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REVIEWS: Break into Screenwriting by Lenore Wright

<<:>> Review by Heather Froeschl <<:>>

When you need to know – go with a pro, right? Mentors come in all shapes and sizes. I may be able to introduce you to yours if your dream is to be a screenplay writer. Lenore Wright, author of the Dream Jobs to Go! title “Screenwriter” is the pro you need to go to. Lenore has been a professional screenwriter for 15 years in Los Angeles and New York. In this title she shares with you the ins and outs of the profession and so many tips of the trade that I was just amazed at how much she packed in.

This easy to follow, well-planned guide is in electronic format so that you are getting a virtual map to the online resources that will prove to be invaluable to your career. Included are hotlinks to insider information, shortcuts to the people and organizations who are going to be key players in your adventures.

A mentor is someone who leads you to the information you need but also encourages you, reminding you of your goals. Lenore Wright’s style of writing is open and honest and a joy to read, all the while being efficient and fulfilling the promise of being a true guide to the career.

Inside we find the truth about being a screenwriter; there just are not that many multi-million deals to go around. But Lenore tells us that there are plenty of folks who are making a good living out there. Last year nearly 500 new writers joined the Writers Guild of America (the collective bargaining group for screen and television writers.) joining the ranks of 11,000 members. Of those 11,000 - 4,419 were employed under guild contracts. Of those employed, the median salary was $83,000. Not bad.

Just who is making the money? Lenore introduces us to a few professional screenwriters, who in turn share their stories of beginnings, paying dues and the joy of seeing their names up on the screen. These folks share advice on breaking into the business, finding the time to have a life and other tips on every facet of screenwriting. Dave Trottier puts it best, “The rewards (of screenwriting) are the feeling of creating a work that is enjoyed by others, the fulfillment that comes with creation, and the money you are sometimes paid.”

So how do you break in? There are many avenues to take, and Lenore has a ton of great advice for you. From finding support groups (writers are a needy lot, I know – I am one myself.) to getting an agent to read your work, from sending out scripts for speculation to the advice of not selling out on that screenplay, it is all here in black and white and hotlinks!

For someone who has just an inkling of an idea of what is involved in screenwriting, Lenore opens up the world of slang terms like Indies (Independent films) and pitch and explains what script brokers, script coaches and script registries can do for you. She doesn’t only explain them though, she gives you contact information for the folks who get results. Now that’s what a mentor does! That is truly helpful!

If for no other reason (and I just listed quite a few) this title is invaluable for it’s “Game Plan” section. 16 steps you can take right now to create your dream job. Taking the advice of someone who has sold scripts and movie pitches on speculation to Columbia, Universal, Cinemax, Filmways, MGM, ABC and Hallmark, would be the first step I would make.

Why get into screenwriting? You know, writers must write. Some find their niche in novels, others in screenplays. But there is a drive inside that writers do well to heed.

If you want to write, do it, and find out all that you can to help yourself. Find that mentor. What will you achieve? Only you can answer that for yourself, but Terry Rossio, whose recent works include Dream Works’ “Shrek” and “Road to El Dorado” has this to say about the rewards of the profession, “There is a deep sense of fulfillment that comes from achieving a heartfelt dream. It’s rare that you find yourself in exactly the place where you most want to be doing exactly what you most want to do.”

If screenwriting is your dream, you can now have that starting point, and that mentor, to help you get to that place.

“ScreenWriter” is available from http://www.dreamjobstogo.com/ . This insider’s guide to screenwriting is one of several Dream Jobs to Go! titles that feature dream jobs from the viewpoint of authors who have done that job successfully for years. These ebooks sell for $12.95, are instantly downloadable onto your computer and come with an unconditional guarantee.

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Reviewer’s bio:

Heather Froeschl is the contracted author of 10 titles with Havoc Publishing and a professional freelance editor and book reviewer. She is the editor of “The Industry Speaks” column of WPWorldMuse, a monthly ezine for writers of all genres. Her website, www.QuillDipper.com offers her editorial and review services and highlights many valuable writing related links.

