I had just arrived in Los Angeles. Not to live but to examine – examine whether I had the courage to try out this town, this industry. I knew I wanted to write television, but I didn’t know exactly what that meant. After graduating from a college that didn’t offer a film major, I took a job in Philadelphia writing obscene bumper stickers. The evenings were spent formatting Word docs into TV spec scripts.
by: Katiedid Langrock | October 27, 2016
I had just arrived in Los Angeles. Not to live but to examine – examine whether I had the courage to try out this town, this industry. I knew I wanted to write television, but I didn’t know exactly what that meant. After graduating from a college that didn’t offer a film major, I took a job in Philadelphia writing obscene bumper stickers. The evenings were spent formatting Word docs into TV spec scripts.
Rather serendipitously, the weekend I arrived in Los Angeles – specs for Gilmore Girls, My Name Is Earl, Joey, and What I Like About You shoved in my backpack – the Screenwriters Expo was at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It felt destined. I called my parents and begged for a loan. At the Expo, I listened to panels, spoke to writers and eventually found myself in front of the booth for Final Draft.
I had never heard of the software and knew nothing about it other than it was out of my price range. I showed the Final Draft booth employee my TV specs written on Word, meticulously formatted with the utmost care.
“Sure, you can probably tell I formatted in Word, but who cares, right? As long as it follows the same basic formatting.”
The worker put a thick Final Draft 7 box in my hand. “Everyone cares. If you don’t take yourself seriously as a writer, no one else will, either.”
I handed him my just-in-case-of-emergencies credit card and never looked back. That has always been the magic of Final Draft. It is now and will forever be the screenwriting software brand associated with taking yourself seriously as a writer. Final Draft owns that emotional tug.
It’s been over a decade since I got my first Final Draft, and I’m happy to say that the software has grown with me. Final Draft 10 is a mature software for a mature writer. Without losing any of the simple and intuitive formatting techniques that easily engage novice screenwriters, Final Draft 10’s new features cater to experienced scribes. A few of the previous versions seemed to have come out before they were able to fully accomplish what they set out to do. As a consumer, I didn’t always feel I was getting enough bang for my buck. Final Draft 10 feels different. It has considered writers’ needs and enhanced the writing experience at every stage of the process.
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