Final Draft Blog
All the tips, tricks and information you need to inspire your writing!
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Take 5: Writing lessons from the Christmas Rom-Com 'Hotel for the Holidays'
Holiday romantic-comedies are a big business. These films appear on multiple cable channels and streaming services with each one trying to maintain originality while also having to play off similar tropes. Hotel for the Holidays is a new light-hearte...
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Screenwriting lessons from Spielberg’s Origin Story: ‘The Fabelmans’
What was Steven Spielberg like before he became Steven Spielberg? In the new film The Fabelmans, Spielberg tells the true story of what drove one of the best filmmakers in the history of the industry to become the person he is today. This semi-autobi...
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Imposter Syndrome? Here's how to deal with it
I’ve been writing for over a decade and I still think I suck. Maybe not all the time, but most of the time. Sometimes I fear that people will catch on that I'm not good at this writing thing, and all of my dreams will be shattered. And when I think I...
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How to keep writing during the holiday season
The holiday season is a great time for eating, drinking, and reuniting with friends and family, but it’s typically a terrible time for your writing. Plus there are all those favorite holiday movies that are so hard to peel away from! I started to get...
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What is a Beat Board, anyway??
Perhaps you’ve seen images of a TV writer’s room and noticed a whiteboard with a bunch of sticky notes attached to it or handwritten Sharpie notes. Or maybe you’ve watched a behind-the-scenes featurette on a DVD or Blu-ray and noticed a cork board at...
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Take 5: ‘Devotion’ and the art of adapting a true story
Devotion takes place in 1950 at the beginning of the Korean conflict, also known as the ‘Forgotten War.’ In some ways this is true. Rare is the movie that highlights this tumultuous time in our history with the most recognizable example being M*A*S*H...
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Turning Your Personality and Taste Into a Brand
In a highly competitive and constantly growing marketplace, it’s important to stand out if you want a career writing for film or television. Many of the most sought-after screenwriters have memorable or larger than life personalities.
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'Bones and All' Screenwriter David Kajganich on the many layers of collaboration in adaptations
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 ...
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Take 5: Writing a Coming-of-Age Story in ‘Armageddon Time’
Armageddon Time is a coming-of-age story that follows Paul Graf (Banks Repeta), a sixth-grade boy, who struggles with finding his place in the world during the generational shift from the 1970s into the 1980s. Paul not only begins to learn that his a...
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What’s new in Final Draft 13?
WRITING GOALS &
PRODUCTIVITY STATS
Set goals and get valuable insights to take your work to the next level
TYPEWRITER
A new typewriter-like view option improves your focus
EMOJI
Craft more realistic onscreen text exchanges and make your notes more emotive
And so much more, thoughtfully designed to help unleash your creativity.
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