There’s a lot of screenplay software, which is astonishing when you consider that a screenplay is just a plain text document, set in Courier. But a professional screenplay has very strict formatting guidelines, and in the world of pro screenwriters, Final Draft is usually thought of as the industry standard software. It’s not only respected, it’s in some cases expected.

Mariner Software has turned 20—quite an achievement for a software company that started out competing against Microsoft with Mariner Write and Mariner Calc. They’ve since added numerous more proprietary programs, such as Montage, StoryMill, and MacJournal. And this weekend, the majority of their Macintosh products on sale for 40% off.

Contour is a great program for helping you organize your thoughts at the beginning of a script and for keeping you on track throughout. It’s incredibly easy to get started, and just as easy to make changes along the way. Contour will prove indispensable for new writers, and would likely be useful to those with some completed projects under their belt. And who knows? With it, perhaps my next novel won’t take me eight years to finish.

Do you have a great idea for a movie, but don’t know how to turn it into a screenplay that makes any sense? Well, that’s never stopped those fellows who make the Saw movies, and now it doesn’t need to stop you, either, thanks to Mariner’s Contour screenplay structure software.