Lessons Learned from Trying to Break into Professional Screenwriting

>The chance of someone 'stealing' your ideas and turning them into the next Google or Facebook are pretty much non existent.

Of the companies you listed fully 50% were founded as the direct result of ripping off someone's idea and starting a company.

It's not just $20 a month, but you need to pay for 2 script reads, $50 each, so the first month's total is $120. Realistically, it's $140, as it takes a while to get the 2 script reads. If you score high enough, you get put on the highlight email list. If you don't, you're just available for discovery. Basically, if you don't score high enough, you're wasting your money.

The author didn't understand that you're paying for access, if your script scores high enough.

I entered a Google-Blacklist screenwriting contest last year to promote non-stereotyped tech characters in media.* I wrote a pilot about a couple raising a family while running a makerspace. The reviewer didn't like it because it was too tech-focused and most people wouldn't get it. Then they got really hung up on the fact that my couple was mixed race, and said that it was not only wrong of me not to draw more attention to this fact, but that the whole first episode should have focused entirely on it. The review was so obtuse, and knew so little about my audience and the subject matter it was astonishing. It reminded me of an English teacher friend who did away with peer reviews, arguing that having other students who are as inexperienced as you critiquing your work will only hurt you.

*I'm fairly certain now it was either a scam or another one of those Google side-projects they fund and forget about because winners were never announced.

Reddit doesn't like The Black List because it's a bit pay to play and exclusive, like the industry it serves. Sounds like the author let that transfer to him a bit, because it's one of the most powerful channels for a promising screenplay (especially if it makes it to the List itself), and I too found the criticism awfully misguided, particularly with how personal it is.

If I put it harshly, I think that bit about the List is a subtle clue about the author holding himself back and burning bridges before he ever gets to them.

His criticism is that The Blacklist is built on the idea that their are shit loads (hundreds of thousands, millions?) of really crappy scripts written every year by people with a dream. These dreamers are a lucrative business for many service providers in Hollywood. It's not that no service is provided in exchange for the money paid, but when you offer a service which explicitly sells the dream (when the reality is that a miniscule percentage actually "make it") then that is what is smarmy.

That said, I don't personally have a problem with it myself, mostly because you are getting something for your money. You'd almost certainly be better off going about things differently (sitting around waiting for Hollywood to call just because you put your script on The Blacklist--or anywhere--is a distinctly ineffective strategy).

They say the writing isn't in the first draft it's in the last draft. Writing is re-writing.

Francis Ford Coppola's advice to George Lucas was "Write the first draft really quickly, in 2 weeks, don't read what you wrote, just finish it, then keep re-reading it and fix stuff as you go."

Also Stephen King's book "On Writing" might be helpful

You might want to read "Save the Cat!" which gives a lot of practical tips for structuring your screenplay so people won't automatically nix it. A friend from a top film school (for whatever that's worth) had it as part of his curriculum.

If you like podcasts, give Scriptnotes a try. It's John August and Craig Mazin and they cover a lot of material.

https://johnaugust.com/podcast

One thing that comes up again and again is location. If you are in the US and are writing for film, you pretty much have to be in Los Angeles if you want screenwriting to be your career.

Try the "writing excuses" podcast. Is not screenwriting, but many many of the same elements apply. Also, screenwriting is ultimately meant for the screen, so that intently means a collaboration with someone visual. Talk to people who will be honest with you, but only once you've finished at least a scene. Your idea, the thing you want to write, can get lost if you listen to too many people before getting it down and out at least once.

Seconding Save the Cat, my favorite book on Screenwriting (and I've read most of them). Terry Rossio's columns at Wordplayer[1] are also fantastic. Rossio is half the team that wrote Zorro, Shrek and Pirates of the Carribean.

[1] http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/welcome.html

Robert McKee wrote an incredibly famous book called, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting [1]. I've had multiple people stop me on the street as I was carrying it and remark of how great a book it was. It should answer most of your questions.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles-...

Yes, read Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's "Writing Movies for Fun and Profit" a couple times. There will be chapters that don't matter, and there will be incredibly important chapters (ex: "Every studio blockbuster should follow the structure of 'Die Hard'") but all of them will be fun to read.

One of the hardest parts is understanding the formatting expectations of screenplays. Read a couple (pilots for TV shows like "Breaking Bad" are great) and then use some software to help you get the hang of the format. You don't need to have blank page syndrome - in fact, I think the formatting of scripts is kind of liberating.

You don't have to be a writer to craft great scripts. You have to be a storyteller. The mechanics might overlap, but don't be afraid to try.