Speaker 1: Come on, you need it. You have to have it if you want to be a real screenwriter. It's the industry standard. Wait. What does that even mean? What? Industry standard? No, it's used by like 95% of film and TV. What about the other 5%? I don't know. Other stuff, I guess? So I can use other stuff? Well, I mean... Huh. Final Draft isn't bad software. It does all the normal screenwriting stuff and has some decent outlining features. It also plays nice when it comes to production reports and other features helpful for taking a story from script to screen. And if you land in a writer's room position, it's very likely that the writing staff will all use it. But if you're in a writer's room or in pre-production, then you're already getting paid and can more easily afford the software if you end up truly needing it. Until then, your script is pretty much always going to be shared as a PDF. As long as it follows standard screenwriting format rules, the same ones that Final Draft follows, then the PDF should look nearly identical, whether you're writing in a $250 app or one that's free. And I don't mean free until you reach a limit of days, or pages, or projects, or apps that slap a watermark on your PDF exports. I mean completely free. The most obvious option is to use what you already have. You almost certainly have a word processor like Microsoft Word installed on your computer. And if you don't, there's a free and open source version called LibreOffice Writer that's absolutely great. Then just grab yourself the open source Courier Prime font, and you're almost ready to write. The only thing left is to create styles for each element of a screenplay, so that instead of manually setting the margins every line, you can more quickly and easily reformat full elements. And you can find the rules for these element styles in the Script Formatting playlist on this channel. If you prefer cloud-based apps and storage, you can do the exact same thing with Google Docs by editing their default styles, though you can't change the names. Being cloud-based makes it much easier to collaborate on scripts. And Google's free cloud storage has proven itself extremely reliable. But headers don't always like to play nice in standard word processors, thanks to screenwriting's quirky rules about not counting the title page and not displaying the page count on the first page. And setting up and applying styles can still be a pain. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could just write our screenplays naturally, really get into the flow of things, and then just convert it to the perfect format at the touch of a button? Welcome to the world of Fountain. Fountain is a free and open-source plain-text markup language for screenwriting. Which is a fancy way to say it's a set of rules that helps identify the various elements of a screenplay almost automatically. Write a line beginning EXT, and it knows you're writing a scene heading. Write an all-capped line followed directly by a normal line of text, well that's obviously a character heading and their dialogue. There are special rules for things like italics, scene numbers, and things like that. But 99% of the time you're writing a screenplay, it'll be able to understand your intention almost effortlessly. Or really other programs will. See, Fountain is just the set of rules. You can write the text almost anywhere. Google Docs, Notepad, even email. But then you'll need another app to read and convert it to the proper script format. Like Screenplane. Screenplane is a very basic web app that takes a plain-text file and converts it to a formatted screenplay using Fountain's syntax. But if you want a few more features, check out AfterWriting, another Fountain-based web app, though you can download an offline version too. It renders the script without any obvious errors or omissions, and comes with a few options for custom formatting. AfterWriting also has a built-in text editor that allows you to write your script directly, copy and paste a script, or even tweak an imported project. The app also provides some stats and reports, though I never really find these kinds of things all that useful. Honestly, AfterWriting far exceeded my expectations, and I'd be very comfortable using it to produce a professional screenplay. And it would absolutely be my recommendation for anyone wanting to use Fountain, if it weren't for the next option, somewhat ironically called BetterFountain. Since Fountain is a markdown language, it behaves a lot like a programming language might, which actually makes writing in a source code editor with the right extension kind of amazing. The best combo I found for Fountain was writing in Visual Studio Code, with the BetterFountain extension. This might all sound complicated, but it's surprisingly easy to install and become familiar with in just minutes. The extension color codes the text based on the Fountain syntax, which makes it super easy to identify elements while quickly scrolling or reading. The extension also provides a scene navigator or outline that gives us a list of scene headings we can click on to jump to in the editor, and a cheat sheet section if you need to quickly check a Fountain rule. BetterFountain also includes some more of the stats and reports you probably don't need, and an option to preview the formatted script in real time. And when you're ready, it's super easy to export the script to PDF. BetterFountain again totally exceeded my expectations. If you're interested in Fountain, definitely give this one a shot. But if you're more interested in a WYSIWYG editor where what you see is what you get, and you write in the script format from the beginning, there are still some great free options. A free and open source classic in the industry is Trelby. Trelby and every other WYSIWYG editor we'll touch on in this video uses context to guess at what the next element might