How to Develop and Write a Screenplay in Final Draft

Final Draft has been around for over a decade and is one of the two industry-preferred screenwriting programs on the market. Final Draft is the preferred script software of the Writer's Guild West. Final Draft is a word processor designed for developing and writing screenplays in industry-standard format with nothing more than TAB and ENTER keys. Final Draft does all the formatting, leaving you free to write your movie. Learn how you can use Final Draft to develop and write a screenplay that might be the next blockbuster movie.

Things You'll Need

• Final Draft

Instructions

1. Open Final Draft and you will automatically be presented with a blank industry-standard screenplay template. Go to the "Document" menu, select "Title Page," and fill in the relevant title page information. This will include the name of your movie, your contact information, and screenplay draft information. Final Draft automatically saves the title page so you can print it with your finished script. If you haven't yet thought of a name for your movie, you can fill out the title page later.

2. Begin your script by typing a scene heading. A scene heading gives information about the scene you're writing. It looks like this: INT. HOUSE - NIGHT. This tells us the scene is interior and takes place in a house at night. You can type the int. in lowercase and Final Draft will automatically format it as a scene heading in all caps.

3. Begin writing your scene. You might want to give yourself an overview of the scene first that you can later use as part of an outline. Go to the "View" menu and choose "Index Card - Summary." This will give you a virtual index card display in Final. There are two index card views available. You can access them from the "View" menu or switch between them by right clicking an index card while in the index card view. The summary index card view is where you write notes to yourself or a synopsis about the scene you're working on. The index card script view allows you to view your actual script scene on index card. This feature is the meat and potatoes of your story development process.

4. Refer to your index card views frequently as you move through the writing process. Use the split script feature to view two sections of your screenplay at the same time. This will help you maintain continuity in your story without having to scroll through your entire script.

5. Proof your script by assigning computer-generated character voices to your characters and having Final Draft read your screenplay. This will give you an idea about how your dialogue sounds and if it needs more work. Use the spelling and thesaurus features for additional proofing, and if you need to work on the names of your characters, use Final Draft's name database to search for more appropriate character names.

6. Analyze your script by generating scene reports, character reports, and script reports that will give you an overview of screenplay statistics. This will help you determine whether or not the character relationships are strong enough, which characters speak the most, and how many locations will be necessary for your script.

7. Print your script when you're finished writing. If you will be submitting by e-mail, Final Draft will also save your screenplay as an Adobe PDF file.

References

• Final Draft Writing Resources
• Screenwriting Tips

Resources

• Final Draft