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.

Take 5: How ‘M3GAN’ uses the dark side of technology to scare

January 22, 2023

Dolls are creepy, especially when they get a mind of their own. The new film M3GAN follows in the footsteps of other possessed doll-like creatures such as Chucky, Annabelle and Slappy where a child’s toy comes to life and all hell breaks loose. What ...

Take 5: How ‘Wednesday’ creates a world around the Addams Family daughter

January 17, 2023

For the past 85 years, The Addams Family has been a part of the American life. Originally a single panel cartoon created by Charles Addams, this creepy and kooky family was turned into a TV series in 1964 which ran for 64 episodes followed by a movie...

Character Breakdown: Finding complexity and depth in ‘The Whale’

January 13, 2023

When an actor gains or loses a tremendous amount of weight for a movie role it often leads to accolades and Oscar buzz. Over the last 25 years, performers like Charlize Theron, Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, Renée Zellweger, Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway ...

How To Keep Your Protagonists in Peril

January 10, 2023

If you’re writing an action, thriller or horror script, it’s important to have your protagonists in constant peril. These genres rely heavily on audiences watching to see how a character survives or overcomes a perilous situation; more often than not...

When Santa Goes Dark: Using Familiar Characters in New Ways

December 16, 2022

When you see Santa waving from his red sleigh as it strolls down the Christmas parade route, is your first thought how can this guy take out well-trained terrorists, drink a lot and struggle to muster the joy of the holiday season? Not exactly.

Take 5: ‘Glass Onion’ unravels another murder mystery

December 5, 2022

There is no such thing as a straight-forward ‘who dun it’ story. The point is to keep the audience guessing while dropping clues and sending the narrative on any number of constant twists and turns. In his latest film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Myster...

Take 5: ‘She Said’ shows how two reporters started a movement

November 27, 2022

What does it take to break a story? In the film She Said, two journalists at the New York Times take on the challenge of exposing systemic sexual assault in Hollywood by going after the notorious producer Harvey Weinstein. Based on the article by rep...

'Bones and All' Screenwriter David Kajganich on the many layers of collaboration in adaptations

November 22, 2022

In the center of Regan’s America, a father desperately moves his only daughter, Maren, out of their double wide for the umpteenth time. They have less than an hour to find a new home before the rest of the community figures out their terrible secret ...

What ‘The Santa Clause’ franchise can teach us about story

November 21, 2022

Over the course of the last 28 years, Tim Allen has donned the red suit and appeared on the big and small screen as Santa Claus in the Disney IP The Santa Clause. Built on the premise that a corporate toy executive is legally bound to become Santa, t...