be, and sets the format accordingly. So if you've just written a scene heading, the app will format the next line as Action. When it gets it wrong, one or two presses of Tab will cycle you through the elements until you find the correct format. They also all make suggestions for auto-completing repeated elements to varying degrees. In the case of Trelby, the app will suggest character names and full scene headings. Trelby also comes with its own suite of reports that I'd never use, but does have a few unique tools worth mentioning. The first is the Compare Scripts feature. If you're like me, you save a ton of versions of your screenplays to preserve previous changes and serve as backups. But sometimes it's hard to identify the differences as you take time away from projects or juggle too many files. Comparing the scripts in Trelby lets you see exactly where the differences are. The readout isn't the most user-friendly, but it's a step towards the change tracking you see in most paid apps. Trelby also comes with a name database filled with over 200,000 names alongside their origins and common gender usage. It's a cool idea that might be helpful if you're away from the internet, but otherwise I find a web search to be far more effective. Trelby's database may also be a bit out of date, because Trelby itself hasn't been updated since 2012, and it's definitely missing some modern features like scene navigation that you'd find in most current software. But depending on your perspective, simplicity might be a feature. Just like with Fountain, the lack of distracting bells and whistles can help keep you focused on the writing itself. If you're looking for a more modern approach to that focused take on screenwriting, you might consider YouMeScript. This is another web app like AfterWriting that allows you to import or write your script entirely in your browser. But instead of writing in Fountain, YouMeScript uses real-time formatting. It has the same predictive and tab styling of all the other WYSIWYG editors — autocomplete suggestions for characters and each element of your scene heading, the reports if you care about those, and a scene navigator, even if it's a bit clunky. But what really sets YouMeScript apart is the integration with Google Drive. From within the app, you can open from and save files directly to your Google Drive. But more impressively, YouMeScript takes advantage of Google Docs' sharing features to not only allow you to invite others to leave comments, but also to collaborate on the same script at the same time. So if you're part of a writing team but tired of sharing documents back and forth or paying for collaborative software, this one is definitely worth checking out. But it's not perfect. You can barely tweak the format or adjust the margins if you need to stray from the Which wouldn't be a huge problem if you could just add some spaces to adjust things yourself. But for some reason, you can't add a space after another space. So to add multiple spaces, you have to keep clicking back or using the back arrow to add them directly after a character. I also couldn't find any sort of change tracking, which feels odd in an app that's differentiating feature is collaboration. And like Trelby, YouMeScript is no longer in development, with the last update I could find coming in May of 2020. But Trelby is free and open source, and available for download to work offline. It's not going anywhere. YouMeScript could disappear tomorrow without notice. So if you do use it, be sure to export final draft or fountain backups that can be used in other programs. Kit Scenarist might do a better job of balancing that issue. Like YouMeScript and Trelby, Scenarist is no longer supported by its developer. But it's a free and open source desktop app, which means it can't just disappear. And support didn't end until summer 2023, so the features are still totally modern. In fact, aside from real-time collaboration, Kit Scenarist is far more feature-rich than YouMeScript. It's got the WYSIWYG editor with predictive and tabbed styles, autocomplete suggestions, and complete control to tweak the formatting. And it has a great scene navigator that even estimates the length of your scenes and screen time, along with a card view that lets you add information and move scenes around intuitively for easy outlining and editing. It's also the first app in this video that has a report I actually use, which they call the character speaking parts. This allows you to choose a character and view all their lines in one place, which is a great tool when you want to hone a character's voice. But unfortunately, they don't allow you to edit them directly, instead taking you back to the script to make your changes. Not a huge deal, but a minor annoyance to an otherwise stellar addition. Another unique feature is the Research tab, where you can track script info, characters, and locations, and write notes to your heart's content. You can even bring in outside documents, images, and URLs to view everything in one place. These are cool in theory, but I personally find it more effective to do my outlining and researching in separate programs. But if you want them included and free, this is the app to do it. Like Trelby, Scenerist has a Compare Script Versions tool, but still no ability to track changes in real time, which is a disappointment for a modern app in my opinion. This is a feature I've had to use when submitting new drafts or revisions to clients, and I hate the idea of having to upgrade for just this alone. Speaking of upgrading, the reason support ended for Scenerist is because the developers moved on to Story Architect. This program does have a free version, and in my experience it feels pretty much just like Kit Scenerist, but with the new features, and some old ones, locked behind subscription plans. At that point, I'd personally rather use the free and open source