Welcome Wannabe Screenwriters!!!
Chances are you found this because you were one of the many folks who woke up this morning (or drunkenly last night) and thought you had the unique idea of writing a screenplay or tv pilot. The fact that you Googled how to be a screenwriter, screenwriting advice for newbs, or something else puts you above oh 80% of the people who can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum of research. I’ve been you. So full of naive hope and faith in myself. You’ve fucked yourself now! DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU.
“IF THERE’S ANYTHING ELSE YOU ENJOY AND YOU’RE GREAT AT IT, PLEASE DO THAT AND SAVE YOURSELF THE HEARTACHE OF TRYING TO BE A SCREENWRITER.” – Aadip Desai
Here’s a top 10 list of shit that will help you navigate this business. At least you won’t sound, act, or look like a complete newb. It’s in no particular order. (I use the terms script and screenplay interchangeably.)
TOP 10 Things Every New Screenwriter Should Know:
TL;DR – 1. The Odds Are Not In Your Favor, 2. Write, 3. Learn structure, 4. Buy screenwriting software, 5. Read, 6. Hook the reader quickly, 7. Don’t send your script unsolicited, 8. Take-home pay, 9. Ghosting
1. The Odds are Not in Your Favor
Screenwriting is way more competitive than you thought. Like, impossibly so. Statistically it’s easier to get into the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and Harvard or survive the Hunger Games than it is to get into the Writer’s Guild of America, aka get your WGA card,
It can take a long time to break in. Some writers break in after 1-2 years, which is lightning fast, while others take a slowish 15-20 years. I suspect most writers fall into the 4-10 year range. So if your plan is to write one script, move to LA and give it a year, don’t bother unless you crush that script and get industry attention. It does happen. But not for most people.
Once you break in, it’s actually HARDER! Working consistently is nearly impossible. You often have to go back to your old hustle/grind in between writing gigs. For example, very few people in TV get bumped from the lowest level of Staff Writer (SW) to the second lowest writer level, Story Editor (SE). A lot of it is because that’s where you get your biggest pay bump (almost double) and people don’t want to pay so much for a lower level (LL) writer. Most people quit the business somewhere in there. They usually go to law school or become therapists, which are both easier than being a screenwriter and pay WAY better.
(Also Story Editor means a different thing in the UK and in animation.)
2. Write Write Write Write Write Write
I can’t emphasize this enough. The #1 piece of advice I have is write as much as you can. Write before work, at lunch, after work, weekends, I always regret not having written more things and I’ve written a ton of stuff. Make sure you are improving. Take classes. Do everything you can to learn the CRAFT. And don’t just write screenplays and teleplays. People have gotten hired off of novels. short stories, plays, and animated Christmas cards (see South Park who signed an almost $1b deal).
3. Learn Structure
YOU MUST LEARN THREE ACT STRUCTURE. What is it?
Beginning Middle End. Done.
If you’re bored skip to 4. If you want to be a professional screenwriter, keep reading.
Three act structure is common in almost every feature screenplay and Western storytelling traditions generally. Aristotle talked about it in the poetics!
Learn it. Visualize it. Live it. Dream it. INTERNALIZE IT.
The big story structure gurus have their own way of describing it. Check em out and see what resonates or STICKS with you. That’s the most important part. The stickiness.
I like Syd Field, who codified three-act structure in 1979, in his book called “Screenplay.” I also like Blake Snyder, who was a mentor before he died suddenly. He wrote “Save The Cat.” Don’t adhere to it rigidly. I adore Chris Vogler’s “The Writer’s Journey,” where he applied Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to screenwriting.
The simplest versions are:
ACT I – Beginning
ACT II – Middle
ACT III – End
ACT I – Put your hero in a tree
ACT II – Throw rocks at your hero
ACT III – Get hero out of the tree
ACT I – Setup
ACT II – Confrontation
ACT III – Resolution
ACT I – Thesis
ACT II – Antithesis
ACT III – Synthesis
ACT I – Setup
ACT II – Confrontation
ACT III – Resolution
Depending on which method you explore, they use different terms, and may have between 5 and 16 parts. We often think of Act II in two parts because it’s half of your movie. Here’s a link to a diagram that will make your head explode. Breathe.
I’ve broken out some common terms and each part of the story.
Act I (Setup):
-Opening/Beginning/Setup
-Catalyst/Inciting Incident
-Hesitation/Refusal of the Call/Debate
-Break into Act II/Plot Point 1
Act II (Confrontation):
-Shit happens (Obstacles)
-Midpoint/Midpoint Reversal/False Victory/Twist
-More Shit (More Obstacles)
-Low Point/Crisis/All is Lost (*often two parts – shitty becomes shittest)
-Break into Act III/Plot Point 2
Act III: (Resolution)
-The Final Battle/Showdown/Storm the Castle
-Climax
-Resolution
Oh, and then go learn how the three act structure get sliced up for TV. Comedy pilots are usually a Cold Open, Act I, II, III, and TAG. Drama pilots are usually a Teaser plus 5 Acts. There are other structures but these are the basics.
