You think you've got it. The perfect story idea that's going to get the picture made and you the screenplay Oscar. Fabulous. Now before you get all "Hollywood" on us, how exactly do you write a screenplay? I mean, you know what to write, you just don't know what it's supposed to look like. Fortunately, that's the easy part.

There are about nine billion references out there to guide you to your first screenplay but it's hard to know which is actually helpful and which, not so much.

The first easy, free thing you can do is hie yourself to the library or online and check out some examples of screenplays. That's the most basic place to start, to see in front of you how they look. You'll notice the spacing, margins and font are different than everyday prose writing. Learn it, live it. Often you can simply set your formatting preferences on your word processing program to remember layout rules like such as the ones suggested in sites like these.

I however am not that handy so when I wrote a one-act play and went through the Second City Writing Program, I invested in a screenwriting program. I went with Final Draft and had no complaints. In fact, I figured out how to use it without cracking the owner's manual, plus it appears to be the program most approved by writers and directors. ScriptBuddy is a free program but I myself cannot vouch for it.

You're ready to write the story but unclear on how to include all those fancy directing terms. Learning them is as easy as finding a handy glossary. But if you're still unsure how to use them, find the screenplay of a movie you know well (they are easily found online), print it or a portion of it out and read it as you watch the film, so you'll see in action what a pan or dissolve is.

As for the resources, I've never used a book for script tips (but I've also never really attempted to write anything longer than a one-act play.) You'll have to ask around and take your time browsing books to see what appeals to you. Two books I heartily recommend though about the process of screenwriting and the life of a screenwriter are both by William Goldman, the pen behind movies like "Misery" and "The Princess Bride." Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie Did I Tell? are both helpful and entertaining.