If you want to know how to become a screenwriter, the good news is that you are not mandated to have any formal qualification. It is incredibly rare on the professional scriptwriting circuit for any producer or executive to ask you where you trained, because they judge you purely based on what’s on the page.

With that in mind though, you only have one shot to pique the interest of a buyer or agent. Attention spans in Hollywood are notoriously short, and offering up a poorly written, plotted or formatted script will get you a reputation for being ‘not ready’ even if you’re considered innately talented. Sometimes executives who like your underlying premise will suggest you go away and learn some screenwriting fundamentals and return in a few months with an enhanced screenplay. 

So, how should you learn screenwriting? It really depends on your stage of life and your schedule. Some people want to enroll in a full time film school for 2-4 years either at the BA level or the MFA level. The advantage of these is that you can enjoy being a full time student, but that is simply impractical and very expensive for many. Additionally in these film school programs you face the problem of the group writing class. These might sound like fun, but in reality, each student gets very little class time, and little personal mentorship. There are often wildly varying degrees of ability in the class, not to mention the very different plots and genres of each student’s movie. Do you really want to sit there for 45 minutes listening to the conventions of the Rom Com for another student’s project when you want to ask questions about your supernatural thriller?

Another route is to study screenwriting books. They tend to have quite a few core concepts in common but when you hit their differences – which are often the key ideas the authors are resting their reputations on – they can vary significantly. A beginning writer can be confused, and deterred from even starting their first screenplay draft as a result. Once you’ve checked out a couple of these books, you may come to realize that you want to talk about the specific film ideas you’re passionate about writing, one on one, with a professional. Script E.R. can help accelerate your learning curve massively, both because you’re the only student in the room or zoom and because your teacher is guaranteed to have sold screenplays professionally and is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America. With your mentor, you can learn the basics of formatting, ask questions about the three act structure, discuss dialogue, and analyze famous screenplays together. After this, you will write and refine your first screenplay draft and if necessary, undertake a rewrite together.

Once you are satisfied that you have an impressive screenplay, what do you plan to do with it? There are really two paths – you can either choose to try to independently finance and produce the movie yourself or with your contacts, with the hope of getting it into a major film festival and picked up by a studio for distribution, or you can choose to find representation as a writer, and sell the screenplay via your agent to producers. 

Bear in mind that most agents won’t want to represent a writer who only wants to sell one or two screenplays in their career. In general they are looking for writers who wish to work professionally in film and television on paid assignments as well as creating their own original work moving forward.

To get an agent you need to attract their attention. Peruse the famous agency websites to see if they will ever accept loglines and one page summaries of your script in advance of a screenplay submission. Many will not. However, industry professionals often are paying attention to which scripts place in the biggest screenwriting competitions, such as the Nicholl, Austin Film Festival, Sundance, Slamdance, and Final Draft Big Break. Try your luck in all of the most highly rated contests.

Once you’ve secured representation and they are attempting to sell your brand new spec (meaning speculative) screenplay, you will be offered to meet on and discuss other opportunities. These  can involve rewriting screenplays for producers, adapting books or ‘IP’ for the screen, or possibly joining a TV writers room as a member of staff. While you won’t need to live in LA to work in feature films, if you want to write for TV by working your way up the staffing ladder you will need to be able to be in town for the working week for at least a few months a year.

If you are serious about learning how to become a screenwriter, then please reach out to us at Script E.R. to tailor a one on one personalized series of classes. Within a matter of weeks you will have a first draft to be proud of!