Final Draft 13

So... after getting multiple troubling notifications from my computer that my current version (version 11) of Final Draft will not work with future updates to my OS, I decided to upgrade to Final Draft 13.

Good Heavens they make it difficult!

I had to create a whole new account (I guess missing one version of Final Draft makes your account outdated and obsolete). 

Then downloading it was an exercise in frustration (the URL they send you needs to be seriously modified in order to bring you to the page that will actually download your purchase.

And, finally, when you open it, it will open in a window that fills your whole screen and you have to hit a button at the bottom of the window in order to navigate through a bunch of nonsense in order for it to finally leave you alone and let you continue writing your scripts.

'Cuz, let's be fair, if you're upgrading to Final Draft 13, you know the routine already. I don't know why they have to hound you with nonsense and ask you for "data sharing"... like I want that invasive, Big Brother jive in my life. 

Ah well.

It cost me $99 and now I am running the current version of the screenwriting software I have been using since 2004. 

Here I go, ready to finish Depravity (hopefully by Halloween) and Mall Santa (hopefully before Christmas). 

 

MUSCLES & WINE Georgia Comedy Film Festival Selection!

This is indeed Muscles & Wine's fourth festival win of 2026!

I find it incredibly hilarious and strange that it has won so many film festivals in the South (people who've read the script know why this is puzzling and funny at the same time).  

Regardless, I am grateful for this news!

Any news that my writing is being read and appreciated! 

Your submission has been selected!

Greetings ,  Congratulations! Your submission, Muscles & Wine, is rated in the top 30% of submissions by our judges and has been named an official selection of Georgia Comedy Film Festival Fall 2026! This event will take place on Monday, November 9, 2026 at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Dr NE, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA. Please check the name, spelling and credits of your submission on the event page: https://filmfestivalcircuit.com/event/georgia-comedy-film-festival-fall-2026 You can manually update the public information about your screenplay by creating an account at filmfestivalcircuit.com with the email address erikdharshman@gmail.com and update your synopsis, tagline, state, writer's statement, public contact info and poster if you'd like. Here is a YouTube tutorial if you need help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNhRL-2ny4  Download the Official Selections and Award Finalist Laurels here: Film Festival Circuit Public Google Drive (LINK)

Visit Event Page

What is my scorecard and why is this important?  You've received an email from us with a link to our premium option to unlock the five scorecards from the judges about your specific submission. This is optional for screenwriters who want feedback from our Georgia-based judges. We have created one marketing scorecard, three private creative scorecards, and one private technical scorecard for your submission.  The marketing scorecard is worth 20 points, the technical scorecard is worth 20 points, and each creative scorecard is worth 20 points. If you didn't score a full 20 out of 20 on your marketing scorecard, you can log in at filmfestivalcircuit.com and update this information yourself. Here is a link to the instructions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RChdDeEiK2Y. If you didn't score a full 20 out of 20 on your technical scorecard and want to make changes, you must first unlock your scorecards. Then, contact me if you'd like to update your video file so your submission can be re-evaluated. Here are the technical requirements we use to evaluate all films, regardless of genre:  Screenplay technical scorecard criteria video: https://youtube.com/shorts/G_gziAlsPUg  At this time, your creative scorecards cannot be changed. The Georgia-based judges have evaluated your submission and will not re-evaluate creative scorecards this season. If you submit to any of our partner film festivals https://filmfestivalcircuit.com/submissions a different group of judges will evaluate your submission and issue three new creative scorecards. Different judges in different markets have different opinions, so their evaluations may differ. Here is a link to the creative scorecard evaluation video: https://youtu.be/WM45PnaQFsI.  Please connect with us on social media  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/georgia.comedy.film.festival/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/georgia.comedy.film.festival TwitterX @mikelfair (Festival Director)  Hashtag #georgiacomedyfilmfestival, #filmfestivalcircuit Every attendee must purchase a ticket. There are no screenwriter passes. How does the award process work? Is there a Q&A? Is there a dress code? If you are planning to attend this event, please read this article first. Link: https://filmfestivalcircuit.com/blog/live-awards-presentation. I've written an article that you may find helpful if you're thinking about attending https://filmfestivalcircuit.com/blog/five-reasons-why-screenwriters-should-attend-film-festivals.  We are looking forward to the audience reaction to these films, meeting this great group of screenwriters, and networking with all of you in Atlanta. Award Winners will be announced on Monday, November 9, 2026 live at the event. Thank you for sharing your creative work with us.

