How To Break Into Screenwriting
Do you know how to break into screenwriting? Most people dream of making it big in Hollywood, one way or another. In front of the camera or strumming a guitar. For those whose talents lie behind the scenes rather than on the silver screen, the dream is often to enter the industry as a screenwriter.
People use a dizzying number of tactics to break into the industry, from elevator pitches to networking to writing bombastic scripts and sending them in cold. But like everything else, the screenwriting world moves fast in the digital age. According to Script Magazine, only about 5 to 20 percent of people who try to become screenwriters for films or movies succeed in their efforts.
And according to people who have peeked behind the curtain, most amateur screenwriters’ methods are decades too old to work. Producing speculative scripts based on what’s in the box office and trying to send them to as many industry members as possible had a competitive advantage – in the 1990s.
However, affordable PCs and the internet changed everything. Anybody with a cheap laptop and an email account can now market their products to Hollywood from the convenience of their home, anywhere on the planet. However, the cinema industry as a whole is undergoing equally drastic changes, with multi-hundred-million-dollar blockbusters increasingly dominating box offices and streaming steadily supplanting conventional media.
So what works now? Keep reading for some essential tips to becoming successful.
1. Focus On Nabbing Entry-Level Writing Assignments
The first tip on how to break into screenwriting is to focus on nabbing entry-level writing assignments. Specs are now primarily used as calling cards that show a mastery of the technique – instead of hoarding them like a territorial dragon, especially if you’re a complete newbie to the industry, consider putting them on your website. But only if you’re confident in your competence as a screenwriter.
If readers of your scripts—producers, directors, and actors—feel they can do a better job of bringing the story to life, you have no business in the entertainment industry.
You must also realize there’s more to screenwriting than just getting the mechanics right. These are trivial preoccupations compared to the ability to write inspiring tales that move people and provide valuable lessons. If you don’t think you’re there yet, it’s time to study up.
2. Accept That Rejection Is Going To Happen. And Happen.
The second tip on how to break into screenwriting is to accept rejection is going to happen a lot. You eagerly submit an application for a fellowship, only to be crushed when you get a rejection message a month or so later. You may apply for a screenplay job that looks ideal, but you never hear back.
Disapproval is painful. According to a 2015 study published in Psychology Today, the emotional and physical pain of rejection are intertwined. This is because the brain regions responsible for processing physical pain are activated when we experience rejection.
However, you wouldn’t want to get out of bed in the morning if you allowed every screenplay rejection to get to you. You can’t do that if you’re serious about realizing your goals.
It may take practice, but you must learn to shrug off criticism. While the pain is inevitable, it need not ruin your day, week, or even month. Your ability to recover from disappointment increases in tandem with your confidence in yourself.
Reframing or learning to see a problem from a different perspective is worth mastering. Rather than dwelling on the hurt, use rejection as a chance to grow as a writer or refine your script.
3. Think Like a Producer
The third tip on how to break into screenwriting is to think like a producer. In this sense, a producer is someone who uses investment funds to develop creative ideas into a product with the expectation that it brings in more money than invested. They will then pay back the money borrowed and share any gains. Thus, producers need commercial content.
A producer won’t be interested in a screenplay that costs more than it would earn in sales. This is why we develop unforgettable characters—when paired with a strong narrative, high-value talent will want to be a part of the project, which boosts investment attractiveness. The script begins it all. Always.
At least one of the scripts in your portfolio should be commercial and cheap to create. Movies that are pretentious, excessively confusing, or exorbitantly expensive probably won’t get made.
Two principles help you assess whether your product is mass-market-friendly and cheap to create. The first is if the screenplay would do well in a big screenwriting competition or festival. If so, it’s probably not very commercial. If you’re writing to win introspective honors, you avoid commercial writing.
Second, if you won $1 million tomorrow, would you invest it all in one of your scripts rather than cashing it in? That’s now investing as well as producing.
Producers’ main goal is to make money for investors. Suppose you want to produce quirky small movies that don’t put butts in cinema seats. In that case, getting hired will be immensely more
challenging because being paid always depends on earning someone else more money. Yes, such ideals occasionally intersect, but not often enough to gamble a career on. You may always add non-commercial content to your portfolio. Just make sure you show you can create mass-appeal projects.
