Final Draft Blog

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Screenwriting Mentor Lee Jessup Says Entering a Competition is All About Gaining Industry Access

April 17, 2023

Lee Jessup is a career coach for screenwriters and has been mentoring winners of the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Competition (which is now open for entries!) for over a decade. Her experience in the industry and savvy for knowing what makes a...

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...

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...

Where Are They Now: Big Break Winner Greta Heinemann Has Since Worked For NBC, Apple and Netflix

March 27, 2023

Screenwriter Greta Heinemann was one of the Grand Prize Winners of the 2017 Big Break Screenwriting Contest for her thriller/horror feature script, "City Under Fire.”

What Genre Is My Screenplay?

March 27, 2023

Knowing what film genre you’re writing in is important for several reasons. Whether or not you’re playing into genre conventions or defying them, it’s useful to know what tropes have frequently appeared in certain kinds of films. Also when submitting...

5 Tips To Revising an Old Screenplay

March 20, 2023

Whether you’re an aspiring or professional screenwriter, chances are you might have more than one underproduced script in your arsenal. Although it’s good to be looking forward and to keep generating new concepts for new screenplays, sometimes an old...

Big Break Winner Michael Morra on his Inspiration, Style and Biggest Writing Regret

March 10, 2023

When Michael Morra started receiving notifications that his screenplay, About McKenna, was advancing in the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest he was both excited and curious. With each email, he was advancing to the Top 10 then winning the ...

5 Steps to Preparing for a Screenwriting Contest

March 9, 2023

Every year there’s a new wave of screenwriting contests that a writer can enter in the hopes of getting more eyes on their spec script. Some of these annual contests, like the Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest, show winning scripts to A-lis...