What Scriptwriting Software is good?

Final Draft.

Been using the same copy for about 10 years now.

When i write a script, the only software i use is Word. That's right, just word. All i need is where everything is to be placed and i do it by hand. My first script i wrote, i read half the "how to write a script" and figured out the rest by looking at the examples they showed.

If you haven't already, check out the screenwriting tips sticky thread which has links to screenwriting software (some free or useable in demo mode), formatting guides, hints & tips, etc.

-Derek

Amazon has a lot of screenwriting books. Just go to their site and type Screenwriting. Also Barnes and Noble has a few though you may have to order online as the one I go to has a limited number in stock. There are loads of books out there. One I got that's great for showing how to lay out your script in practically every situation is The Complete Screenwriters Manual by Stephen E Bowles, Ronald Mangravite and Peter A Zorn Jr.
I don't know if anyone else rates this book but I found it comprehensive in illustrating different techniques used in screenwriting. Also How Not To Write A Screenplay by Denny Flinn gives a comprehensive list of mistakes to avoid while using a lot of scripts from successful movies. Both are very good.

jedimaster107 said:

When i write a script, the only software i use is Word. That's right, just word. All i need is where everything is to be placed and i do it by hand. My first script i wrote, i read half the "how to write a script" and figured out the rest by looking at the examples they showed.

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More power to you, man. That's what I used to do...and then I got Final Draft.

I am now much happier while writing scripts. Well, until I get to the rewrite.

Using Microsoft Word????



Time for a story from me ....










When I was in 10th grade, my English Comp teacher taught the class how to do a formal research paper. She taught us how to

-- use the 3x5 notecards during the research process
-- use quotations in the body of the paper
-- indent large block of quoted material
-- put the footnotes at the bottoms of all the pages (a really tough trick to pull off when you're manually feeding typing paper into the rollers of your typewriter and you want to make it all line up)
-- using asterisks and daggers (yes! daggers!!)
-- list a formal bibliography at the back of the research paper
-- use the Latin word "ibid" in the footnotes and in the bibliography (yes! "ibid!").

This entire exercise took about 8 weeks. And we had to hand in pieces of the project one chunk at a time during the 8 week process (failure to hand in each step would be an "F" for that step).

Week 1 -- Each of our topics of choice were due.
Week 2 -- Our tentative/initial/working bibliographies of no less than 4 texts books, 2 reference books, and 2 perdiodicals were due (we were allowed to expand on them as we progressed).
Week 2 -- Our stacks of no less than 100 hand-written 3x5 notecards were all due.
Week 3 -- Our initial outlines were all due.
Week 5 -- Our rough drafts were all due (hand-written was okay).
Week 8 -- Our completed research papers were finally due (had to be type-written).

I got an A- on my paper (I was pressed for time so I hand-wrote the bibliography on the final draft, so she dinged me some points for it).




If any of you are wondering, I was in 10th grade ..................... a very very long time ago, back when everybody still used typewriters (I'm sure my mention of that ancient and rarely-seen-anymore-word "ibid" probably gave that one away to most of you). Home computers dide xist, but I was living in the pre-2.0 days and so they were not yet terribly user-friendly, and neither Word Perfect nor Microsoft Word were in existence yet but were coming quite soon. So ALL OF THIS was done by hand with notecards and pencils and typewriters. And for those kids lucky enough/wealthy enough to afford electric typewriters, even THEY had to manually fart around with hand-scrolling the paper into their rollers to try and line up those annoying footnotes at the bottoms of all their pages.

After that whole process, I went on to college and amply utilized my skills for writing research papers that my 10th grade teacher so beautifully taught me. But I also learned the "quick and dirty" shortcut of bypassing that whole 3x5 notecard thing and just dropping about ten bucks worth of dimes into the library's photo-copy machine. I was also required by order of unanimous agreement from the entire college faculty to utilize the MLA method of research paper writing, which does NOT make you stick those annoying footnotes at the bottoms of the pages (so you don't have to hand-scroll and mess around with lining them up) but instead you have to NUMBER your references (no more asterisks and daggers!!! Hooray!) and then stick all those numbered referrnces at the back. And as for the word "ibid" my college professors insisted to me that the usage of "ibid" was utterly extinct and that I should just fugheddaboudit! (No argument from me on THAT one!)





Havig explained to all of you about this horse-and-buggy method of how I used to do a research paper .... I want to say that I have gladly forsaken the usage of 3x5 cards, and the usage of bottom-of-each-page footnotes, and the usage of asterisks and daggers, and the usahge of "ibid." I instead use the MLA method of writing reserach papers which is much more streamlined and freeing -- the photo-copy machine has replaced my 3x5 notecards, the ending citations have replaced the bottom-of-the-page footnotes, the numbers have replaced tghe daggers, and my computer screen had eliminated the need to hand-scroll my sheets into a typewriter.

