It is a buyers market

The harsh truth of it is that for every agent, producer and director there are hundreds of aspiring writers knocking on their door with dreams of Oscars and Palm D’Ors; so you can complain about their comments all you like but understand they have hundreds more scripts to choose from.

They know what they are talking about

Related to the point above, these professionals have a vast library of works to which they can compare your work to and thus base their criticisms on. Additionally, to get to the position where they are reading your scripts, they have risen through the industry and gained an intricate knowledge of its working. So before you dismiss their remarks, remember that there are very few people as qualified as they are to make them.

Its not the end of the world

The nature of criticism does not have to be seen as entirely negative, instead see it as pointers on areas on which you can improve. Bear in mind that while you may not have got the favourable response you were hoping for, you have been given advice on how to improve from those with the most relevant knowledge.

There are essentially three basic elements in every script:

• Actions
• Dialogue
• Characters

And when formatted correctly these things are distinctively laid out and thus easily identifiable. This helps a producer/agent in not only saving their time, but also presenting your story in the clearest, most concise way possible.

They can estimate its potential running time:

An added bonus to using a familiar and clear format is that it makes it easier for readers to conceptualize your script from a production point of view. In an industry where vast amounts of money can be put on a single script, the more information you can get across within the page, the greater likelihood of success you will have.

It’s the professional standard:

Much like wearing a suit to a job interview, a properly formatted script is simply the industry standard. Given the vast amounts of work that agents and producers have flooding onto their desks every day, the format becomes the first cut off point. For if a writer cannot even be bothered to format correctly on their first draft it does not bode well for when things get more intensive down the line.

The answers to these questions are simple but also fairly subjective, depending on a writer’s particular needs and budget.

Before we get to the answers and various choices, here’s a bit of history about screenplay format. Listen up now, quiet at the back:

Screenplay format developed in Hollywood during the typewriter era. The Courier font was introduced by IBM in 1955, and became commonly used in typewriters everywhere. As a result, the look and feel of a script became synonymous with Courier font, and a typewriter’s margins and tabs created a natural format for action, character names, parenthicals and dialogue. This is how the young Hollywood generation wrote scripts, and the format is revered and adhered to, to this day.

So, what screenwriting software do you need?

The most common and popular software is Final Draft. It’s widely accepted as THE industry standard way to write scripts in Hollywood and the UK, and beyond. Some TV shows in the US and UK, for example, will insist that you write your scripts in Final Draft format. Any screenwriter serious about their craft will have Final Draft on their computer. It’s become a practical necessity. But another popular choice, particularly in Hollywood, is Movie Magic Software.

What’s the best?

Final Draft and Movie Magic Software certainly lead the market but there is a wide range of choices available to you depending on your particular needs. Software like Screenwriter, Montage, Movie Outline, Scrivener right down to FREE writing software like Celtx. All of this software offers varieties on the same theme; they will intuitively format a script for you so you don’t have to worry about margins, tabs and fonts. They will also provide extras to help you outline, or layout your scenes or break down a character list, and so on, which can be very useful for brainstorming, revising and editing.

Do I really need software?

Yes. Unless you still have a typewriter.

Can’t I just write my script in Word using Times New Roman?

You can if you want but at the risk of your script being immediately rejected because of its amateur presentation. Hollywood script readers are notoriously pedantic when it comes to format but there’s no denying that a badly formatted script or basic formatting errors make a poor first impression.

So, now you know a bit more about software and its history, click here to browse the various products and choose your preferred software.