There are many different screenwriting programs out there. And for most of your screenwriting purposes, it's fine to use whichever you feel the most comfortable with. Some you might find easier for planning out your entire story. Some you might like for collaborating with a writing partner. Others you might like because they're cheap, or even free.
But if you're looking to break into TV writing, there is one screenwriting software that you MUST know because it's the only one used in any TV writers' room. Final Draft screenwriting software has been, and still is, the industry standard across all of TV and film as well. However, for the reasons I'll describe below, it really doesn't matter if you want to write feature screenplays. The difference comes when you're collaborating as you do on a TV show.
In this article, I'm going to explain just how ubiquitous Final Draft is in the TV world, why it has become so, in addition to other programs if you don't want to spend the money yet on Final Draft.
TV Writers All Use Final Draft Screenwriting Software
Whether you love the program or hate it, facts are facts. I've worked in 14 different writers' rooms with all different showrunners and writers. Every single one of those writers' rooms used Final Draft. The only outliers were stories I used to hear about certain showrunners who preferred using a software called Movie Magic. But this was in the early 2010's, and you don't hear about that software anymore. Final Draft screenwriting software has truly made its way through all of TV writer-dom.
But, you may be asking yourself, just because everybody else is doing it, why should I? In most cases, it's good to buck the trend, and carve out your own route. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. TV is an extremely collaborative medium. And that means you are not the only one working on your script. Sounds weird, right? Let me explain.
You've been hired as a staff writer on a show, and the showrunner has decided that episode 6 will be written by you. Congratulations! You have a nice payday coming your way. Now it's time to get to work. You'll be sent away from the writers' room for a week or two to write it and then bring it back. And that week or two will feel good. You'll be operating off of an outline that you may have written with the help of the writers' room. You've pulled from the beats of the episode that the writers' room has decided upon. But, aside from that, the process for this time is in your hands... until you bring the script back to the showrunner.
Now your script is being dissected by the showrunner and by the other writers on staff. The script is emailed around, scenes are broken out so that other writers can take a crack at them. Then the script is given to the script coordinator, who then proofreads it, formats it, and gets it ready for production.
Imagine this process taking place while everybody works on disparate types of screenwriting software. It would be a disaster. There would be no uniform file to work on and the whole operation would fall apart.
So far I've explained why it's important for TV shows to use one type of software, but I want to go into why that software is Final Draft.
Why did the industry choose Final Draft as its screenwriting software?
The answer to this question might not be obvious at first because it lies in many of the tools available in Final Draft that most screenwriters don't necessarily need to use. But before we get into those, Final Draft just gets the formatting right. Scripts written on CeltX or Studio Binder are just a little bit off in ways that aren't obvious at first. The spacing on the dialogue is a bit different, or there's no "MORE's" or "CONT'Ds" at the end and beginning of pages where dialogue overlaps. Most of these things can be fixed through managing the settings, but Final Draft gets it right straight out of the gate.
In addition, many screenwriting software options have chosen to become proprietary. By that, I mean you can only work on your script within their system by logging into your browser. It doesn't provide you with a script that you can work on offline, or a file that you can easily email to somebody else. This in and of itself makes it extremely difficult to be as nimble as you need to be in a professional production.
Then there are the features that only showrunners and script coordinators really need to know about. These are:
Revision Mode
Locking Pages
Scene Numbers
Colored Revision Sets
I realize this may sound like nonsense to somebody who doesn't work in production, but this is how script changes are communicated from the writers' room to all other departments, including the director and actors. It also helps production track everything that's been shot when new revisions of the script come out. These are crucial features of Final Draft that are necessary for running a TV production.
I'm Not Writing for TV Yet. Do I Still Need to Use Final Draft?
No, but...
I would strongly recommend using it to get the hang of it, or at the very least, find a program that can convert files into FDX. This is the file format used by Final Draft. And using a different software that can convert to FDX means that you can easily switch your screenplays over whenever you do upgrade to Final Draft. WriterDuet is one such program that can do just that.
Is there any screenwriting software I should avoid?
If you are just writing for your own pleasure, and not working on a production, then use whatever screenwriting software you like. I still think you should get familiar with Final Draft, but that can come later down the line.
The only screenwriting software I would avoid is, as I mentioned earlier, one that forces you to use their platform to work on your screenplay. In other words, if you can't own your file of your screenplay and work on it outside of a web browser-based platform, I would not use that software. It's the same reason marketers like to cultivate email lists. You own your email list. You don't own your Instagram followers. That can be taken away from you like that.
And with something as personal as your own writing in your screenplay, I feel you're better off being able to keep your material offline. Let's take CeltX for example. It used to be great... when it was free... and when you could work on a screenplay that you owned as a file on your computer.
Now, you have to log onto your CeltX account in order to work on a screenplay in your browser. This is a very scary reality if you're going in and out of internet range, like on a flight. Will this software save your progress? Sometimes. Also, you can't access or send your file to just anyone. You have to log on and "collaborate" with someone who also needs to have CeltX. It's a huge pain.
It's these features and possibilities that I've found consistently that, even if you have problems with some of their features, Final Draft is the only screenwriting program present and future TV writers should use.