The idea is for an industry person to read your work and believe you can generate successful movie scripts. Targeting low-budget, high-concept action-thrillers with glamor provides the most tremendous potential. Producers know these films will sell internationally and that the more money they can raise, the bigger their rewards. They might have a low minimum and high optimal budget. They can operate with $500k to $5m and still generate the returns investors want.
Thus, write in action and prestige while considering production value. Try to keep CGI aliens and Lord of the Rings-scale effects out of your script.
4. Market Yourself on Social Media
The fourth tip on how to break into screenwriting is to market yourself on social media. You might be groaning at this step, but this is a foregone conclusion in the digital age. You have to use different types of social media – your website or blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and increasingly, TikTok, to build your brand and your identity so you get people’s attention. Not to mention, social media is always accessible, so you can share content, make connections, and chat with other users whenever you want.
One of the most effective things you can do is to expand your social media following, which is essentially the digital version of face-to-face networking. Here is where you should be advertising your work and yourself to attract an audience for that work. This is the point at which a reader of one of your blog entries could get interested enough in you as a writer to check out your portfolio, peruse some of your scripts, and contact you about a job.
Although it may take some time to build up a sizable following on social media, you may begin doing so while you still have time to practice and improve. It’s incredible how much you can accomplish by putting in just a little bit every day.
The key is to network and interact with people in the business, not just your peers. You won’t get much written by hanging out with other authors, and you’ll probably end yourself mired in self-reflection and inflated ambition.
5. Join a Screenwriting Group
The fifth tip on how to break into screenwriting is to join a screenwriting group. Since you’re not the only aspiring screenwriter out there, it only makes sense to seek out like-minded others. It’s amazing how much simpler it is to deal with adversity when you have a community of people to lean on, whether you meet them by accident, in a class, or in a Facebook group.
A screenwriting club may be an excellent source of both companionship and information. Screenwriters are a friendly bunch, so don’t be afraid to pick their brains and provide some of your own advice and recommendations. Learning from the experiences and insights of others might introduce you to new possibilities and connections.
6. Read Other Screenplays
The sixth tip on how to break into screenwriting is to read other screenplays. One of the benefits of joining a screenwriting club is getting to see the scripts of other members. We advise against sending your script to strangers by email or posting it on a public forum (you wouldn’t want someone to steal your ideas), but face-to-face meetings may be fruitful.
Even when you’re not in the group, you should read as many screenplays as possible. Study the scripts of established Hollywood authors whose films have become box office hits. Examine both hits and flops to see how the scripts influenced their success or failure.
Reading screenplays is a great way to learn what to do and what not to do in your own work. Reading scripts may be pretty valuable, but only if you avoid plagiarizing the work of others.
7. Don’t Stop Writing
The seventh tip on how to break into screenwriting is to never stop writing. Networking, screenwriting clubs, workshops, and reading up on screenwriting in your leisure time are great ways to improve your craft, but it can be easy to lose sight of the thing that got you here in the first place: writing.
Above all, ensure you set aside consistent time to sit down and work on your script. Even if you have trouble getting your thoughts down on paper some days, it’s better to write a little bit every day than to write nothing. If you’re experiencing severe writer’s block, switching your attention to editing may help. Take a step back and relax for a few days if you need to.
You’ll have recovered enough to go back to writing your script when that time comes.
8. Build a Strong Portfolio
The last tip on how to break into screenwriting is to build a strong portfolio. It’s easy to feel like you must constantly tweak your script, even if it’s entirely written. You feel like you still have time to make adjustments before it reaches the hands of a Hollywood executive. That’s why you’ll never be done with it.
It’s not a very good mindset to have. Working on a project, such as a script, over an extended period might lead to identifying defects, however, imagined. In that respect, it’s like looking at a photograph of oneself for too long.
When you’ve got your script to a decent enough point, it’s time to put it away. It’s not permanent; this is merely a temporary arrangement. To compile your portfolio, you’ll need a few pieces of writing. Therefore it’s essential to spread your efforts out.
It’s OK to revisit the film’s original script. In fact, you learned a lot more that can be applied to the screenplay when you go back to it.
To Sum Up
If you study movies and TV, learn from your peers, and develop a strong portfolio and a social media presence, you will be on your way to screenwriting success. Sure, it will take a lot of consistent work and study hours, but if it leads to the career of your dreams, won’t it all be worth it?
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