one. Scrite is the new kid on the block, with a surprisingly unique approach to screenwriting software. The app is what they call scene-centric, meaning it breaks your script into scenes rather than being a WYSIWYG editor that displays what the printout will actually look like. It still keeps the styling and autocomplete features of its peers, but doesn't allow the same seamless writing between scenes. You need to actively add a new scene, rather than just typing interior or exterior. I find that extremely annoying, but it does shift the emphasis of the program significantly towards structure and outlining. Similar to Kit Scenerist, it has a notebook section to organize research. But Scrite also has a structure tab with tools to visualize your acts and sequences, a detailed view of each of them, and even a timeline for arranging scenes, all alongside robust color coding and tagging features. They also have pre-built templates for common structures like Save the Cat, The Hero's Journey, and more. Frameworks I'll actually be covering in an upcoming series on story structure, so be sure to subscribe so you don't miss those videos. If you've ever used Scrivener, Scrite honestly feels like a modernized version focused entirely on screenwriting that's also free. At least, for now. See, they've made it clear that the project will not remain free forever. There are vague claims that a free version will remain available, but who knows if it will still have the features that you want. And Scrite requires signing in, which means you probably won't be able to just keep using the old version when things change. Then there's the aforementioned break of writing flow for a new scene. And the fact that the page count and breaks that the app calculates while you're writing don't always match the PDF output. And I couldn't find any change tracking. Again. I do think it could turn into a great app down the line, so it's worth checking out if any of the features pique your interest, or just to see what the free version looks like in another year or two. In a sort of reverse of what Scrite is doing, the long-established paid software WriterDuet released a free version of their app called WriterSolo that's available as a web app or desktop app. WriterSolo is awesome. It has pretty much all the features of its older brother, but just doesn't connect to their servers. Which means you can't back it up to their cloud or use their collaboration features. The collab features are missed, but the cloud stuff isn't an issue because they're generous enough to let you link WriterSolo directly to your Google Drive, Dropbox, or your computer either locally or in your own cloud-save folder like OneDrive. The interface is modern and includes pretty much everything I'd want as a screenwriter. A WYSIWYG editor with predictive and tabbed styling, autocomplete suggestions, and custom formatting. A great scene navigator with color coding and tagging built in, private notes and comments, a bunch of reports I'll never use except for their dialog filter which does allow direct editing, and a robust proofing suite that includes checks on spelling and grammar, formatting, and even passive voice. All while finally being able to actually track the changes. Seems basically perfect, right? Well, it still had one test to pass. Remember how I said that as long as the app follows standard screenwriting format, the PDF should look nearly identical to the one exported from Final Draft? Well, there is no exact standard format, and even small changes from what Final Draft uses can accumulate over the length of a feature screenplay to result in a very different page count. Final Draft is still the industry standard, so most of our ideas around page count do come from their scripts, which is why it's important that whatever app you use at least comes close. So I converted the script from Jordan Peele's Get Out from a PDF to a Fountain file, since Fountain is plain text and won't carry over any of its own formatting information. That means the way the formatting is interpreted is dependent on each app's defaults. The Final Draft PDF comes to a nice and even 100 pages. You Me script comes in at 105 pages, or a 5% increase. It's much harder to get people to read longer scripts, but this isn't too big of a change as to put me off the app entirely. Trelby had an 11% decrease in page count. And Story Architect, Scrite, and Afterwriting weren't far behind. But that's because these programs all default to an A4 paper size. Once you change them to letter size, things look much better across the board. Including the basically perfect Writer Solo, which was basically perfect here as well. Now these aren't the only free options out there. I didn't have access to anything running macOS to try the often-recommended free and open-source Fountain-based Beat. Or Highland 2, which is free for students enrolled in university writing programs. I also didn't venture into the tablet or mobile space, because the apps are constantly changing and updating, with no clear frontrunners that I could find yet. Now you're probably wondering which app I'd choose if I had to give up my current favorite, Fade In. Or maybe you've already figured out it's Writer Solo. Seriously, I had zero complaints about this program. It even gives Fade In a run for their money. Or maybe it doesn't, because Fade In isn't free. So if I had to start over from scratch, you'd probably see me just use Writer Solo. But you might have very different needs or tastes, and you could easily write your next great screenplay in any program that made it into this video. And since they're all free, why not try out a few before making any big decisions? And if you're wondering why all this weird screenplay formatting even matters, then you should check out this video to learn the real reasons why everyone seems to care so much about what your script looks like.