How To Become A Screenwriter

“And I’d like to thank the Academy…” Stop right there. You are too far ahead. I mean, you can practice your speech if you want, we all do, but let’s chat for real first. A lot of times, people want to jump the gun and immediately know how to become a screenwriter.

Before you can even get to that point, you have to know how to become a storyteller first, along with the ins and outs of what screenwriting really means. Those might sound the same, and you can argue that they are, but there is a difference. The truth is, everyone has a story worth telling and sharing. 

Instead of wanting to know how to become a screenwriter, the real question you should be asking yourself is, “Do I know how to tell a story in the medium of TV and Film?” There can be an insecurity people feel when mining their lives for a story and deciding whether or not to share it. We tend to feel judged and think, “Why would someone find this minor event in my life interesting?”

You will be amazed at how interested we are in other people’s lives. Just look at social media. We invest hours in people’s lives (borderline stalking them) on a daily basis. Most likely, we have never met them before, and there is a good chance they are not even telling compelling stories.

Yet we are still so interested in their lives, and it doesn’t prevent the doom-scrolling. If you are disciplined and passionate enough and take the proper steps to learn “how to tell a story”, a superpower will be unlocked. You will have the ability to create and unpack something in a very strategic way that is so powerful and so moving that people will resonate with it.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there regarding how to become a screenwriter. Tons of questions are brought up, such as, “Do I need Film School? Or “Do I need connections?” Welp, the answers to both of these questions are “yes” and “no”.

Super helpful, right? Film school can be helpful, depending on where and with whom you study. If you are studying at a university that has professors who actually wrote for TV shows or films that you know, then by all means, study with them if you can. But a lot of film schools are just professors who have their masters in “screenwriting” but have never worked professionally in TV or Film.

Some of the stuff they say can very well be true. But it is a different ball game when you can learn from someone like Michael, who has spent decades in professional Writers Rooms on hit shows. There are specific nuances and day-to-day events that Film School simply cannot teach.

Having connections is great if that’s the position you are in. If you aren’t, that’s great too. Any connection you know of that works professionally in the industry is going to help. But keep in mind, it might not be directly writing-related, but a foot in the door is a foot in the door. And take advantage of it even if you think it’s something “below” your skill set.

You just want to find a way to get into the environment. Now, if you don’t have a connection, there is still a way. Make Hollywood come to you. Today’s world is different. Build your own audience with social media and create content that is so good and compelling that Hollywood will come after you. 

At the end of all of this, you can have all of the connections in the world, you can have a huge social media following, and you can even have your very own studio lot, but if you want to become a screenwriter, you have to know how to write. Seems like the most obvious thing you need, but a lot of people want to skip this for some reason.

All of the TV and Film stories we have fallen in love with come down to the foundation of knowing how to tell a story. You have to study from people who have actually done the job. You have to put in the dedication to prove to people that you can write.

Being a professional screenwriter is not “on-the-job training”. Showrunners (the head writer & Executive Producers on a TV Show) are not going to hire you to teach you how to write. They are going to hire you because you can already write, and you will make their job easier.

Along the way, you will learn more, but you have to know the fundamentals of storytelling, and you have to know how to write a story and what that actually means in the medium of TV and Film. We are going to cover a lot of items in this article, like the roles of a screenwriter, screenwriting fellowships, skills, and goals.

This is just the “tip of the iceberg,” as they say. We will dive even more into each of these ideas specifically in future articles as well. 

Understanding The Role Of A Screenwriter

Screenwriters just lock themselves in a room for months and write dialogue, right? Some might? I don’t recommend it. It sounds depressing. Being a screenwriter is so much more than coming up with fun dialogue for characters and having them banter back and forth.

Professional screenwriters will break stories, talk about character arcs, pitch jokes, pitch story ideas, outlines, revisions, revisions again, and even more revisions. If you are a showrunner like Michael, you are also involved with every other aspect of the show.

Deciding on props, costumes, set decoration, and oh yeah, more revisions are still happening. The process from blank page to Production Draft is long. And I don’t mean page count. Keep that page count as short as you can. 

Ironically, most of the time you are in a Writers Room, you aren’t actually “writing.” You are sitting at a table with other screenwriters, talking about ideas and laying out the beats of the story. The physical “writing” part of the story doesn’t actually happen until weeks after the idea is fully fleshed out. Many people don’t realize how much “non-writing” is part of the “writing process”.

Before you even get to opening Final Draft to start writing the script, there is an outline that needs to be written and taken through a notes process to get approved by many many different people. And then once you are writing the script, much of the heavy lifting has been done because you have taken the necessary steps to get there.

