Final Draft Blog

All the tips, tricks and information you need to inspire your writing!
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Inspiring an Emotional Response Through Your Screenplay

September 24, 2024

It’s important to inspire an emotional response from people reading your screenplay for several reasons.

10 Direct Questions to Ask Yourself About That Script You're Writing

November 3, 2023

It was tough to finish that mammoth of a spec script, but you did it – congrats! And now that you have a completed draft of a screenplay, what do you do next? We sat down with UCLA Extension screenwriting instructor Beverly Gray, who focuses on guidi...

How To Make Genre-Bending Work in Your Screenplay

June 30, 2023

Sometimes you have an idea for a screenplay, but it’s not suited for just one film genre. In fact, it might contain tropes from two different genres or even multiple genres! If this is the case, you’ve just dreamed up a genre-bending screenplay.

What is the Iceberg Theory and How Can It Help Your Writing?

June 27, 2023

Ernest Hemingway was not a screenwriter.

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.

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 for Cinematic Formatting

March 20, 2023

In my article 5 Tips To Making Your Screenplay Look Professional, I wrote about how in an extremely competitive marketplace it's important for screenwriters to make their scripts look as professional as possible. In addition to having your screenplay...

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: Screenwriting Contest for Career Success in Film and TV

March 6, 2023

Is your screenplay or pilot contest-ready? With dozens of screenwriting contests out there, it’s important to consider which ones are worth your time and money. Over the past 20 years, the Big Break Screenwriting Contest has become one of the most re...