Monday Morning Editor Picks: Write Your Own Award-Winning Screenplay

I don't know about you, but watching the Golden Globes always inspires me to sit down and push out the best screenplay I possible can. I'm going to be on that stage one day... or die trying.

So how do you improve your odds of success? With some tools to help. Here are some that might get your next script up to par. Just don't forget to thank ScriptMag when you accept that award!

Final Draft 9 Software: Final Draft 9 retains all of its studio-tested features used by Hollywood giants like Tom Hanks, J.J. Abrams, James Cameron, and Aaron Sorkin, while setting new benchmarks in performance and ease of use. With Final Draft 9, you’ll enjoy over 30 new and improved features, plus a fresh look and feel for both Mac and Windows users.

Movie Outline: Wondering how to write a movie outline? Let Movie Outline 3.1 do all the work! Easily plan your story structure, color-code acts, rearrange scenes, develop and track characters and format your screenplay to industry standards with this movie outline software. You can even gauge the progress of your own story to that of included outlines and analyses of successful Hollywood movies, allowing you to simultaneously compare your own narrative's pacing with the pros.

Screenwriting Webinars: For those who aren't familiar with The Writers Store webinars, there's a great benefit to taking them. As long as you sign up in advance of the live event, each registration comes with access to the archived version of the program and the materials for one year. You do not have to attend the live event to get a recording of the presentation. In all live TWS webinars, no question goes unanswered. Attendees have the ability to chat with the instructor during the live event and ask questions. You will receive a copy of the webinar presentation in an e-mail that goes out one week after the live event. The answers to questions not covered in the live presentation will be included in this e-mail as well.

Plus, you get to learn from the comfort of your own home!

The best way to learn how to write great screenplays is to read them. Download this year's award-season screenplays for free on ScriptMag.com.

Jeanne Veillette Bowerman is the Editor and Online Community Manager of Script Magazine and a webinar instructor for The Writers Store. She is Co-Founder and moderator of the weekly Twitter screenwriters’ chat, #Scriptchat, and wrote the narrative adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name, with its author, Douglas A. Blackmon, former senior national correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. Jeanne also is President of Implicit Productions and consults with writers on how to build and strengthen their online and offline networks as well as face their fears in order to succeed in writing and in personal peace - a screenwriter's therapist. More information can be found on her blog, ramblings of a recovered insecureaholic. Follow @jeannevb on Twitter.