Best Regards,  Mikel Fair, Film Festival Circuit CEO

Georgia Comedy Film Festival Scorecard

Just got this from the Georgia Comedy Film Festival.

Man, I hate it when film fests try to price gouge me.

I already paid your (sometimes exorbitant) entry fee.

That should be enough.

I shouldn't have to pay extra to know how my script did.

That information should be included in my submission fees.

I feel foolish explaining these very basic concepts that I feel like grown people should already know. But, greed... what can you do.

Whatever.

Oh, and when I click the blue button and try to log in to get my overall score, it brings up one of those warning pages that tells me that the webpage is not secure and that there are "potential security issues".

Awesome.  

Your Judges Notes Are Now Available

Greetings Erik D. Harshman , The judges have completed their evaluation of your submission, “Muscles & Wine,” for Georgia Comedy Film Festival Fall 2026 , and your overall score is now available. This does not mean that your submission has been selected for the festival yet. It means your work has been reviewed and scored by the judges. Final selections will be announced no later than the published notification date for this festival. If your submission is selected, you will receive a separate acceptance email. The maximum overall score is 100 out of 100. Your score is based on five separate scorecards, and each scorecard is worth up to 20 points: 1 Marketing Scorecard 1 Technical Scorecard 3 Creative Scorecards You can log in now to view your overall score for free. You can also edit your Marketing Scorecard at any time. Every filmmaker and screenwriter has the opportunity to earn a perfect 20 out of 20 by completing all required fields. Simply fill in any missing information, and your score will update in real time. For $25, you have the option to unlock all five scorecards and judges’ notes for this submission in this specific festival season. This is a one-time unlock for this submission and season, not a $25 charge for each individual scorecard. This unlock is optional and does not affect your chances of being selected. For example, if you submitted to the Texas Short Film Festival Fall 2026, one $25 unlock would give you access to all five scorecards for that submission in that season. If you also submitted to the Atlanta After Dark Film Festival Fall 2026, that would be a separate festival season with a separate set of five scorecards and a separate $25 unlock. Most film festivals do not offer this level of transparency, and similar feedback services can cost hundreds of dollars. Our goal is to make judge feedback more accessible, affordable, and useful. Your notes can help you understand what stood out to the judges, what may need improvement, and how your film or screenplay was evaluated beyond the overall score. Video Explanation, Film Festival Judges Notes (Video Link) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1327651952713647 X: https://x.com/mikelfair/status/2051716075117547828 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DX9z3mFsuZq Tap the link below to view your overall score or unlock your judges’ notes. Thank you for submitting to Georgia Comedy Film Festival Fall 2026 .

View Your Overall Score

Best Regards,  Mikel Fair, Film Festival Circuit, CEO

 

Another Rejection for PERSONAL DEMONS

 Just got this email:

"

Dear Erik D., This is an automated email to notify you that PEEPHOLE filmfest has updated the Judging Status of your submission. Personal Demons Not Selected Project was not selected to be included in festival. You can contact PEEPHOLE filmfest by replying to this email or sending an email to peepholefilmfest@gmail.com.

Not going to lie, this is disheartening.

This is my 5th festival rejection of 2026.

Has the magic worn off?

Has my luck run out?

Or am I just in a bit of a dry spell?

I guess I am just so impacted by these recent rejections because I am so used to winning. Thus far I have 19 either wins or near-wins since 2019. I suppose no one can maintain that impressive of a track record for that long (7 years!). It's just disheartening that I haven't had a win yet in 2026 (save for my "quarter-finalist" status at Filmmatic Horror Screenplay Awards).   