You know what the story is because of the weeks of discussions and outlines. You know what the structure is for the same reason. And now this is where the dialogue comes into play to bring everything to light. And as fun as this process is, there are still challenges. Each character has a different tone, different inflection in their voice, and different rhythm that they speak in, and all of that needs to be clear and distinct to each character. And if it isn’t, the audience will know something is off. As a screenwriter, you have to keep all of this in mind.

Do You Need an Apprenticeship to Become a Screenwriter?

Honestly, the only thing you need to become a professional screenwriter is to know how to write a great story.

That’s it! Now, there are screenwriting fellowships out there that most studios have, and they are highly competitive. But worth looking into.

The other option is to start from “the bottom” and work your way up. In Writers’ Rooms, there are support staff roles like:

• Showrunners Assistant 
• Writers Production Assistant (Writers PA) 
• Writers Assistant 
• Script Coordinator
  

We will talk more specifically about these in the future. These roles are heavily involved with the writers (especially Writer’s Assistant and Script Coordinator) and can be the best education for learning how to write. So if you wanted to, you could sort of look at these roles as a bit of a “screenwriting fellowship.”

Script Coordinators and Writers Assistants sit in the Writers Room 24/7 (and believe me, sometimes you are actually in that room for 24 hours) with the writers as they talk story and pitch ideas. This is far more valuable than any film school.

You will learn so much about the craft. But these jobs are tough to get. Michael has a course coming out specifically about being a Script Coordinator, and it covers some of these roles and the hierarchy of a Writers Room.

Essential Skills for Successful Screenwriting

Again, it’s going to sound repetitive, but the best skill you can have for screenwriting is to know how to tell a story and the structure it needs to fit. Steal from your everyday life. Why make something up when you can steal something that exists? It will feel like a more authentic story.

Being open and honest about experiences in your life, good or bad, is hugely beneficial to becoming a screenwriter. Aside from that, the most effective skills you can have are just following all of the steps and do the actual work. And what I mean by that is, don’t just open up Final Draft and start writing.

Get a notebook, write down some memories you have had, write down stuff you have observed in a group of friends, write down something painful, or just write down experiences. Go to that emotional place that you are afraid of, and watch what comes out on the paper. Then, when you find an idea that has enough meat on the bone, you can start thinking about the other beats of the story and the structure.

Write your logline! This will be your general map for your story. Get a whiteboard or a corkboard and write the scenes on note cards and build them into a 3-Act structure. Then write the outline. And then FINALLY you can open up Final Draft and start writing the actual script.

People always want to skip the outline and notecards process because it doesn’t seem glamorous. Screw glamour. This is your passion, do it right! Turn these habits into your skill sets.

Building a Strong Writing Portfolio

I might crush some dreams here for a second, but get the idea out of your head that you are going to sell your first script to a Studio/Network and they are going to greenlight it for production, and then you get your fancy parking spot right next to the soundstage. Your priority right now is to write as many original scripts as you can.

You are going to need writing samples to get hired. That’s your portfolio. You want your scripts to stand out so much and the story is so well told and so compelling that when a Showrunner does read your script, their mindset is, “I would be an idiot if I don’t hire you.”

Give yourself some grace with your first few scripts. They probably won’t be the best. It’s part of the process. But by script 5 or 6, you will notice a difference in your writing abilities, if you have taken the steps and studied the right way. 

Networking and Industry Connections

We talked about this a little bit before, and we will talk about it more in the future. Any connection you have that you can use to get your foot in the door is going to be helpful. However, the best networking you can do is with people who are at the same level as you. Specifically, with being a screenwriter, you want to network with other screenwriters if you can.

There are unlimited ways to grow your network. You can volunteer to work on a student film and try and find some time to talk with the writer. You can start your own writer’s group where you all meet every week and read each other’s scripts and give notes. 

Michael has a private Facebook group, and his students do this all the time. You want to network and grow with those people because when they start rising up the ranks, you will rise with them. Get it out of your head that you are going to be able to network with the highest-level Executive Producers. They already have tons of people they work with.

From a business point of view, it makes more sense for them to continue to work with those people because they are already established. A big producer isn’t really going to take a risk on someone who isn’t established. Nor is the studio. But again, even before you are thinking about all of these networking opportunities, you have to know how to write first. Is this sounding repetitive yet? 

Breaks and opportunities will happen for you in the industry, and the only thing you can do is make sure you are prepared when they present themselves. What you don’t want to happen is that you are working on a show and one of the mid-level writers offers to read one of your scripts and give you some feedback because you always got their lunch order right, and you are not prepared with a sample script.

When they ask you for a script, you better send it to them within that day, and have two more ready in case they ask for another read. And all of those scripts better be great. Not just good, but great! If that chance comes and they ask you and you say, “Great, give me a month to write something”, I’m sorry to say, but that chance is already gone.

