Final Draft Blog

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Lessons for Screenwriters from SXSW

March 18, 2025

The South by Southwest Conference & Festival, held annually in Austin, TX, crackles with a creative energy no other film festival can match, offering screenwriters lessons from its wildly diverse slate. While studios were certainly present at the...

‘Mickey 17’ and writing unique Science Fiction

March 14, 2025

In the first few scenes of Mickey 17, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) through voice over explains the wild and strange reality of the world the audience is about to experience for the next 2+ hours. He shares how he became an “Expendable,” someone w...

Embracing Failure Is a Screenwriter’s Greatest Tool

March 13, 2025

One of the most stressful parts of being a creative is dealing with failure. What if the transition between act two and act three doesn’t work? What if your secondary character’s story arc doesn’t make sense? Even worse – what if your protagonist’s s...

Think Big, Write Small: How to Write a Short Screenplay

March 12, 2025

To make it in Hollywood, you need to dream big.

What Is an Antagonist in Screenwriting?

March 11, 2025

An antagonist is a character whose story arc and character arc run in direct opposition to that of the protagonist — the central character driving the plot forward and facing the central conflict of the story head-on. The antagonist is usually the dr...

5 Ways To Win a Screenwriting Contest

March 11, 2025

Maybe you’ve started or finished writing a feature screenplay or television pilot. Perhaps you’re still at the brainstorming stage. No matter what stage of the writing process you’re at, you might plan to enter your script into a screenwriting contes...

What Is Screenwriting?

February 27, 2025

There is a reason why Hollywood is such a driving force in the world — a majority of the world’s population loves movies and television. The enjoyment of the stories we see on the big or small screen comes in many different ways.

How To Write a Screenplay

February 25, 2025

So you’ve decided you want to be a screenwriter and write your very own screenplay for a feature film, TV show, or new media platform. This is a unique skillset, because film and television are visual mediums and collaborative art forms. Because of t...