However... onward I trudge.  

 

 

New David Kemp Story

Tonight I cranked out a few pages (with some poetic prose that I am quite proud of) in a new short story featuring my literary avatar, David Kemp.

It is called "Sherpa of Rock Bottom".

My writing was finally starting to get to where I was proud of the creative, original and organic descriptions I was producing... and now I have decided that I must quit for the night.

Why?

Because I need to decompress and watch some 4K special features and documentaries. 

Writing is, after all, difficult, to say the least, and painful, at its worst/best.

I need time on a Saturday night to not feel emotionally and creatively drained. 

On the plus side: this is the first time I have actively written during the school year.

Hopefully this is the start of a new trend.

I rather hope it is.

I don't know if I can survive another year without writing routinely from August to May, with a quick interlude in December-January.  

Another Festivcal Accolade for MUSCLES & WINE

I don't want to jinx this, or sound too arrogant... but I think I have another hit on my hands.

Again, it is so gratifying to know that I am not a one-hit wonder and that I can write as goods in comedy as I can in horror.

Man, I hope Muscles & Wine gets made.

Honestly I just want to share my stories with the world. 

Each festival win (or near-win) brings me closer to that goal.  

Dear Erik D., Congratulations! Filmmatic Comedy Screenplay Awards has updated the Judging Status of your submission Muscles & Wine to Quarter-Finalist. Muscles & Wine Quarter-Finalist Project has been selected as a quarter-finalist in festival. You can contact Filmmatic Comedy Screenplay Awards by replying to this email or sending an email to info@filmmatic.com.

 

DEPRAVITY... page 44

Wrote about 5 pages in Depravity this evening.

Not much, but sometimes that's all you need.

I love the world these characters exist in. 

Neo-noir splatterpunk.  

I like that.

Think I'll use that.  

Anyhow, I'm still loving the world-building and the characters.

Wrote an especially gruesome scene a few nights ago.

Trying to get as much on the page as I can before I head back to school on August 11th. 

But even the return of the academic paper shuffle will not deter me from finishing this script.

Writing this makes me feel alive. 

Awards from Portland Comedy Film Festival

 Just got this email and my laurels (below the email):

"Hi Erik,

Thank you for submitting to the Portland Comedy Film Festival Fall 2026.

Your screenplay, Muscles & Wine, has been named a finalist for the
Best Dark Comedy Feature Screenplay Award.

Your personalized certificate and both versions of the award finalist
laurels are available through the direct Google Drive links below.
Each link opens one individual file. To save a file, open the link and
use Google Drive's Download option.

 

If you have any trouble opening or saving these files, please email me
back. I will be happy to help.

Please help us spread the word by sharing the news on social media.
The complete list of award finalists is available here:

https://filmfestivalcircuit.com/event/portland-comedy-film-festival-fall-2026

Award winners will be announced on Monday, September 21, at Clinton
Street Theater in Portland, Oregon. Attendance is not required to win.
If you attend the event, your certificate will be presented to you on
stage during our live awards ceremony.

Tickets and complete event details are available on the event page linked above.

Thank you again for supporting the festival with your submission.
Congratulations, and have a great week!

Mikel Fair
Film Festival Circuit CEO"

 

  

Awards from Austin Comedy Film Festival

 Just got my awards certificates and laurels from the Austin Comedy Film Festival.

So, I am an "awards finalist"... not sure if that means I am still in competition for a bigger award... and, if I don't mind said "bigger award", will I still be an Official Selection?

I guess I should ask these questions.

But I have some laurels to show off in the meantime. 

Makes me feel good! 

 

 

 

MUSCLES & WINE's SECOND Festival Win!

So... my bromantic, feel-good buddy comedy screenplay Muscles & Wine just had its second festival of the summer!
It is an official selection of the Portland Comedy Festival!
This is seriously gratifying!
This means I might actually be a good screenwriter!
But not only that, but I can write comedy as well as horror.
I honestly never thought anything I wrote was funny before... and I did not know if Muscles & Wine read as funny as I thought it did in my head.
But here we are!
So incredibly grateful and thankful! 

