Dear Hack, What's good scriptwriting software to use? Just starting.

Dear Just,

Define "good."  Sure, I know that's a trick question for you.  I doubt you even typed the original question yourself, right - so going as far as defining something...never mind.

All right, Final Draft is the gold standard.  It does more, better than just about any other scriptwriting software out there.  It's also pretty much the industry standard.  It costs a decent amount of money but it's totally worth it.   There is this slight, continuing display problem with Final Draft so I just don't like it as well as the others and it doesn't seem quite as flexible.  But when I get ready to deliver my masterpiece to the prodco that's the format I use.

Movie Magic Screenwriter was one of my favs - I was a fanboy back when it was ScriptThing and they gave away cool t-shirt with every purchase.  But they just didn't keep up well with the market.  I'd love to see them kick some major tail with a newer, more intuitive version at some point.  Good stuff, it is, says Yoda.  But it usually costs more than Final Draft, unfortunately.

Celtx is free and it's good - unreal actually for a free product.  And until you actually sell something (hahahahaha - sorry - I'm sure that's gonna happen soon) you should consider using it since it does all the critical stuff and more.  And did I mention?  It's free.

There's other alternatives floating around including a Word macro (shudder) - but really, what do I know?  I mostly use WordPerfect to create my material.  Yes, WordPerfect and it's fine so take that attitude and put it where the sun don't go.

Hack

 

Sophocles was great for

Submitted by colinbgood on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 11:25am.

Sophocles was great for years, but I believe it was discontinued. I still use my copy but I have been using Google Docs lately. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of dedicated script writing software, but its free, can be used from anywhere on any platform/OS, has versioning and has amazing support for collaborative writing. I hear they may release a module of sorts specifically for screen writing.

marse's picture

Celtx or Final Draft

Submitted by marse on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 2:42pm.

If you can't afford Final Draft then try Celtx - it's free. 

Movie Magic praise!!

Submitted by Jtrahan32 on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 5:34pm.

I really like Movie Magic a whole lot because you can add Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling which I don't have yet but will in the future. I like Movie Magic because the Oscar winner writer Paul Haggis uses Movie Magic screenwriting software. I have also heard that Celtx works fine as well. Just use a screenwriting program that your most comfortable with. And remember one tip NO description of where the camera goes which I see in alot of beginning screenwriters screenplays. I'm still a beginner at best and still learning the craft but I know not to put camera descriptions on my pages.