Whether you’re writing a script with a collaborator for the first time or working with multiple writers in a TV writers’ room, you’ll find there is indeed strength in numbers. Collaborative screenwriting can help ease the workload, and keep you to deadlines through accountability to the other writers in your life. Collaborators can also bring more ideas to a project, and offer feedback throughout the writing process. Writing with others can be a lot of fun too, and take the isolation out of the writing process. If you’re struggling to start or finish that pilot or feature film script, perhaps working with a collaborator is the solution for you.
 
In the past, writing collaboratively has been a daunting task. In its early days, collaborative scriptwriting was possible, but it relied on emailing the document back and forth if you weren’t in the same location, and there was no guarantee of securing your work or your collaborators’ work (and gone are the days where two writers in a room take turns at a typewriter). Today, most writers work remotely on computers and from various locations. Collaborative screenwriting software makes working with multiple writers easy and secure regardless of location. Because of this it’s an essential tool for any writing team.
 
Final Draft’s Collaboration tool allows you to collaborate on a script with any number of co-writers. This feature supports real-time collaboration. so you can be working with your co-writers during the same writing session, which can save time and guarantee you’re on the same creative page. This approach is aligned with hybrid writing rooms, allowing writers to have the benefits of working together in the same space without the need to literally be in the same space. No matter where you live  — or where your co-writers live — you can work together, and without having to circle back on your script drafts later on.
 
With Final Draft’s screenwriting collaboration tool, you can create a professional script development workflow and get your screenplay written faster. All you need is a wi-fi connection and a compatible version of Final Draft for each user, and you and your writing partners are ready to go.

Hosting a Collaborative Writing Session

To host a collaboration writing session:

1. Open Final Draft and go to Tools > Collaboration… (or use the Collaboration button on the toolbar).
2. You also can open an existing script or start a new one from the list of templates and click on Collaboration. A window will open. Click “Okay” to start the session. Within the “Host” tab, enter your name and select the script you’d like to share with your collaborators.
3. You’ll be given a session ID. Call, email, or text this ID to your collaborators to invite them to the session.
4. They simply go to Tools > Collaboration or click the Collaboration button and open the “Join” tab. There they enter their name and the session ID you gave them and click “Okay.”
5. A “Deny” or “Allow” window will open on your end. Select “Allow” and your collaborator will enter the session. They will see on their screen what you as the host sees on your screen, and you can begin working on your script together in real time.
   
   

Collaborative Writing Session Tips and Tricks 

• There’s a color bar next to you and your collaborators’ names. This color will correspond to your blinking cursor in the document, making it easier to keep everyone organized.
• Collaboration supports multi-user editing. All participants in a session can edit the script at the same time. They can also write on different pages in the script at the same time.
• The Collaboration window allows participants to exchange text messages and chat in real time. Type a message into the box on the bottom right and press “Return” on your keyboard to send it to the other participants. This is great if you have a question or a note for your colleague during your writing session and you want a real-time response.
• The large box on the right of the Collaboration window is the transcript of the session’s chat.
• Click the Sound button on or off to notify participants with a chime when another participant has sent a text message.
• You can also insert ScriptNotes during a Collaboration session.
• If one or more of the participants aren’t seeing new edits, the host can click “Refresh” and the script will update on everyone’s screen.
• If you want to denote the changes made to the script during a collaboration session, the host can go to the Edit menu and select “Turn On Tracking.” Any subsequent changes like additions or deletions will be marked using Final Draft’s Track Changes tool. Any changes made by a collaborator will now show in that writer’s discreet collaboration color, which will be the same color as their cursor. When reviewing individual changes, the Track Changes window will show the writer’s name used for the Collaboration session.
• Once a writer leaves or ends a Collaboration session, any remaining track changes made by that writer will show the writer name and color the writer chosen in the Final Draft preferences.

All these features help make this the best collaborative screenwriting software in the marketplace, but there are other great tools in Final Draft that can also assist you and your co-writers.

Collaborating on the Beat Board

The Beat Board can be used during a collaborative writing session. You can begin a Collaboration session while already using the Beat Board, or you can switch from a page view to the Beat Board at any time during the collaboration.
 
A beat becomes locked when created or opened by a collaborator. A selected beat will show a selection ring in the collaboration color of its editor. It’ll be the same color as that collaborator’s cursor in the script.
 
When a Beat is moved, edited, assigned a color, connected by a flow line, or resized, the change will update on other collaborators’ Beat Boards. This also applies if a storyboard illustration in a Beat Box is either added, deleted or edited by a collaborator.

Collaborating on the Outline Editor

The same collaborative process works for the Outline Editor. When a beat is added to or selected in the Outline Editor, the beat’s outline goal will show a selection ring in the unique color of the collaborator currently working on it. Any changes made on the Outline Editor during a collaboration session will update on other collaborators’ Outline Editor, like editing a goal, moving a goal, resizing a goal, or applying a color to a goal.
 
You can also send your outline goals to the script during a collaboration session by pressing the ‘Send Outline to Script’ button on the Outline Editor’s left panel. Since the Outline Editor works during collaboration in a script or Beat Board view, you can see it update your script in real-time, or switch back from the Beat Board to find your outline goals in the script as Outline Elements.
 
When in a script view, you can also double-click on any scene in the Outline Editor’s Script lane to go to that scene, and if you need to hide or show your Outline Elements, any collaborator can go to the View menu and select “Hide/Show Outline in Script” so that you’re all looking at the same layout and page count.

Saving Your Work

When you close the Collaboration session, everyone can save a copy of the file to their hard drive. Your computer and your colleagues’ computers are the only place where the work is saved. Final Draft’s Collaboration system does not store your content on a third-party server, making collaborating with Final Draft not only easy and fast, but secure. Your script contributions and your collaborators’ contributions are protected and nobody else has access to them.
 
Final Draft’s Collaboration tool is one of the best features for collaborative screenwriters. Whether you have one writing partner or multiple ones, you can get into a great workflow, and before you know it you’ll be finishing a first draft of that feature screenplay or television pilot in no time.