Screenwriting : Screenwriting tools by Rickardo Beckles-Burrowes

I studied how to write motion pictures and television shows at the Hollywood Screenwriter Institute in Hollywood, California. And, I also have a lot of books on screenwriting.

What on earth is the Hollywood Screenwriter Institute?

I just use Celtex

Celtx cards for idea capture and expansion. Celtx script for iPad so I can work anywhere I get inspired. Celtx web to sync them all together. Super cheap super useful.

@Dan No choice? "Stockholm Syndrome" or are you being held against your will? If need be, everything saves in FDX format so you can send it to FD users. Just playing with you.

I use final draft

After working four decades in the motion picture and television business. Hollywood Screenwriters Institute, did me good.

Danny- I remember her...she used to advertise in the LA Weekly back in the early 2000's. I was going to check them out once...the office was on La Cienega...,but I got sidetracked in the Accupressure salon next store. I don't think they are in business anymore.

I'm using Fade In on desktop and mobile, prefer it to FD, I also use Grammarly for initial spelling, grammar proofing.

I use Final Draft, but if I'm on my mac I'll use Highland since it saves to FDX. Other than that, I use good ol' pen and paper.

Pen and paper for notes & first drafts, and Final Draft for full scripts. I also tend to outline in Pages (when I do full outlines).

Thanks everyone for your comments thus far.

I use Final Draft now, but Like Dan G. and Aray, I prefer Movie Magic. Maybe it's because I began using Movie Magic when I first started out, (back in the days of floppy discs lol) and found it to be easy for a beginner. But, from what I've been reading lately, Final Draft appears to be the most commonly used program in the industry.

I love Pentel Rolling Writer pens...

William, I do, too! I got some Pentel pens for my birthday and I've found them to be the best pens I've ever used. The red one is perfect for marking up my scripts during revisions.

And CJ, I agree with your comment about making sure you have a backup strategy in place. A few weeks ago I had written a 10-page short screenplay and hadn't saved it to a flash drive yet, and that afternoon my computer got a virus, and I lost the entire thing. Now, I can't bring myself to rewrite it. But, since I'm a silver-lining type of person, I believe that once I do get the motivation to rewrite it, it will be much better than the first one ever was. :-) And, it did teach me to not to forget to back up my work.

OOooowwwww Linda, that def hurts! Happened to me as well, though not 10 pgs ( 2-3 I think) but it was something I had been stuck on for a while, so when it came to me, I pounded it out in mins and then lost by accident (my human error of course). It devastated me for a couple days, so I did what you did, started the re-write, and low & behold...not only did I remember a lot of the previous, it definitely came out much better!! And YES, there was that lesson of 'always backing up!!" Thanks for sharing Linda, excellent reminder.

Thanks, CJ. And yes, that's exactly what I thought. Better 10 than 110. Would've been a bit more difficult finding the silver-lining in that situation. :-)

Glad to hear that it worked out better for you, Herb. Maybe I will return to mine tonight. :-)

Thanks for the heads up CJ about the free version of Celtx ;-)

About a month ago, my computer got a virus and I mentioned on this thread I had lost a 10-page short screenplay that I had forgotten to back up. But, today while going through a flash drive looking for notes on the TV pilot I'm working on, I came across a screenplay in FD with a title I didn't recognize. I could not believe it when I clicked on it and there was the 10-page screenplay I thought I had forgotten to back up. I actually had backed it up. I had just forgotten that I had renamed it. LOL Anyway, it was just another reminder to me today to always back up my work....because over time, I do tend to become lax about it.

Linda: It's great you had that backup, and emailing to yourself, too. Dropbox is a nice cloud-based storage site for docs, too. There are many other such sites, now, too, but I love Dropbox.

Yes, Bill, I was very happy to find it. I've never thought about using Dropbox. Only to submit pitches. But, I will keep that in mind. Thanks for mentioning it. :-)