As for writing a screenplay ............... baby, I wanna say it! I know how to manually format a screenplay. So if you took my computer away from me and forced me to use a 60-year-old Underwood to write my screenplay (think Stephen King's "Misery" if you want to know what an Underwood is) and then I would be hand-scrolling sheets into the roller and untangling the spools of typig ribbon and using that white-tipped pencil-looking eraser thing. I completely and totally KNOW HOW to do it ... but would I WANT to do it that way????






Shyte NO! Efff that! Keep yer danged silly Underwood and its smeary spools of ribbon and gimmie my frigging Final Draft, thank you very much!

And I see little difference between using an Underwood and using Microsoft Word in this particular situation. Why do all that manual stuff when you don't have to?

Scriptsmart at the bbc website has good templates for MS Word. They automate most of the tedious stuff. Not as good as dedicated software, but useful in a pinch. Working on computer besides your own, while traveling, etc.

I like Celtx for the same reason. If you're stuck, and you need to crank out some pages, it's always available for download.

I grew up with PC's, but I actually like lightweight portable manual typewriters. Just the thing for working in the park or up in the hills. No need for battery or outlet power. No screen to break. No games or web for distraction.

I LOVE my final draft copy. It is fantastic to not worry about precise indentations, or moving indentations if you add something, or any of that. I love having the freedom to just write the script.

That's what final draft gives me. If you're not ready to invest that much into a piece of software yet, check out that link Dpat posted and there are some good free programs.

I have preciously little time to write what with kids and everything so I can't afford the time to dink around with doing something manually when I have the luxury of a program that makes sure everything is in it's right and proper place for me.

icerose said:

I can't afford the time to dink around with doing something manually

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"dink around"

Hah! That's funny!

It's an expression I've heard since I was a little girl so it tends to crop up in situations like these.

anyone else with movie magic screenwriter?

final draft works very well for me - sometimes scarily so as it takes on a life of it's own !!

I have used Final Draft 7 and Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000. I've heard that older versions of Final Draft were less buggy, but I find version 7 to be pretty bad. Spellcheck is very quirky and screen re-draws at views over 100% are bad. Movie Magic is much better, but has a very retro look to its interface.

Honestly, I think Celtx is the best of all 3. I used a demo of Movie Magic 6.0 and it seems to have borrowed quite a bit from Celtx. Does anyone else find it odd that a $250 program borrowed liberally from a FREE program? The only advantage I can see to MMS 6 is that it has superior outlining capability to Celtx (Celtx seems to have only Arabic numeral outlining.) But Celtx has many production tools that MMS 6 doesn't have. I'll never use any of them, but they're there if you find them useful.

I use Final Draft but agree that vs. 6 is better than 7. I tried 7 but the scrolling was awful, amongst other things and so quickly went back to 6. Very comfortable with it now and almost all of the production companies and agents in the UK that I've dealt with tend to read and print scripts using either Final Draft or Acrobat.

I use to use final draft 6 (and will again if I land a job that requests it), but I switched to Celtx; It has many features of modern screenwriting programs, but it's free.

Write Brothers Hollywood Screenwriter. $30 and they made it work with MS Vista (with a free d/l from their website). For those like me who shudder at spending over $100 on anything.

I also have FD6, haven't used 7 and it was free for me, it was a gift from a friend.

If I didn't get FD6 I would probably using Celtix.

I've got MM6. It works great.

Movie Magic and Final Draft are the industry standards. FD is the most popular in the industry, but plenty of pros use MM too.

If money's not an issue, try both demos and buy the one you like best. If money's tight, just use Celtx or Page2Stage until you can afford the good stuff.

somehow, i only spent $99 for my legit copy of MMS. i got it at the writers' store a couple years ago.

There are places that sell MMS for about $160, but the official list is $250 and some places are indeed selling it for around $250.

Personal experience counts for a lot when recommending software. I especially like MM's user-adjustable features which offer more than any other package I've test-driven. Tech support is excellent and fast. If expense isn't a problem then consider buying the best, especially since they're standard within the screenwriting industry (see odocoileus's post).

Having said that, once again I'm of the opinion that aspiring screenwriters shouldn't feel obliged to spend enormous amounts of money on software, especially when functional freebies are available. Use whatever package works for you and helps you focus more on your writing. Don't worry about upgrading to MM or FD until you start talking to prodcos that use these packages and want your screenplay submitted in their chosen format.

-Derek