Reddit reviews Break into Screenwriting: Your complete guide to writing for stage, screen or radio

I have read many screenwriting manuals over the years, but for me, the best one by far is the humble Teach Yourself: Break Into Screenwriting.

After that the most essential resource I have found is the columns at wordplayer.com. These are written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek etc.) based on their many years of first hand experience at the epicenter of the Hollywood machine.

As for software, the gold standard is Final Draft. It's expensive, but it does take all the headache out of screenplay formatting. There is also an application called Celtx which I think is free, but I haven't used it.

An essential practice in becoming a screenwriting is to read other peoples' scripts, good and bad. At Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet or Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope you can read scripts by other aspiring writers, and at imsdb.com you can read scripts of films that have been produced and released. Try to get into the habit of reading a script a day and watching a movie a day.

As a (very small time) indie producer who gets sent scripts all the time, I would say the number one beginner's mistake is writing stories that are too expensive to produce. The major studios are the only bodies that can shoot big budget projects, and they won't read unsolicited scripts from unrepresented writers (i.e. without an agent). Getting an agent is a Herculean task in itself (you need to have two great scripts completed and be working on a third before you should even start the process of approaching agents). Independents aren't in a financial position to shoot FX heavy scifi or cast-of-thousands historical epics. So to get the first script produced, screenwriters have to think like a producer, and figure out how to write a story that can be filmed in a cost effective manner. For inspiration watch as many micro-budget films as you can and figure out what works and what doesn't work.

Best wishes for your ongoing endeavors - it is great that you're starting so young and I hope you will achieve success.

I can't think of any resources online off the top of my head, but I'll give you my top tip I wish I'd known when I first started

Everything is visual. It helps to 'see' the scene happening in your head. However, don't over-describe things. General convention says a page of your script is about a minute of screentime. When you're watching a film, a camera panning over scenery quickly becomes dull, so cut the fat on the descriptions and pack it full of dialogue and action.

A quick bit of google-fu has produced this site. I don't really know if it's any good though... Personally I found the book Break into Screenwriting incredibly helpful when just starting out.

I'm by no means an expert, but feel free to shoot me any questions you have - and have fun! I find screenwriting to be incredibly freeing and things I write in this form seen so much more original compared to the prose I write, hopefully you enjoy it just as much.