4. BUY REAL Screenwriting Software
Many of you are cheap or broke or both. Been there, but investing in real screenwriting software is the bare minimum of what you can do. It’s the only TOOL we need. So stop fucking around and get Final Draft, WriterDuet, Fade In, or Highland 2. This is not AN endorsement, but they are the ones that seem to have staying power. I do not like Celtx and Microsoft Word is awful for screenplay formatting.
5. Read
- Scripts – #1 most important thing to read are professional scripts. This is how you truly learn what a screenplay looks and feels like.
- Novels – A great source of IP, but they also fill your creativity tank. Sure, TV/Films might, but reading novels engages your inner voice and imagination in a way that nothing else does.
- News Articles – Get ideas to adapt IP or as a jumping off point for new idea of yours. Also good for small talk in meetings.
- Trades – Keep up with what’s happening in the business. Duh. The big three are Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and Variety.
- Graphic Novels – More ideas. Potential IP. Learning to think visually. They’re also cool.
- Memoir – Voice voice voice.
- And yes… screenwriting books. See my list here.
6. Hook the Reader QUICKLY!
When someone gets your script (which they really don’t want to read in the first place), you only have a limited number of pages (i.e. minutes) to hook them, get them to keep turning the page, then pitch it to their bosses.
By limited number I mean 5-10 pages, tops.
A TV show that’s staffing will receive 500+ scripts from reps and writer friends. YIKES. Fellowships get 2,000-5,000 entries. Some contests get more than 10,000 entries now. WTF!
That sucks, right? You worked so hard and they’re not gonna see your cool third act. Yep, unless you hook them in the first 10 minutes of their relationship with you(r writing), they’re gonna swipe whichever direction is the bad one.
A lot of readers have to get to page 30 before they can call it quits. Others must read the entire script then write coverage on it.. (That’s a book report on why it’s good or sucks.)
Here’s a helpful table. It’s a suggestion, not gospel or whatever is the atheist equivalent.
| Type of Script | Total Page Count | # of Pages to Impress |
| Feature | 90-120 | 10 |
| TV Drama Pilot | 50-60 | 5-10 |
| Single-Camera TV Comedy Pilot | 30-37 | 3-5 |
| Multi-Camera TV Comedy Pilot | 45-58 | 5-10 |
7. Don’t Send Unsolicited Requests for Script Reads or Writing Jobs!
UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS are scripts that were sent to people who DID NOT ASK FOR THEM. Don’t do it… as a pdf attachment in an email, via snail mail, text message, in a pizza box, via courier, or any other form of communication. Why? Because LEGALLY, people can’t look at your script because if they have a project down the road that has similar elements to something you sent them, you could sue them.
Most scripts get submitted through an agent, manager, lawyer, or referral from an exec/friend/other writers. There are open submissions but that’s a different thing.
Oh and if you’re speccing an existing show (i.e. basically TV fan fiction), you cannot send it to the show that you’re writing. For obvious legal reasons.
Furthermore, do not cold email someone in the business straight up asking for a job in a writers room and certainly not a JOB AS A WRITER ON A SHOW. Do your research. It’s OK to reach out and say hi. A shot in the dark falls under picking my brain. At least target me properly.
8. The Economics of Screenwriting:
Hooray, you got paid to write! That’s a big deal. I still have my first $5 framed somewhere. The mistake is not realizing how little of your payment you’ll receive after everyone takes their cut. This is not financial advice. Always consult an accountant or business manager. This is more about adjusting expectations.
Let’s say you got paid $100,000
Agents take 10% = $10,000
Managers take 10% = $10,000
Lawyers take 5% = $5,000
IRS and CA FTB take 25-50% (combined) = $25,000-$50,000
So you’re out 50-75% = $50,000-75,000
That leaves you with $25,000-$50,000
THENNNNN… you start paying your bills. OUCH!
WGA takes 1.5% of your gross residuals, but that’s a tough calculation to predict. Non-WGA covered animation through non-union, IATSE, TAG, pays significantly less – 1/3rd per week, and 1/6th per script.
9. Ghosting
Ghosting is Hollywood’s default form of communication. Let’s say you are lucky enough that somebody asks for your writing sample(s). You or your reps email them your pdf. They say great, looking forward to checking it out. You think, cool!
But a couple weeks go by and you haven’t heard a peep. You ping them. No response aka you’ve been GHOSTED, You wait another two weeks, ping again, and no response. GHOSTED AGAIN. Guess what? That’s them saying NO in the most cowardly way possible.
In Hollywood people don’t want to say no because they think it will burn the relationship, or they don’t wanna be seen passing on GENIUS SHIT. There are other reasons. Check out this thread about it on my Twitter.
Why do Hollywood gatekeepers GHOST people instead of issuing a polite, timely, and HONEST NO? Like NOT FOR US, DIDN’T SPARK TO IT, HAVE A SIMILAR CLIENT, ROSTER IS FULL/DON’T HAVE THE BANDWIDTH, etc.? I have my theories but would love any insight from experienced folks. pic.twitter.com/70tVWCvE3y
— Aadip Desai (he/him/dude) (@aadip) July 23, 2021
10. Learn the Lingo
I know, jargon is annoying. In Hollywood, knowing the jargon and knowing people both have value, apparently. So learn yourself on the terminology we use. Check out my Hollywood Glossary of Terms at https://aadip.com/hollywood-glossary-of-terms/