This post is fundamentally an amalgamation of as many of my favourite different examples that I have researched, to further my knowledge of starting out in the industry, skills that I need and the work ethic that is demanded of me, upon my path to become a successful scriptwriter. The list is varied from extracts, interviews, websites, videos, novels and even other examples of portfolios from those just a little further down the line than myself.
The Guardian – Wednesday 13 April 2011
An insider’s guide to becoming a screenwriter
If you have a stellar script in hand and are prepared to spend three to five years trying to get a break, you might have what it takes to be a screenwriter, says Stephen Davis.
You’ll be judged on the quality of your creative work, more than qualifications
The skill you develop in the process of gaining the qualification can be priceless. The qualification itself is very little use. Success post-graduation will be determined primarily by the quality of the creative work you generate. In some circumstances a qualification from a respected institution is seen as an indication of ability and can make a development exec, producer or agent more inclined to consider your submission. But whether they continuing reading beyond the first few pages has nothing to do with the qualification and everything to do with how much they like what they’re reading.
Build a network of trusted readers to critique your work
Basic screenwriting fundamentals can be learned through self-study and a few trips to the library. A screenwriting course is worth investing in only if it helps you develop the critical acumen you need in order to identify the weaknesses in your work and to invent solutions. Most writers also need a network of wise and trusted readers capable of giving constructive feedback on works-in-progress and a university or film centre can be a good place to make those connections.
Start sending your scripts out – but don’t expect to hear anything back first time
Start with BBC writersroom, the one place that welcomes unsolicited scripts and gives feedback on work that shows promise. Individual writers used to be able to apply directly to the UK Film Council for development funding but those funds are now distributed by the BFI which indicates a preference for submissions from writer-producer teams. To meet producers contact your regional screen agency; they should be aware of who is active in your area. Most importantly, expect none of this to work, at least the first time.
Managing rejection is a big part of the process but perseverance pays off. I had been in contact with Film Agency for Wales for more than two years with very little success but last October, after two script submissions and one unsuccessful application for development funding, they put me in touch with an independent producer who has since expressed interest in optioning one of my scripts.
Hollywood studios and production companies scour competitions for scripts
Part of the seductive appeal of screenwriting is the idea that you can go from a poverty-stricken unknown to a wealthy success story in the space of a weekend. It’s the equivalent of Fabio Capello seeing you play street football on Tuesday and handing you an England cap on Wednesday. Except occasionally it actually happens.
The good news for British writers is that Hollywood doesn’t really care where you live. If you’ve written a marketable high-concept script that jumps off the page and has an appealing role for a bankable movie star then you’ve got a chance of making a sale. But how do you get your script out there?
Screenplay contests offer genuine opportunities. Not all are worth the entry fee but some, like the Nicholl Fellowship, are well-established launch pads for new writers. Many Hollywood studios and production companies request to read not just the winning scripts but those that make the top ten or twenty in the major contests. In recent years websites such as InkTip have also developed services that help connect screenwriters with entertainment professionals looking for new material.
Taking a backroom job in the film industry to get your foot in the door isn’t necessary, but if you do choose waitressing as your back up career you must have a stellar script at the ready
Most emerging writers need a second (and sometimes third) job to pay the bills and it’s not essential that these jobs are within the film or television industry. In fact, an enjoyable non-film job that pays well and leaves you plenty of time to write might be more beneficial to your writing career than an energy-zapping position on the fringes of the entertainment industry. In the last three years I have worked in a variety of roles from a film producer’s assistant in Beverly Hills to a twilight shift shelf-stacker in a supermarket in North Wales. I don’t recommend the latter but the former won’t magically launch your writing career either.
Working for a producer – reading the Hollywood trade papers every day and writing coverage of screenplays being considered for production – gave me valuable insight into the development process but what mattered most was that I was writing in the evenings and on my days off. I made a lot of connections but generating interest in you as a writer is only useful if you have a really good writing sample to show people as soon as they are interested. If you meet a producer while selling her tickets at a film festival and she tells you to send her one of your scripts (it happened to me in Toronto) she doesn’t want to wait six months for you to finish something. Have a stellar script ready to send out while the person who asked for it still remembers who you are.