What a great way to end the summer!

 

 

Tonight's Writing

 I wrote in Depravity for a little over two hours tonight.

I am on page 33 and just reached the first "plot point" and am on the cusp of act II.

Man, I love this screenplay.

It is my hop[e to still be writing it into Spooky Season and to hopefully finish it around Halloween.

I also came up with a new idea for a stage play.

It is an idea I have been tossing around for a while in my head.

I always had problems with it being a novel (something I have to work on) and only saw it as a screenplay because that was the only other logical option (other than, perhaps, a novella). 

Regardless, I think it will work quite well as a stage play.  

My first "Christmas Horror" Screenplay is Now Up on Kindle

 Okay, so a few things...

1.) This was my first attempt at Christmas horror. At the end of the day, it's basically Stephen King's Cujo but with a Christmas twist.

2.) I put quotes around "Christmas Horror" because I broke the cardinal rule in my (and many other people's) book about Christmas Horror: Christmas has to be integral, irremovable aspect of the story. Sadly, you can take out the Christmas element here and you'll still have a nature gone awry (Cujo rip-off) story.

3.) I started this script just before Christmas of 2024. Christmas celebrations and time with family took over and I drug my feet on completing this script until sometime in February or so. 

4.) Because it was not written entirely before (or around) Christmas, I feel like I lost focus a bit. The script is only 61 pages long. This is around the time when I found that my screenplays were not reaching feature-length (90 pages/minutes). I want to find organic ways to make this script into a feature, but I don't want it to seem as if I am padding out the running time and, thus, destroying the story's momentum and pacing. 

5.) As I was putting in my prompts to have Google Gemini create a poster / cover for this script, I asked it to show a rabid reindeer attacking a house adorned with Christmas decorations. Gemini told me that it couldn't portray an animal afflicted with rabies... Weird. So I told them to create a psychotic Christmas card from my prompt (I think I changed "rabid reindeer" to "demonic reindeer"... somehow they interpreted that meant "zombified"... I dunno). Anyhow, the only thing I liked about the "psychotic Christmas card" was the reindeer. SO I had them put the reindeer from the "psychotic Christmas card" into a normal Christmas card. Hopefully it work. I like it. 

As it stands, I think this could make a good straight-to-streaming film. 

Also, I just realized that I accidentally left the Google Gemini watermark (that annoying star at the bottom of my image) and I need to edit that off of there before I add the book to my Kindle Library.

At any rate, soon my first attempt at "Christmas Horror" will be available for all to read.

 Enjoy!

 

 

Not Tonight...

 I had ambitions to post Run, Run Rudolph and Painsville, but that will not be happening for two reasons: 

1.) It is clear that I have to re-read the script in order to edit them (Run, Run Rudolph needs some revisions for the story to make sense; Painsville has some problematic language... mind you, that language is in the script so the reader/viewer can identify the antagonists as the bigoted wastes of life that they are, but I can one of my own antagonists using it against me).

2.) I have adulting to do (new patient paperwork for a doctor's visit, research to determine how I will vote in the August 4th election, etc.) and I just don't have the time and focus to re-read those scripts, make the necessary adjustments and publish them just now. 

What's more, I don't think I will have the time, effort and concentration to do any writing tonight.

Perhaps next week.  

PETCARE Screenplay published to Kindle

Today I am going to publish at least two more of my screenplays on Kindle.

One of them I am unsure about.

It is titled Petcare and it is another one of my attempts at writing a short horror script intended for the (now long-defunct) Masters of Horror show.

Anyhow, I am unsure of this script because it contains horrific acts of domestic violence, including child abuse. 

Obviously, the script is aggressively against all of those abhorrent acts and (as is the case with most of my stories) the wicked do indeed get their comeuppance (in the most gruesome of ways). But the road leading to that retribution is tough to read and visualize. 

