Concepts and Milanote

In a continuing effort to freshen up how I work and generate ideas, I am always on the lookout for new apps that might provide a fresh way to perform old tasks.

Recently I’ve discovered CONCEPTS on the iPad, which is an infinite whiteboard, apparently much-beloved by the Pixar people. Ostensibly a drawing app, it works really well for making notes and expanding out ideas. There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but once you’ve mastered it, it becomes intuitive and is really powerful.

Similarly MILANOTE (which I only just heard about but has apparently been around for ages) is great for designing mood boards, visual ideas and also brilliant for story beat-sheets. There’s a desktop version for Mac OS, which requires a little hunting around on the website to find, but the web version also works very well. I’ve drifted to this more and more recently, as I’m finding Scrivener is starting to get a little glitchy (is this just me) and the iOS syncing is still clunky as hell.

My current workflow on new ideas starts in Concepts, then gets built out in Mind Node before transferring to Milanote to be structured. Milanote then exports a markdown file which Highland 2 can open as a screenplay and you’re off to the races…