Be prepared to spend three to five years trying to get a break: you need self-belief verging on delusion
The most helpful career advice I’ve received came from a successful screenwriter who advised my class to give ourselves three to five years of trying to break into this industry before we even think about doing something else. That’s three to five years of probably not making much money, not getting on the property ladder, not having any job security. Certainly, there are many easier ways to make money than writing. It’s hard work that often requires levels of self-belief that verge on delusion. Opportunities have to be unearthed so search far and wide. In 2009, after a year of false starts in Wales, I was in danger of losing my enthusiasm so I moved to Toronto on a working holiday visa through BUNAC’s (a not-for-profit work abroad organisation) Work Canada programme. I had three part-time jobs (at a theatre organisation, a film festival, and a concert hall) but it was such a stimulating environment that I found myself writing more there than at any other point in my life.
Any other advice?
The cliche is true: the more your write the better you get. It’s never too early to start networking but make sure you have something to show people once they find out you’re a writer. Be mobile, don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. Get work experience and intern as much as you can afford to. Don’t be afraid of screwing up, mistakes are just “research” for writers. Spend at least a day on a film set. Get close enough to the actors and director to see how they work with the script. Practice your public speaking, most working writers have to pitch stories at some point. Listen to Jeff Goldsmith’s free podcasts for Creative Screenwriting magazine; these in-depth interviews with working writers are goldmines of screenwriting wisdom. Travel, it will show you that your normal isn’t the same as everyone else’s normal, and will free you to write from your own experience. Don’t just watch films, read screenplays. Remember that good stories are full of conflict and emotion. Most of all, write every day. Or at least know that you are competing with people who do.
Stephen Davis is a freelance screenwriter, administrative handyman, and a graduate of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. To follow Stephen’s screenwriting adventures, you can also find him on Twitter.
National Careers Service
Work activities
Screenwriters create ideas and bring stories to life in scripts for feature films, TV comedy and drama, animation, children’s programmes and computer games.
As a screenwriter, you might develop your own original ideas and sell them to producers. Alternatively, producers may commission you to create a screenplay from an idea or true story, or to adapt an existing piece such as a novel, play or comic book.
Your work would typically involve:
- coming up with themes and ideas
- researching background material
- developing believable plots and characters
- laying out the screenplay to an agreed format
- preparing short summaries of your ideas and selling (known as ‘pitching’) them to producers or development executives
- getting feedback about the first draft of your work from producers or script editors
- rewriting the script if necessary (you may need to do this several times before arriving at the final agreed version).
You might also spend time networking with agents and producers, and handling your own tax and accounts. You would often combine writing with other work such as teaching, lecturing or editing.
Working hours and conditions
As a home-based freelance writer you would arrange your own working hours. If you were part of a studio-based writing team, you would be more likely to work standard office hours. In either case you would often have strict deadlines to meet.
As well as working from your home or office base, you would also need to attend occasional meetings with agents, script editors and producers.
Income
As a freelance writer, you or your agent would negotiate a fee for each piece of work. You might be partly paid in advance. Depending on your contract, you might also receive a percentage of the profits from a feature film.
See the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain website for recommended minimum pay rates for writers in film, TV and theatre.
Entry requirements
You will need imagination, writing talent and creativity rather than formal qualifications. However, when starting out you may find it useful to take a course that helps you develop your skills and understand dramatic structure.
Courses in creative writing and scriptwriting for all levels from beginner to advanced are widely available at colleges, adult education centres and universities.
Some screenwriters have degrees or postgraduate qualifications in creative writing, English or journalism, but this is not essential. You may have an advantage if you have writing and storytelling experience from another field such as journalism, advertising copywriting or acting.
You would normally start by coming up with your own screenplays and ideas, and trying to sell them to agents and producers. Once you have had some work accepted and started to build a professional reputation, producers might then commission you to produce scripts for them.
