After reshaping your story bible, the next task is to register your screenplay and all its assets. Registration is key in creating a viable property in your screenwriting future. In today’s blog, I’ll speak on how important registration is.

Registration is instrumental in solidifying your finished script as an intellectual property for your creative gain. This comes into play when submitting your screenplay to contests or optioning for a film/television deal. It’s important to have ownership of your work for whatever occasion arises.

With that said, let’s talk about how to register your screenplay.

For any screenwriter worth their weight, the Writers Guild is the destination for copyright and trademark of your work. It signifies that you have an intellectual property worthy of being something one day. You have to have your own back as a creative when it comes to your script.

Here are the links to the WGA East and WGA West for my U.S. readers. For my international readers, here is another link to find what guild you can register with.

With my own screenplay, procrastination and perfectionism set me back awhile as I tried shaping and molding my work into what I wanted it to be. Registering my screenplay happens to be the biggest hurdle I had as a screenwriter, but eventually, my confidence in my writing leads to a certificate from the WGA.

As I rewrite my spec script, the thought of re-registering my script has come to mind. Now, my rewrite and reshaped story bible will be representative of my true vision. When the time is right I will be prepared.

The goal of registering your work is to help prepare you for the endgame – optioning your idea for film, television or the web. Like last week, keep your eyes on the prize.

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In reading this post, I hope you will have a better understanding of what ownership means to any screenwriter with a dream and some decent words. But this isn’t the end of the conversation, you can leave comments below and discuss this even more with your fellow screenwriters along with myself.

Come back later this week as I speak on preparing your screenplay for submissions.