Umm, this might seem like a weird question, probably 'cause it is, but how should you use lanes, now? Before the 3.0 update, lanes seemed like a must-have. A “if you don't have 15 or so lanes in your story, you don't have one”, kind of thing. But now, tags kind of took over and lanes became more of a hassle. Not only did tags do what lanes did better, but it also did way more. Tags are like story strings that not only allow you to make a tighter, smarter story, you could do it faster, too. With all of that, what is the need that lanes fulfill? What is its role in this software? How should you use it?
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What's the best way to use lanes?
What's the best way to use lanes?
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Game of Thrones is a type of story in which the overall setting (Westeros) contains unique sub-locations (e.g. Castle Winterfell and King's Landing), with each sub-location containing its own sub-plot distinctly separated by place. Cutting from one place to the other usually indicates a cut from one sub-plot to the other. This, I think, would be a good use of separate lanes in the white board.
You might even create a third lane between the Winterfell lane and the King's Landing lane for a storyline in which characters are travelling from one city to the other. Of course, Character A that begins his storyline in Winterfell (lane 1), then hits the road south (lane 2), and finally arrives in King's Landing (lane 3), will have to be Tagged so that FlowLines can connect the beats of his storyline as it crosses between lanes.
I currently have in mind an operatic sci-fi tale, rather Dune-like, which takes place on various planets, with each planet organising my sub-plots into separate lanes. And of course, characters will transport their sub-plots from planet to planet (and therefore from lane to lane) as they journey across the galaxy.
I also think another nice use would be for flashbacks.
TC
So, tags are made to handle story threads, while lanes handle storylines? That's actually kind of dope! Thanks so much!
You're correct, and we've been somewhat horrified to see people use 20 lanes. A lot of things go wrong when you do that, principally that it becomes impossible to understand the sequence.
I'll leave a link to the manual below which describes it well, but lanes are only for truly major categorizations, like an A and B story that never or almost never interact. You shouldn't be cutting back and forth between lanes, but stay in a lane for a while. So a Ross/Rachel story could be in one lane, and a Phoebe/Joey story could be in another. These storylines don't touch, or almost don't touch, so it's nice to just be able to have them in different boxes and understand them separately. You could do the same with Blocks, but then you wouldn't have Blocks anymore. But using a Lane for a B-Story, it can have any internal structure it wants with Blocks and Groups, i.e. you didn't blow the concept of Blocks just to have a B-Story.
Lanes are also for trying things, they're for junk that you're not ready to take off the whiteboard, and with collaboration, it's also for separate writers to be able to build things without interference. Finally, on very large stories (a 12 episode series for example), Lanes allow you to put things that are only active in a few episodes in a separate lane, so I as a writer on episode 7 and 8 don't have to have my view cluttered by something that only mattered in episodes 2 and 3.
Tags are what should be used for story threads. The invisible problem with Lanes is that they force you into categorizing things that resist categorization. You suddenly have to make difficult choices about whether a beat is part of this storyline or that theme lane, and it forces you to draw firm conceptual lines, where stories need to be allowed to be more fluid in their categorization, which Tags do easily.
Here are the Best Practices from the docs: https://caudocs.hollywoodcamerawork.com/quick-start/best-practices