   TexStudio
   TexWorks
   Texlive
   Lilypond

Photography

   Darktable
   Digikam
   Fotoxx
   Shotwell

Video Editors

   OpenShot
   Cinelrella

Graphics & Animation

   Blender
   Img2DVJU
   GIMP
   Inkscape
   Uniconverter
   XML Graphics Batik
   Synfig Studio
   Sweet Home 3D
   Librecad

Scanning

   Scan Tailor (Featured)
   Xsane

Audio Editing

   Audacity
   Rosegarden

Audio DJ/Broadcast

   Mixxx

Financial

   Gnu Cash
   LibreOffice Calc

Planning

   Dia
   Planner
   Freeplane
   Project Libre
   + Getting Things GNOME

Internet

   Firefox
   Thunderbird
   PidGin
   Skype
   Leechcraft

Windows

   Wine
   Swine
   Mono
   Gecko
   PlayOnLinux

Utilities

   Printing
       Glabels
       Gutenprint

   File Managers
       PcManFm
       Nautilus

   Boot
       Grub2
       Grub Customizer

   Disk Image & Tools
       Gparted
       Suse Studio Image Writer
       Kiwi

  CD/DVD Burner
       Brasero

   Archiver
       Ark

   Font Management
       Font Forge
       Font Manager

IMO the smart way to use a distro like this is to run it straight off the live DVD (it's 2.74Gb in the 64-bit version) and explore the various pieces of software included. When you find the apps you really like - make a list. Then get a more basic distro and use the package manager to grab and install the list of apps you made earlier. Or alternatively, install it to your hard disk and then let the package manager remove all the stuff you aren't using. You can always easily reinstall something if you find you need it.

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[Renegade]

Wow. That's a lot of tools in there.

There's one mind mapping tool that I've seen used that looks pretty good:

http://www.thebrain.com

It's cross platform, and would make a good addition there.

I found out about it here:

https://www.tragedyandhope.com/the-brain/

Richard uses it in a lot of his videos.

[40hz]

@Ren - The Brain is one of those very cool looking apps I've played with but could never really find a good use for in the past.

I suppose if I were writing a mystery novel. or a thriller revolving around nested conspiracies over a long historic period - y'know, one of those "wheels within wheels" things that start back in 1776 and progress through Area-51 on the way to the official last Apollo moon mission with stops along the way for the Bavarian Illuminati, Majestic-12, and The New World Order...?

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