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DUNE Screenplay written in MS-DOS

whartung

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Apr 23, 2020
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Saw this interesting anecdote:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdeay/the-dune-screenplay-was-written-in-ms-dos

The Oscar winning screenwriter of ‘Dune’ writes in an MS-DOS program that can only hold 40 pages in memory.

It's a program called "Movie Master".

I thought it was curious to only handle 40 pages at a time. That seems like something you'd hear about an 8-Bit program, not something for a PC.

Anyways, "vintage software in the real world" sighting and all that.
 
Lots of stuff was written on 8-bitters. Years ago, I did a few disks with Gene Roddenberry's production notes that used a CP/M system (I'd have to check my notes to see which one, but I believe it was a Japanese system, perhaps Fujitsu).
 
quote "George RR Martin has used the MS-DOS program WordStar to slowly write every single Game of Thrones book."

Why slowly ? Just because he is using Wordstar doesn't mean he has to type slowly.

Maybe "slowly print it out", or "slowly copy it to a few floppy disks", but slowly write ?
 
Actually, using Wordstar means that one never has to take one's hands from the keyboard to fumble with a mouse. I submit that it's probably faster than using a GUI-based wa-pro application for entering text.
 
Your probably right.

I started on Word perfect 4 and apart from the 'equation editor', it was very quick and easy to use.

I would imagine for a book or a screenplay with no fancy formatting, no graphics and no other crap, its much faster and wont suddenly decide your writing in French and start objecting to the spelling of every word.

At least MSword doesn't leave an executable running after closing quite as often as it used to.
 
I can see writers using tools they are very familiar with AND won't let them get distracted with emails or a web browser.

George RR Martin is always picked on for not finishing his games of thrones series, hence the writing slowly bit.
 
Screenplays have a rather strange standard format. Another element to some screenplay writing tools is character name tracking to keep from having different characters with the same name from popping up. I remember long discussions of the best screenwriting tool in certain forums which had a high proliferation of those intending to write for TV and film.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Actually, using Wordstar means that one never has to take one's hands from the keyboard to fumble with a mouse. I submit that it's probably faster than using a GUI-based wa-pro application for entering text.
My current writing project has been done entirely in Markdown on a basic text editor. It is hands-down easier than having to futz around with MS Word or equivalents; I can just focus on the words and worry about the presentation later. Doing it on a computer old enough that it can't handle much in the way of modern distractions helps, too.
 
Not that I am a writer with anything like the credibility of George RR Martin, or indeed anyone else we're likely to know using old systems or software, but I use a TRS-80 Model 4P, Tandy 102, and QuickPad Pro as my primary writing tools. The lack of distractions and the simplicity of software is a great help.
 
I can see writers using tools they are very familiar with AND won't let them get distracted with emails or a web browser.

Several modern tools have something akin to "dedicated, full screen" mode which takes over the display to help limit distractions.

It's kind of funny. I guess on something like my iMac, it would have to be a reasonably sized window, in the center of the screen, because the drive-in-theater size of this thing would make working in the upper right hand corner, well, a pain in the neck.
 
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

There are quite a few authors still using WordPerfect for DOS for the same reasons. It's familiar and no internet distractions.
 
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