A screenwriting career is sought out by many, but actually acquired by few. The closest that most aspiring screenwriters get to working in Hollywood is tapping away on their laptops at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Sunset Boulevard.
But if you have the drive, passion, and talent, you have a shot at seeing your work produced on the big screen, and receiving a hefty paycheck for your effort. According to the Writers Guild of America, a union that represents film and television writers, original screenplays can fetch between $68,000 and $127,000.
That’s just for your average screenplay. The sky’s the limit as far as what producers will pay for a truly great script. Although he feared it was “just too small and indie to get any real attention,” first-timer Michael Arndt sold his screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine screenplay for $250,000.
Do you have screenplays sitting around that you’d like to sell? Do you want to finally start making money off all that hard work? We spoke with several screenwriters about how they got to where they are, and how screenwriting hopefuls can follow in their footsteps.
Learn from the masters of the craft
The first step to becoming a working screenwriter is to educate yourself about the process. This includes a lot of reading, and probably some taking some courses as well.
Max Adams, who wrote the film Excess Baggage starring Alicia Silverstone, says that first you need to pore over a lot of movie scripts to get a feel for how they are constructed.
“We don’t grow up reading screenplays,” says Adams, author of The New Screenwriter’s Survival Guide. “We read books and plays. But unless you grew up in Hollywood, you don’t grow up knowing what a screenplay looks and reads like. Read a lot of scripts by the greats.”
Gotham Writers’ Workshop teacher Jeremy Wechter says that you should either read books on screenwriting or enroll in some screenwriting classes. The last thing you want to do is make obvious errors in your script “that will make someone throw it away after the first page.”
Which books should you start with? He recommends reading Robert McKee’s Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting. It provides a lot of sound advice for screenwriters hoping to break into the business.
“There are deeper structural techniques that can be learned through existing screenplays,” says Wechter, who is also a screenwriter.
Write, write, write
You can read every book on screenwriting that’s available, but you’re never going to get anywhere if you’re not taking the time to hone your craft.
“The most important thing to do is to write and rewrite and then write some more,” says Richard Krevolin, author of the upcoming book The Hook: How to Share Your Brand’s Unique Story to Engage Customers, Boost Sales, and Achieve Heartfelt Success. “You can’t say that if you don’t get a movie produced in a year you will quit, so you need to see the big picture and think in the long-term. But with that said, you also need to set short-term writing goals and pump out lots of pages.”
A well-regarded writing teacher, Wechter advises his students to set a 10-minute timer and write everyday.
“Some days, the timer will go off and you’ll be glad and go back to your Facebook or whatever,” he says. “But other days, the timer will go off and you’ll keep writing. It’s a matter of discipline.”
Whether you time yourself or you simply work when inspiration strikes, you need to have one solid work to show off, says Adams.
“I know a lot of people who write their first script and everybody thinks this will be it,” he says. “I will make a movie. It’s not that easy. It takes practice and work to finesse your craft and put together a strong writing sample. Then you can send it out.”
Target the right people
You’ve studied the art of screenwriting, and you’ve come up with an excellent idea for a script. From there, you need to figure out how to break into the business.
According to Adams, the best way is to connect with producers and individuals who work in studio development. They are the people who can put together the puzzle pieces and get your movie made.
Though it may seem hard to reach these decision makers and penetrate Hollywood from the outside, there is hope: Adams herself did it by entering and winning a prize at a film festival in Austin. Since then, she’s worked on projects for Walt Disney Studios, Touchstone Pictures, and Columbia Pictures.
“A newcomer may have a voice which is a little less weighed down by the Hollywood insular mentality,” she says. “Your perspective may be more fresh than someone who’s been inside Hollywood for a long time.”