10

Smartphone Screenwriting:
Creativity, Technology, and
Screenplays-on-the-Go
Craig Batty

Abstract: From the typewriter to the computer, with good old

pen and paper in between, screenwriters have experienced a
shift in how they physically write their screenplays. Along with
this shift has come a plethora of free and paid-for software
packages to help with writing a screenplay, such as Final
Draft, Celtx, and ScriptSmart. The idea of ‘I’ll have to write it
all again’ has changed to an idea of ‘I can erase, re-write and
copy and paste in seconds’, and even the formatting take care
of itself. Screenwriters today are thus able to spend more time
writing and less time typing. The market now is awash with
apps for screenwriters, from Scrivener to Slugline to Plotbot
to StorySkeleton, and although they do not teach the craft of
screenwriting per se, they do provide users with some of the
tools needed to plan and write a screenplay.

Berry, Marsha and Max Schleser. Mobile Media Making in

an Age of Smartphones. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2014. doi: 10.1057/9781137469816.0016.

 DOI: 10.1057/9781137469816.0016

M. Berry et al. (eds.), Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones

© Marsha Berry and Max Schleser 2014
 Smartphone Screenwriting 

In the 1990 film Misery, writer Paul Sheldon is taken in by ‘number one
fan’ Annie Wilkes to recover from a car accident, only to learn that she is
a crazed maniac. Annie knows that Paul has just finished his manuscript
for the last installment of the Misery series, and is dying to read it. When
she does read it, she is disgusted by the foul language and at protagonist
Misery’s demise. She demands that Paul re-write the book under her
editorial guidance, and because he needs help with his recovery, Paul has
no choice but to do as she says.
Throughout the film Paul is locked in his bedroom, frantically trying
to write the new novel. Confined to a wheelchair, he is literally trapped
in Annie’s house and metaphorically trapped in a nightmare situation.
He is also trapped in his use of the second-hand typewriter bought for
him by Annie, which has the letter ‘n’ missing. The typewriter becomes
a symbolic object with its own narrative journey: from being forced
upon Paul to being used by Paul, and eventually appropriated by Paul to
re-gain his strength and attack Annie (see Batty and Waldeback, 2008,
52–53).
I want to suggest that the film’s use of the typewriter is a symbol for
the changes in technology taking place at the time; more specifically,
that it represents the significant shift in how writing takes place. As I will
explore, Misery represents a point in history when the shackles of writing
practice were coming undone. Almost 25 years later and no longer tied to
the typewriter, we write with smartphones and tablets anywhere and at
any time, a plethora of digital tools and apps available to us. For screen-
writing practice and the future of screen stories, especially in relation to
mobile filmmaking, this potential needs to be explored. As Tolstoy said
on the emergence of filmmaking:
You will see that this little clicking contraption with the revolving handle will
make a revolution in our life—in the life of writers. It is a direct attack on the
old methods of literary art. We shall have to adapt ourselves to the shadowy
screen and to the cold machine. A new form of writing will be necessary.
(cited by Price, 2010, 24)

We might re-consider this in light of technology available to the

screenwriter today. Although in most cases a screenplay is still written,
the possibilities of how and where it is written are endless. Field writes
that ‘Typing should never get in the way of writing’, and suggests that
with the personal computer, 100 percent of a screenwriter’s time can be
spent writing as opposed to 25 percent with a typewriter, which required

DOI: 10.1057/9781137469816.0016