As a new writer, you could get yourself noticed by entering screenwriting competitions, which broadcasters and regional screen agencies sometimes hold to discover new talent. Contact Creative Skillset Careers for more information.
You can also find advice about submitting your work to the BBC at the BBC Writers’ Room website.
Training and development
Although there is no formal training path for screenwriters, your skills will grow with experience.
Joining a writers’ organisation could help you develop, as they can offer services such as script feedback, competitions, training and networking opportunities. Organisations include Euroscript and The Script Factory. Follow the links below to find out more about these organisations:
As an experienced screenwriter, you could choose to take an MA in Screenwriting. MAs are available full-time, part-time and by distance learning from several universities around the country.
You can search Creative Skillset’s website for industry approved screenwriting and script development training at all levels. Skillset can also advise you about funding your training as a freelance writer and any creative talent development training schemes which might be of interest.
Skills, interests and qualities
- excellent writing ability
- creativity and imagination
- storytelling skills and an understanding of dramatic structure
- self-discipline and motivation
- willingness to accept criticism and rejection of your work
- an organised approach to work, for meeting deadlines
- good presentation and networking skills, for marketing and promoting your work.
Opportunities
You would normally work freelance and be paid a fee for each piece accepted for production. You may also need to do other types of work to support yourself, as relatively few screenwriters earn a full-time living from writing.
Some opportunities may be advertised in the trade press and websites, but it is most common to find work by approaching producers yourself, by signing up with a writers’ agent, and through word of mouth.
You can find details of agents from The Writer’s Handbook and The Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book, which are available in bookshops and libraries.
You may also find the following useful for further reading and finding out about opportunities:
PACT Directory (contacts directory of TV/film production companies)
BBC Writers Room Interviews Paula Milne
“I became a script editor for the BBC and I just hated it. I hated the gossip and I just couldn’t fit in, but I loved the writers. They seemed to me to be drunk and late and interesting and I wanted to be like them. A while later I decided I wanted to try and write a soap opera, but back then there was only Coronation Street, so after many trials and sending many scripts, I eventually was accepted on the Street.
Upon writing Coronation Street it made me realise that I was funny and that you could use humor to reach an audience. You had to compete for scripts, in very very strenuous script meetings, so I learnt to stand my corner and argue, as I wanted a commission. You learnt to write to deadlines. You learnt an internal structure to scenes, as the actors expect to have pretty good lines. So as many good things that you pick up, you also learn a lot of bad habits, as you tend not to write the consequences of such events. It lives in it’s own little bubble, so I left.
You only get writers block if you haven’t done the thinking, and it’s not ready. So you have to think about the story, how the story is going to serve the theme, and how your characters are going to propel the story, and have a life of their own at the same time. The entry point I suppose I always try and think, have I seen it before? Start it really confidently, so that the audience immediately feels, in a well researched, authentic world, with something happening, and you jettison them into that world and they feel that they are in good hands and they trust you. Research is absolutely vital. In a sense you are writing for yourself, via discovering new cultures and interesting stories that people are curious about.
My advice to a new writer would be; keep going. You have to remember that you are engaging with an industry. And as you keep going you learn your craft, because there is a big craft side of it. Just don’t really give up. But you have to be honest with yourself, you have to really feel that you’ve got it, and really you have that found out by having your stuff performed, then you can look at it yourself and see.”
Top 10 Writing Tips by Marvel’s Avengers Writer/Director, Joss Whedon
“1. FINISH IT
Actually finishing it is what I’m gonna put in as step one. You may laugh at this, but it’s true. I have so many friends who have written two-thirds of a screenplay, and then re-written it for about three years. Finishing a screenplay is first of all truly difficult, and secondly really liberating. Even if it’s not perfect, even if you know you’re gonna have to go back into it, type to the end. You have to have a little closure.
