ScriptMonster.co.uk

Anyone who ever has ever written a screenplay will tell you that having software to take care of the formatting is an essential thing. There’s no way in hell you can write effectively if you are constantly battling with the format of your script. And as someone who often reads scripts from beginners, let me tell you that it is nigh on impossible to read people’s scripts when they have butchered the formatting.

The one problem though, is that for a lot of writers buying Final Draft, the industry standard screenwriting package, is just not an option. It costs a lot of money.

So what is the alternative?

Well until recently you basically had two options.

1. You could download a bootlegged copy of Final Draft from the interweb. Something that is pretty easy to do, but obviously is illegal and means you don’t have an official copy that can download patches and software updates (hence no UK spelling for example).
2. You could download Script Smart from the BBC website. An add-on for MS Word that turned it into a screenwriting package. But this only works with certain versions of Word and has some limitations as a screenwriting package.

Neither option was perfect.

But now, without further ado I can tell you about a 3rd option. One which isn’t totally there yet, but in a few months time should mean that you never have to consider using Final Draft ever again.

What I’m talking about is Celtx.

What is it? Its an open source Screenwriting package. (Pronounced Celtics I believe)

Open source basically means that the code for the software is in the public domain, so anyone can distribute it free of charge or make improvements to the code. This is important because it means that it will always be free to use, and people will always be able to bring out new versions of it even if the original Celtx company goes bust.

To go off on a slight tangent for a moment. If anyone wonders why a company would bother to write software if they are going to make it freely available, because surely there is a catch, let me explain how it works…

Basically the Celtx company is hoping that a year from now every screenwriter in the world will be using Celtx. And off the back of that they can sell you training products, they can sell you books, they can sell you courses, they will perhaps make a deal with Vogler that will offer his theories built right into the software for an additional 20 bucks, they can perhaps charge you to register your script’s copyright. There’s a million and one ways that they will be able to make money off of this. But fear not, that doesn’t stop it being a great product to use, because since the source code is in the public domain it means that should they ever become really intrusive with selling you crap all the time, someone could simply use that publicly available source code to make a version minus all the advertising and selling. (Not that I imagine they would ever become intrusive)

Anyways, back to the software itself.

At the time of writing the current version is 0.98. Which for none software people basically means that its not yet what they consider a finished version. Once it becomes version 1.0, then it will be their first “finished” version. You can download it today and use it and it works fine, but there’s still a few features which are missing, stuff like no support for TV writing formats, no support for page colours and a bunch of other stuff.

The big one for us in the UK is that it currently doesn’t support A4 printing, only the US standard “Letter sized” paper. Which basically means that if you try to print a script out here on A4, the margins will be wrong. I’ve spoken with the makers of Celtx directly and they assure me that the next version, available very soon, will support A4 printing.

There’s a few other bits and pieces missing as well, stuff that will be added over the coming few months, but even now, today, you have a great little script writing package that is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and has spelling and grammar in many different languages.

It’s not a Final Draft killer just yet, but for a free writing package for writers who aren’t making a living from screenwriting I believe it is a great option. And I have no doubt that in 6months to a year, once all the essential features have been implemented, and then all the additional jazz has been added, this software will be just as good as Final Draft and will be suitable even for the professionals who can afford Final Draft anyways.

So download it, give it a try. Tell me what you think.