I don't know.

We shall see if I choose to publish it.

On the one hand, I want people to read this story.

On the other hand, I do indeed work in academia and do not want someone reading this script, missing the point and forming a witch hunt against me. That would be a constant worry for me.

I think I will let my buddy Tim (a proud parent) be the judge. 

After all, there's no rush.

I am writing many more scripts that will eventually land on Kindle.

And I have a full library on there now, even as I write this.

But in preparation for its eventual publication I have done a second draft (and taken out some problematic lines, as well as fixed some formatting issues and taken out some unnecessary plot devices that, in retrospect, didn't work... I also had to update a lot of the script, as it was written nearly 20 years ago!) and designed a one sheet for it (seen below). My buddy Tim even helped pick out the image for the poster.

Anyhow, my first Christmas horror script (Run, Run Rudolph) will be available soon, as will my first attempt at backwoods redneck horror (think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, X (2002), Wrong Turn (2003), etc.) Painsville should be available later on today. 

 

 

 

STAGE BLOOD Screenplay Now Published on Kindle

 I am on a roll today.

I just published my screenplay, Stage Blood on Kindle.

Now, I should start off by explaining a few things:

1.) I wrote this script in fall of 2008 when I became obsessed with late nite T.V. horror hosts. We didn't really have one in St. Louis (though I did grow up catching any appearance of Elvira on TV when I could... and I was an obsessed Joe Bob viewer when we finally got cable and Drive-In Theater was on The Movie Channel (and later MonsterVision on TNT). During this time I was buying a lot of official (and some bootlegs) of TV horror hosts, both modern and classic. Thus, I wanted to translate this obsession (which still persists to this day)  into a story.

2.) This script it short. Sixty pages (which, in film language, translates to about an hour of screen time). The reason for this is that, at the time, Mick Garris' Masters of Horror anthology show was on Showtime (where it lasted for two seasons, before mutating into Fear Itself and landing on network television). Anyhow, I dreamt of one-day being considered a Master of Horror and being given the opportunity to write episodes for Garris' Showtime show. Thus, my scripts (Stage Blood and another, Petcare, which I plan to publish later on today) are the required length for that show.

3.) The cover art was created by AI. I don't like the monster at all. I pictured something bonier, more angular, more demonic, perhaps something from a death metal album cover. They gave me a skeletal purple rat. I also don't like how obvious the late nite TV horror hosts are portrayed in this picture, but c'est la vie. Also, the AI image generator I was using said, "I cannot show gore strewn everywhere".

Seriously?!

Come on!

I'm trying to create a horror movie poster here... what is problematic about some insane gore?!

Whatever.

Enjoy Stage Blood. 

 

 

  

Wolves at the Door Screenplay on Kindle

My Werewolf apocalypse (a concept I believe I am the first writer to explore) screenplay Wolves at the Door is now on Kindle.

So proud of this script.

I truly do believe it is some of my best work.

It was started in summer 2024 and finish in summer 2025.

The only person to have read it thus far is my friend Tim Scott. 

Incidentally, this is my third werewolf script.

I think the only other monster I love writing about more than werewolves is demons.

And Krampus 

(I have three Krampus scripts; one mostly written and the other two waiting to be written during future Christmases).

I believe all of these stem from German/European/Black Forest heritage.

Regardless, enjoy Wolves at the Door! 

 

 

Tonight's Writing

I am on page twenty of Depravity.

I am really loving these characters (especially my protagonist).

I cannot wait to get to the next scene, the next act... 

Successes with my writing (like I just had with Muscles & Wine) fuels me. And setbacks (like I just had with Personal Demons) drown away when I'm writing.

Truly the greatest feeling on Earth... to create.

Each day I read a little bit of William S. Burroughs' last published books of journals (Last Words) and one quote jumped out at me:

 “Yes, for all of us in the Shakespeare Squadron, writing is just that: not an escape from reality, but an attempt to change reality, so [the] writer can escape the limits of reality.”

Good words to end the night with.