Hello fellow writers,
Every screenwriter has a story:_what's yours?
What inspired you to pen your first script?
How many days did it take you to complete and sell it?
What was your experience like in negotiating with managers, agents, producers, and studios?
How did you improve your script formatting to industry standards?
How much did you expect to make compared to what you actually made?
What were some of your errors along the way?
And here's something else
Do you work in the U.S. industry, or do you work in it?
Did you ever work on screenwriting for other industries apart from the U.S.? What was the experience like?
If you're a foreigner to the U.S., how hard was it to break into Hollywood or another large industry? What were some of the challenges you faced?
Novices can learn a lot from real-life experience, so do not be afraid! Your experience can stop a person from committing mistakes and make them more enthusiastic.
Post your experiences in the comments
this is an open forum for all screenwriters!
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A quarter-life crisis put me back on my writing path in the 20-teens, but it was lockdown-induced existensial dread that had me looking for a new medium. Screenwriting was love at first fade in. My first scripts were adapting novels I wrote into TV pilots, but I have written a couple features and other scripts from scratch as well. No sales yet, but I hooked up with an amazing transmedia project called HOOD where I have been collaborating with other awesome creative people on audio drama, scripts, short film and more. If you are curious, check us out at worldofhood.com :)
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I'm still very very new to screenwriting so not much of a journey but I have been telling stories since I was two years old and wrote them down since I was about 12 or 13, wrote my first play at 22, finally got the hang of novels around 23-24, and have been burnt out for novels since 2021/2022 but still wanted to tell stories so I figured I'd try my hand at screenwriting. Wrote my first screenplay at 32, now at 35 writing my fourth, and will probably get to my fifth when brain is done resting after this one XD
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Hi, Somay Gupta. Great idea for a post! It could help new writers and experienced writers.
What inspired me to write short stories was my elementary school teacher and the movie Harriet the Spy. What inspired me to write scripts was the Office Space script.
I wrote my first script a long time ago. I don't remember how long it took me to write it. I do remember it was a feature script though. I didn't sell the script.
I've mainly negotiated contracts with indie producers. How much work I needed to do on a project, how long I had to turn in the script, how much I got paid, etc.
I improved my script formatting by reading screenwriting articles, reading scripts, and writing scripts.
One of the errors I made along the way was writing passive protagonists. I got this note the first time I bought script feedback. It's one of the best notes I've ever gotten. Passive protagonists work for some stories though.
I've only worked in the U.S. industry with indie producers, directors, actors, etc. I've networked with creatives and professionals who live in other countries though, and I sold four short scripts to a producer who lives in Belgium through Stage 32.
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Alison Weaverdyck
Great story, Alison!
The 2020 pandemic was a truly unique time for the whole world. Many of us felt trapped, yet in that stillness, we found ourselves thinking outside the box, trying new things, and gaining experiences we never expected. It was a deeply transformative period, especially with the internet connecting people like never before. This hyper-connectivity allowed so many to learn, grow, and create in ways that might not have happened otherwise. It’s a time we’ll always remember.
I visited your website, and it’s really well-developed! You have a great eye for detail, and your talent is clear. Keep going with your screenwriting—you have what it takes to step into the spotlight!
Wishing you all the best.
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Maurice Vaughan
It's absolutely incredible to read about your experience! Writing short stories and scripts would have been a rollercoaster, particularly dealing with contracts with independent producers. That aside on passive protagonists is such a great observation—I can see how it would influence storytelling so much.
I believe I'll write my own experience down sometime in the near future—
how I'm coping with my first scripts, the problems I see in the U.S. market, and the problems we writers have. It's well worth talking about!
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Banafsheh Esmailzadeh
What a wild ride!
Storytelling has played such a large part in your life, and it's wonderful to observe how far you've come from writing as a child to now writing your fourth screenplay. Navigating novel to screenwriting transitions would have been a huge change, but fantastic that you were able to discover a method of keeping your creativity alive even in burnout.
I think the time is now to move beyond the writing and actually get out there and see about the industry as a whole—
studios, professionals, what's behind the scenes. With this over-connectivity that we have now, there are just so many ways of connecting and opening doors. Just keep having the conversations, put yourself out there, and see what you find out.
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Writing short stories and scripts, negotiating, pitching, etc. was a rollercoaster, Somay Gupta. And it still is sometimes. I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience!