As any NaNoWriMoan knows, index cards are a novelist's best friend, especially one that has to work at that speed. Are they as useful for script writing? Are you using them? I'm thinking about using them too, but I'm not sure.

As soon as I figure out what I'm doing, I'm planning on using index cards. That's the best way I've found to plan for anything.

Actually, I learned the technique from Syd Field via Jack Kirby. That was years ago. I've never written a story without index cards since -- or rather, I have, and they always turned out to be a complete mess in dire need of index cards...

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Two-Time Consecutive Come-From-Behind NaNoWriMo Winner
2006: Black Science/The Jennifer Theory
2007: Bad Company

SF 2008: Spanner

Ehm. What are index cards? I've googled, but I still don't get it... And I'm Dutch, so it have probably an other name in Dutch.

Index cards are little pieces of stiff paper used to organize ideas. I have only the slightest clue as to how they're used in writing, but here's a picture of one:

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/files/banda/measuring-the/070422_barker-1....

Index cards are handy, slightly thicker-than-usual-paper cut into 3" by 5" rectangles (7.6 cm X 12.7 cm). They come in bundles, are pretty cheap, and can be bought totally blank, or with faint lines on one side (for writing) or with faint grids printed on them. The reason they're so popular (I think) is that you can put an idea, a scene, and/or a character on one card (with details on the back), and then mix them up, trying out all different kinds of combinations, which is a hard thing to do on either paper or computer (even computer "index cards" don't seem as flexible). Index cards are only limited by imagination--you can put props on them, or sketch scene shots, pretty much anything. Using index cards is a process that is a weird mix of both very organized and very creative--you can get every little thing down on paper somewhere (so nothing is lost) and then fling them around and try out ideas in all kinds of wild ways. Of course then you have to be careful, once you've decided the final order, not to drop the stack :). Anyone else have a different take?

They're also known as note cards. Have you checked out the Wikipedia article about them?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_card

EDIT: Ditto to what epepineuse said, although they don't necessarily have to come in 3x5. They can be 2x4, 2x5, etc.

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ScriptFrenzy '08: Highway Infinity

I use sticky notes. There isn't much desk space by the computer, so I just stick them on the walls. That way, I can see all of them at once.

No. I'm just blundering ahead and producing a plain text file, keeping notes in other plain text files as I go. Could someone explain what you use the index cards for?

NaNoWriMo winner 2007, Hell and Highwater.
Occasional Technical Trainer's Diary

I plan too, some of my scripts are more like the skipping around flashes of pulp fiction and so a just a collection of moments in apparent random order around a central theme the index cards would help with that.

some of my scripts are only formed to the point that they are a series of individual events that move linearly but need notes on import things to use.

and some of them are just intresting idea that will percipitate out a story as I shuffle the cards into the right place.

As I'm intentionally exceeding the needed goal to win I'm going to have to rely on some of these index cards tricks to help with getting this done.

I believe the idea is that you put one scene summary on each card. Index cards work really well because you are forced to be pretty concise to keep it on one card, and you can lay out a lot of them in a small area (a desk, the floor, whatever).

It gives you a nice overview of how the story flows, and it's really easy to change scenes around by moving the cards.