The bible

Study Block 2 is completed – for me, anyway. Working through the summer (thanks to my tutor, Jane Pugh (she's on Imdb)) has meant that I've been able to keep up the momentum and write something every day, even whilst away on holiday. A mobile broadband "dongle" is better than nothing, but in some remote areas of the country is almost as useless as nothing.

Some weeks ago I purchased the full version of Final Draft, the world-renowned script-formatting software. It's not cheap, but the industry likes it and it comes with a few useful extra features that you don't get with the free formatting software that can be downloaded from the Web.

This also means that I get the Final Draft email newsletters and one of them came as something of a shock to me. It was headed by a photograph as a memorial to someone who had died. First I noticed the year of birth and thought, 'Oh, dear.' Then I saw the name. Now, there was something familiar about that – and then it hit me: I had been reading (nay, using almost as a bible) this gentleman's book, Save the Cat! This is a superb book for learning about screenwriting and story structure. I'd like to thank Blake Snyder for his wit, his wisdom and advice. Thanks, Blake.