Final Draft Blog

All the tips, tricks and information you need to inspire your writing!
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How Ted Lasso Succeeds At Representing Female Friendships

April 7, 2023

The Emmy-award winning Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, is successful at a lot of things – like melding British and American humor, and making people care about the other sport called football.

Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy on the Importance of Finding a Hook in Action Scenes

April 6, 2023

Andor is a dark, sci-fi-thriller that follows the adventures of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance intelligence officer, as he searches for his missing sister while trying to evade the evil Empire. The show is set five years before the even...

Air Screenwriter Shares What Made His Spec Script Rise Above the Rest

April 5, 2023

The new film Air tells the story of how the iconic partnership between Nike shoes and basketball player Michael Jordan came to be way back in 1984. It’s one of those partnerships that really wasn’t supposed to happen, but when it did, it changed the ...

7 Tips on Becoming a TV Writer from Showrunner Todd Slavkin

March 31, 2023

Writer Todd Slavkin has one of those long and fruitful television careers many of us dream about. He and his writing partner, Darren Swimmer, have been showrunners for numerous shows including Smallville, Melrose Place 2.0, Shadowhunters and The Myst...

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.”

Big Break Judge Jeff Portnoy On Why Screenwriters Should Enter Contests

March 27, 2023

According to Jeff Portnoy, literary manager at Bellevue Productions and a judge for this year’s Final Draft’s Big Break, what makes Final Draft’s competition stand out from other screenwriting contests is its emphasis on outreach and advocacy for tho...

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...