The Business Side of Being a Screenwriter…

Learn How to Write a Screenplay and Still Afford an Extra Shot in Your Latte.

Writing a screenplay? That’s the fun part. Selling a screenplay? Getting a job in a writer’s room? Getting hired to write a feature? This is the hard part. The thing is, until you invest as much time (perhaps more) into promoting your work as you invest in creating it, you’re going to feel alone on a deserted island – just you and your script. There is the writing side to being a screenwriter and the business side to being a screenwriter. Excuse me while I rant for a minute on how film schools across America are neglecting to teach about the business of being a screenwriter. In most cases, screenwriting students graduate with varying levels of know how as to how a screenplay is to be formatted, character development, story structure, blah blah blah. Yes, of course, being able to draft a top-shelf screenplay is a must-have skill if one wants to be a screenwriter, but it won’t matter if one has no idea how to “shop” a script, how to compile pitch materials, or how to contact people who can actually help to get a script produced. It’s hard to believe with all the money some of these top universities charge that they’re neglecting to teach how to actually make MONEY as a screenwriter! Ninety thousand dollars a year for a bachelor’s degree in screenwriting at USC. Meanwhile, students are graduating with no clue as to how to pay their huge college loans as screenwriters.

There is more than one path one may take to earning money for one’s work and surviving (paying rent, groceries, utilities, etc.) as a screenwriter.

That’s right, you’re ideally supposed to be able to do this for a living! When you start out, no one tells you how to balance your life to make your goals of becoming a paid screenwriter possible. This is why I am writing this blog; this is why I am teaching students who are coming out of some of the top film schools in the country how to actually get paid for their work. This is the near-impossible part of being a screenwriter that no one is talking about because everyone is completely daunted by the gut-wrenching, mysterious, entrepreneurial process of being a screenwriter. I cannot make it easy for you; it’s one of the hardest things you will ever do, and there will be sacrifices to make it happen, but let’s take the mystery out of it, shall we?

–Written by Jennifer Leo