2. STRUCTURE
Structure means knowing where you’re going; making sure you don’t meander about. Some great films have been made by meandering people, like Terrence Malick and Robert Altman, but it’s not as well done today and I don’t recommend it. I’m a structure nut. I actually make charts. Where are the jokes? The thrills? The romance? Who knows what, and when? You need these things to happen at the right times, and that’s what you build your structure around: the way you want your audience to feel. Charts, graphs, coloured pens, anything that means you don’t go in blind is useful.
3. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY
This really should be number one. Even if you’re writing a Die Hard rip-off, have something to say about Die Hard rip-offs. The number of movies that are not about what they purport to be about is staggering. It’s rare, especially in genres, to find a movie with an idea and not just, ‘This’ll lead to many fine set-pieces’. The Island evolves into a car-chase movie, and the moments of joy are when they have clone moments and you say, ‘What does it feel like to be those guys?’
4. EVERYBODY HAS A REASON TO LIVE
Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that they’re just setting up the next person’s lines, then you don’t get dialogue: you get soundbites. Not everybody has to be funny; not everybody has to be cute; not everybody has to be delightful, and not everybody has to speak, but if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble.
5. CUT WHAT YOU LOVE
Here’s one trick that I learned early on. If something isn’t working, if you have a story that you’ve built and it’s blocked and you can’t figure it out, take your favourite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It’s brutal, but sometimes inevitable. That thing may find its way back in, but cutting it is usually an enormously freeing exercise.
6. LISTEN
When I’ve been hired as a script doctor, it’s usually because someone else can’t get it through to the next level. It’s true that writers are replaced when executives don’t know what else to do, and that’s terrible, but the fact of the matter is that for most of the screenplays I’ve worked on, I’ve been needed, whether or not I’ve been allowed to do anything good. Often someone’s just got locked, they’ve ossified, they’re so stuck in their heads that they can’t see the people around them. It’s very important to know when to stick to your guns, but it’s also very important to listen to absolutely everybody. The stupidest person in the room might have the best idea.
7. TRACK THE AUDIENCE MOOD
You have one goal: to connect with your audience. Therefore, you must track what your audience is feeling at all times. One of the biggest problems I face when watching other people’s movies is I’ll say, ‘This part confuses me’, or whatever, and they’ll say, ‘What I’m intending to say is this’, and they’ll go on about their intentions. None of this has anything to do with my experience as an audience member. Think in terms of what audiences think. They go to the theatre, and they either notice that their butts are numb, or they don’t. If you’re doing your job right, they don’t. People think of studio test screenings as terrible, and that’s because a lot of studios are pretty stupid about it. They panic and re-shoot, or they go, ‘Gee, Brazil can’t have an unhappy ending,’ and that’s the horror story. But it can make a lot of sense.
8. WRITE LIKE A MOVIE
Write the movie as much as you can. If something is lush and extensive, you can describe it glowingly; if something isn’t that important, just get past it tersely. Let the read feel like the movie; it does a lot of the work for you, for the director, and for the executives who go, ‘What will this be like when we put it on its feet?’
9. DON’T LISTEN
Having given the advice about listening, I have to give the opposite advice, because ultimately the best work comes when somebody’s fucked the system; done the unexpected and let their own personal voice into the machine that is moviemaking. Choose your battles. You wouldn’t get Paul Thomas Anderson, or Wes Anderson, or any of these guys if all moviemaking was completely cookie-cutter. But the process drives you in that direction; it’s a homogenising process, and you have to fight that a bit. There was a point while we were making Firefly when I asked the network not to pick it up: they’d started talking about a different show.
10. DON’T SELL OUT
The first penny I ever earned, I saved. Then I made sure that I never had to take a job just because I needed to. I still needed jobs of course, but I was able to take ones that I loved. When I say that includes Waterworld, people scratch their heads, but it’s a wonderful idea for a movie. Anything can be good. Even Last Action Hero could’ve been good. There’s an idea somewhere in almost any movie: if you can find something that you love, then you can do it. If you can’t, it doesn’t matter how skilful you are: that’s called whoring.”
Further Useful Links
"Do, or do not. There is no try." 