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Dream Jobs to Go – Screenwriter by Lenore Wright

Review by: Maggie Ball

Fancy yourself a screenwriter? Well, why not. Screenwriting can be one of the most lucrative types of writing you can do, and the movie business is growing rapidly, along with the demand for fresh material. Even established novelists hope for a film contract, since the money to be made is significantly higher than the fiction market. According to Lenore Wright, a professional screenwriter with over 15 years experience, a high budget film minimum (Writers Guild standards) is nearly US$90,000. However, breaking into the screenwriting market is not easy. Many aspiring screenwriters spend years of their lives writing scripts which they can't sell. Are there secrets to selling a screenplay?

Well, Dream Jobs to Go – Screenwriter does provide some good tips on how to break into the screenwriting market. Screenwriter contains lists of professional organizations for screenwriters; interviews and tips from working screenwriters Kimberly Seilhamer, Dave Trottier, and Terry Rossio; information on assessing script readiness; hints on which genre to write in; the importance of loglines; creating a script synopsis; obtaining an agent; industry referrals; ideas for getting your script read by people who can help you; exploring the independent market; and information on online brokers, coaches, and registries.

As a brief overview, Screenwriter is useful and has some handy links and ideas worth exploring, especially if you already have a wonderful script and really want to know where to begin marketing it. However, the text is very light, and probably contains no more information than three magazine articles. You can read through the entire book in less than an hour (only about 30 of the 36 pages actually contain the book text, and the type is well-spaced, bullet-type points, which takes up more space still. The rest is promotional or advertisements for other books in the Dream Jobs to Go series. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Reading on-line can be tedious, and bulleting text with simple points actually works better than lengthy paragraphs.

There were, however, some interesting points which I really felt could have used at least a few paragraphs – if not a whole chapter – rather than a sentence or two. Assessing script readiness, for example, basically tells the aspiring scriptwriter to make sure the script is proofread, polished and properly formatted, but there is surely more to script readiness than just those three points. A whole chapter devoted to looking at things like assessment of plot, the differences between a well-written script and a well-written story, characterization, and conflict would all be relevant and interesting. Another example is the logline, something that perhaps beginning screenwriters would not have been exposed to. The logline is a short description or teaser which tells the reader what the film is about, and is critical in getting your script read; so examples of loglines which work, and those which don't, would have been really useful.

One other negative point is that the book (or booklet) is geared toward the US market. While I realize that the bulk of readers will be from the USA, and the bulk of high-priced films will be produced in Los Angeles, there are, nevertheless, other film industries in the English-speaking world. Australia and the UK are good examples, and it might have been useful if they could have been referred to – especially for screenwriters who might not actually live in the USA.

Despite its shortcomings, Screenwriter is not an expensive book. At US$9.95, it is quite easy to read, and could possibly be a worthwhile investment for those who are stuck on how to market an already wonderful script. The section on pulling together a game plan is particularly helpful, with lots of simple and practical tips at marketing and improving a script. For the writer with some script-selling experience, this booklet would probably be too short and simplistic to be of value; but for the newbie, it is a good, quick, insider's overview of some of the key points in marketing a script.

Visit www.breakingin.net to purchase or for more information.

See Maggie's interview with Lenore Wright, author of Dream Jobs to Go – Screenwriter.

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Popular SCREENWRITERS WEB Columns by the same author:

Creating Bullet-Proof Loglines
Target your Script Submissions
Where Agents Hide Out
Screenwriting Callboards: Post to Prosper!
Contest Tutorial: Be Choosy!
Query Letters: Knock their Socks Off!
Suggest a Screenwriters Web Topic.

Columnist’s Bio:

Lenore Wright has 15 years experience selling spec scripts and movie pitches in Hollywood and New York. THE SCREENWRITERS WEB, her weekly column, is syndicated in 20 publications.

For more insider information on marketing screenplays SUBSCRIBE to her FREE bi-weekly newsletter SCRIPT MARKET NEWS.