(Belated) Happy New Year, folks! (Jesus, the month of January is almost over, it’s about damn time I wished you one.)

As stated in the previous installment of this series, in this blog’s (sadly more frequent than I would like, but hey, that’s life) downtime, I’ve done a lot of re-reading, taking stock, assessing, re-calibrating even. Looking back over the past four years of its existence, there’s a lot of “practical advice” on this blog that I would not be nearly so regimented about now; on the other hand, there are a lot of ideas, specifically where my directing and business proposals are concerned, that have been refined and polished. So, I’m taking a second look at some items where my initial instincts have evolved over time and restating my thesis, as it were.

Since the last installment was about script formatting, I figured I’d stick to that general subject and talk about screenwriting software as I ease my way back into not just this blog but this series. Shall we?

1. The Links Still Work

First of all, unless there’s some sort of infringement claim (in which case I have no choice), I’m not taking away the old links that enable people to give themselves a free copy of Final Draft 8. In my experience, all of them still work, and everything functions as I described it. As the comments section on that link attests, there may be some issues if you’re not reading the instructions carefully and following them letter-perfectly, but by and large, everything is still in working order.

Moreover, you don’t really need the newest features, for the most part. As one Reddit user put it, “Ever since it could properly format a screenplay, every subsequent new version of FD has essentially been a bells and whistles update. Most writers I know are still using an ‘outdated’ version.”

If you like your screenwriting software at the low, low price of “free,” or if you’re perfectly fine continuing to use your older version of Final Draft on a new machine while utilizing my help to keep it activated, I’m not stopping you.

2. However, I Can No Longer Justify Pointing People to Newer Software Versions

In my initial post, I attempted to stave off a potential claim by encouraging users to buy the newest edition of Final Draft (11 at the time, 13 now) if they could afford it. It does have the most features from a production standpoint, and it is the industry standard, though one may quibble about how much the “price plus status equals quality” trap is responsible for the latter. However, even back then, I cited its price tag (roughly $250 American for a fresh copy, with an upgrade from an earlier version being at least $100) as justification for continuing to use this older version, and that price has only grown harder to account for with time, especially when one considers that it is more expensive than comparable programs and clunky.

Well… clunky on Windows. If you ever have to use Final Draft (and there are situations in which you will; getting to that in a moment), do it on a Mac. The UI is nicer, and it runs much more smoothly; everyone I know who uses Final Draft on a Mac is basically happy. But the 1.6 billion Windows users who have to put up with installation problems, the “early 2000s Microsoft Word” UI, and headache-inducing bugs and optimization/performance issues that cause lag and crashes might wonder if the extra features that make it the “industry standard” are worth putting up with all of that, especially when Final Draft has a long history of their default advice on a problem you’re having with any version but the latest to be “Upgrade! It’ll fix your problems.” (Cast & Crew buying Final Draft has led to some improvements on this front, but for many, it’s too little, too late.) And those bells and whistles updates the Reddit user mentioned above? They come at a cost. If you upgrade your OS and your older version of Final Draft is incompatible, they make you pay full price for the new version. And even for just an upgrade, every couple of years (like clockwork), you have to pay.

If you’re a working writer (or expect to work as support staff — i.e., writer’s P.A., writer’s assistant, script coordinator, etc.) and your show-runner wants you to use Final Draft, fine, the upgrade isn’t that big a hit to your wallet. (And as script coordinator in particular, you’ll need a very in-depth working knowledge of the software on most sets, film or TV, or first assistant directors will chew you out.) It may be ugly and straight-to-the-point, but it is professional production software, for better or worse.

But if you’re not in that position or you’re buying it for the first time, don’t put up with a buggy, crashing piece of shit, even if (at one time) it had the most features, many of which you don’t need unless you’re producing or directing your own films (and if you are, props to you!). You don’t need most of the “shinier” features to put words on a page. There are other programs that work just as well, if not better, many of which have demos, some of which are free or freemium — examples include Arc Studio, Beat or Highland 2 (for Mac users), KIT Scenarist, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Story Architect, StudioBinder, Trelby (for Windows users), and WriterDuo/WriterSolo. I don’t think there’s one screenplay application out there that you can’t try before you buy, so do exactly that and find out what suits you best instead of what someone else says you “have to” use.

That said, I have a particular program in mind for those more used to a Final Draft approach…

3. Maybe Try This One!

(NOTE: I am not sponsored, just a casual reader of the Screenwriting subreddit that saw this program mentioned often enough, tried it out, and liked what I saw enough to abandon my abandonware. This should go without saying; nobody who is sponsored would be dumb enough to cop to pirating software in their pitch. Still, I feel the disclaimer helps those who need one.)

Let me introduce you to Fade In.

As MacWorld put it, it has “all the major features — and then some — found in industry standard Final Draft, but at a quarter of the price.” The pros are all getting into it — just look at their testimonials page! Into the bargain, it’s much better optimized, it looks a lot cleaner across all systems, is available on both mobile and desktop platforms, it exports to a number of major screenwriting software formats (including Final Draft, Fountain, Open Screenplay Format, and Scrivener; there are specific reasons why this matters that I’m getting to, but for the most part, screenplay PDFs are the standard, so this is just a cool perk for those who collaborate with someone not willing to ditch what works for them), and, most importantly, all future updates and upgrades are free. In a world increasingly (I’d say overly) tolerant of subscription software, you own it for life. That matters to someone who straddles the millennial line like me, and anyone older for that matter.

I admit that there are some elements Final Draft supplies under the hood that Fade In doesn’t; I was mildly annoyed to scroll down to the Extras section of Fade In’s download page and discover just how many “no-brainer” items (in my opinion) had to be added to the on-board software. But 1) they only seem like “no-brainer” items if you have prior Final Draft experience, and 2) adding said items is a snap; plus, once they’re in, you don’t have to do it more than once on the same machine.

Now, I noted that Fade In, unlike lots of screenwriting software, can export a Final Draft-ready file for a reason. Namely, the day you have to exchange files with a producer, studio, or other writer, they will expect it in the Final Draft (.fdx) format.

If you sell a project, they want the .fdx file. If you work as an on-set writer, they’ll expect revisions and colored pages as an .fdx file. Your film’s editor will likely use Final Draft to take your .fdx file and export an Avid-based text file to throw into Media Composer for script sync. This program is inextricably linked with the production process because Final Draft has spent a lot of time and money on promoting itself as a great product, almost more than is actually spent to make it great (at least according to disgruntled users), and since they focused their efforts on marketing, every teacher and screenwriting “guru” will push Final Draft on you like they’re Moses coming downhill with ten commandments. On top of that, the one place where Final Draft does put in some R&D time is the .fdx file format. They update the .fdx standard periodically to improve integration with production and post software, and competitors are not always able to stay as current, meaning an .fdx file rendered in Fade In (or other programs capable of such an export) may not work correctly all the time with said software.

For that reason alone, if you’re making film/TV money, it may be easier to bite the bullet and buy Final Draft than do something pedantic like keep Final Draft in your pocket and quickly run every Fade In-generated .fdx file through it before sending on to production. (If you’re like me, however, you hung on to the free Final Draft 8 to do just that, and maybe we should grab pizza some time, you sound like a cool person.)

Conclusion

In the end, all this is mainly to illustrate that there are other options available. For every software that has a more intuitive interface, there will be one with greater organizational capabilities. Some will be more user-friendly and writer-focused, others better for professional-grade work. If you’re writing on spec or on your own time, focus on getting the words out, not how you do it, but if you’re looking to go pro, realize there’s more than what you’re told is out there.