How To Break Into Hollywood As A Writer
If you want to make it in Hollywood as a writer you better know what you’re doing. There are a few ways you can try to “break into the biz” as we say. Here are some ways people have succeeded before.
Good writing is honest, authentic, and precisely crafted. If you can stand out in these ways on the page then you will find success.
For starters, if you want to be a writer you need to offer something pretty special. One way is with an original script. Or a “spec script” as it is called in the business. A spec script is a script you write for free (speculatively) banking on the hopes it will get you more work.
A mediocre script isn’t going to cut it. It can’t be something we’ve seen before. You need to be original. You need to demonstrate you have an original voice.
It is important to adjust your expectations and have the proper goals for your spec script(s). Your spec script is a calling card. For people in the business to get a sense of your writing. Are you a comedy writer? Drama? What’s your style ? Do you have a voice? The goal of a good spec is to offer a sample of your work that makes an impression on people.
Good writing is honest, authentic, and precisely crafted. If you can stand out in these ways on the page then you will find success.
The goal should not be to sell your spec. Ultimately, you have no control over whether something sells. Besides, the odds of selling your spec pilot are very very low.
A spec script is meant to get you a job. On a TV show. Then, once you have that job, say on a TV show writing staff, you write your way up the ranks at that show. Eventually, you earn the right to sell and run your own show in the future.
Or your spec gets you a job writing a movie for an open writing assignment working someone else’s movie (i.e. a producer or a director). It gets made so you get to write another movie. Until, eventually it’s your movie that’s getting made.
Another way to get your foot in the door it is you can work as an Assistant. Start at a talent agency, get in a desk and use the relationships you make as you come up in the business to land a job as a writing assistant to a big time Showrunner.
Often times, this is a way to earn yourself a shot at proving you can write. Other writers in the show or the Showrunner themselves may offer you that chance by reading your script and giving you feedback. You might even be offered a chance to write an episode of the show you’re on.
Even if you aren’t you will learn more in a writers room than four years at film school.
Subscribe now
The true thing is there is no one way to make it as a writer in Hollywood. If there were everyone would go that route. Like law school for lawyers.
But whatever way you choose to try and break into the biz there is one truism: you can’t be lazy.
Hard work beats talent every time talent doesn’t work hard. There are no shortcuts. If you want it go after it. Don’t wait.
When it comes to the actual writing the key is to actually write. Only through doing will you get better.
And don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Not in the job you hope to get. The plan you make for yourself. Or on the page. Give yourself permission to suck in the beginning. Keep at it and you’ll get better. Eventually, if you get good enough Hollywood will come to you.