They probably won’t take you seriously as a writer because if you were a writer, you would have scripts ready to go. I know it sounds harsh, but you have to be prepared, and you have to know how to write.

What Are Strong Goals in Screenwriting?

Your screenwriting goals can be whatever you want them to be. You just have to take the steps and do them. And again, give yourself grace. It is incredibly hard to write an entire pilot TV script by yourself. A TV Writers Room has 10+ professional writers in it, and it may take them a month to get an episode ready to be written. So don’t beat yourself up if it takes you longer. There is no real deadline for you. Just make sure you do it.

Get feedback from people. Especially people who aren’t writers. If you can get it from writers, great. But people who aren’t writers are going to read the script like a normal person would. And they will be able to tell you what doesn’t make sense to them from a more abstract point of view.

Your screenwriting goals really should just be to keep writing script after script, and you will notice them get better and better. Be patient with this process. 

Don’t tell yourself, “I am going to give this screenwriting dream one year.” I mean, you can, I just don’t think it’s realistic. Like Michael always says, screenwriting should never really be your “dream.” It should be your “goal.”

Think like professional athletes, they spend 10-15 years working on their craft before they become professionals. Treat writing like that. Write every day. Even if you just write one joke a day, that counts. As long as you are creating the habit of taking out a notebook, or opening the notes app on your phone to jot some stuff down, that all counts as writing, and those are all very attainable goals and skillsets you need to have as a screenwriter.

Again, give yourself grace and patience at the beginning. Writing isn’t easy, but it can be simple.

Overcoming Common Challenges in Screenwriting

The number of challenges that writers face is unlimited. What might seem like a tiny change in the story, like changing one simple beat, can change the whole script. It’s super fun. And of course, every amateur writer’s favorite two words are “writer’s block”.

Professional writers don’t have that excuse. If the script deadline is Monday at 5, it has to be done. No going to Fiji for the weekend to clear your head to get over the writer’s block. But knowing story structure like the back of your hand can really help to unlock whatever “block” you might be feeling. 

Story structure is structure, it’s not a formula. There are certain structure points that need to be met for the story to feel like a story, but the way you get there is all up to you.

This is what Michael’s course really focuses on, and it is the best foundation you can get for your screenwriting.

Rejection is another aspect of writing that people will get way too in their heads about. Most of working in the industry is rejection, so you’d better get used to it. But even the top-level writers don’t sell every single script they write. In a way, it is sorta like a numbers game.

People who can’t handle rejection tend to bow out quickly. Great! That just increases your odds if you can stay in.

How Do Screenwriters Contribute to Society?

Well, isn’t this the most philosophical question ever? I think the reason why we do what we do is because it is just a passion for storytelling. Sometimes it’s because it’s a story that you want to tell. Sometimes it’s because it’s a story that the people want to hear. People love to hear stories.

Think about all the times when someone came up to you and was like, “You’ll never guess what happened at work today”. You become so engaged with that… but… pay attention to how they are telling it. If it’s not done correctly and hitting certain “structure points,” you will lose interest. And taking philosophy out of the way, we write because it is a necessity in society.

Words are what make the world go around. Nothing gets accomplished without words. We just use words to tell stories to entertain and engage people, so they want to keep asking the question, “Well, what happens next?”

Conclusion

Storytelling is one of the most powerful things we do as people in any capacity, not just TV and Film, but in life. Whether it’s a story of triumph or tragedy, stories hit people with emotions. Being able to create something that can help people feel heard and included or help them escape from whatever life is throwing at them is such an incredible gift to provide.

Screenwriting is a superpower if you can do it correctly. Becoming a professional screenwriter is a lengthy process, and it truly does take a lot of heart, time, and discipline. But the key to getting there is taking all of the necessary steps and doing the “little things,” even though they may seem insignificant. But it is up to you to decide to take the first step.

Michael has some free lessons you can watch, so you can start your journey and learn more about story structure and the storytelling process.

I encourage you to sign up. It’s free! Literally no excuse. It’s free! And just in case you don’t know what “free” means, “free” means “FREE.” Do you know what ISN’T free?

Having regrets.

But what IS free is Michael’s free screenwriting lesson.

Sign up and start your screenwriting journey today with a lesson from Michael Jamin at michaeljamin.com/free.

Did I mention that these free lessons are FREE?

Read More From This Series

How To Become A Screenwriter
Understanding The Role Of A Screenwriter
Do You Need an Apprenticeship to Become a Screenwriter
Essential Skills For Successful Screenwriting
Building A Strong Writing Portfolio
Networking And Industry Connections For Screenwriters
What Are Strong Goals In Screenwriting
How Do Screenwriters Contribute To Society