Final Draft Blog

All the tips, tricks and information you need to inspire your writing!
Read interviews with the pros, catch up with industry news, and listen to Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast by Final Draft.

What Is Irony in Literature and How Can It Enhance Your Screenwriting?

April 14, 2023

Over the years I’ve read my share of unproduced screenplays by aspiring screenwriters, and I noticed that many of them lacked something very important — something that’s usually found in abundance in produced screenplays.

5 Things ‘Air’ Can Teach You About Screenwriting

April 11, 2023

Nike and basketball seem like a foregone conclusion, but in the new movie Air, the filmmakers look back to the 1980s when a fledgling basketball division at an Oregon-based running shoe company teetered on the brink of disaster. What makes the story ...

Confessions of a Screenplay Contest Reader

April 10, 2023

After you click the final submit button when entering your screenplay into a contest, you might breathe a sigh of relief knowing that you’ve done everything to get your script ready for a reader to review, judge and provide feedback on your masterpie...

How Ted Lasso Succeeds At Representing Female Friendships

April 7, 2023

The Emmy-award winning Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, is successful at a lot of things – like melding British and American humor, and making people care about the other sport called football.

Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy on the Importance of Finding a Hook in Action Scenes

April 6, 2023

Andor is a dark, sci-fi-thriller that follows the adventures of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance intelligence officer, as he searches for his missing sister while trying to evade the evil Empire. The show is set five years before the even...

Air Screenwriter Shares What Made His Spec Script Rise Above the Rest

April 5, 2023

The new film Air tells the story of how the iconic partnership between Nike shoes and basketball player Michael Jordan came to be way back in 1984. It’s one of those partnerships that really wasn’t supposed to happen, but when it did, it changed the ...

7 Tips on Becoming a TV Writer from Showrunner Todd Slavkin

March 31, 2023

Writer Todd Slavkin has one of those long and fruitful television careers many of us dream about. He and his writing partner, Darren Swimmer, have been showrunners for numerous shows including Smallville, Melrose Place 2.0, Shadowhunters and The Myst...

Big Break's Crash Course on Writing Loglines for Your Script

March 29, 2023

It's seemingly one of the simplest tasks connected with screenwriting. In comparison to writing a TV pilot or feature-length script, it's a minor chore, something to be dashed off hurriedly at the last moment when suddenly required. I'm talking about...

5 Tips To Better Spelling and Grammar

March 29, 2023

When I was in junior high I started writing short stories, but I wasn’t academically inclined and not a particularly good speller. My grammar was also less than stellar. This didn’t stop me; however, and I kept writing my short stories anyway (usuall...