The 8 Levels of a Screenwriting Career
In order to take your career to the next level, you need to know what level you're at right now. Where you are determines what you should be focusing on.
There is no clear career ladder to success in becoming a screenwriter.
So many of us were tricked into paying tons of money for film school. We were told that there is a path to achievement in this industry, and it starts with getting a degree. That is not true. There is no one path.
But, there are different stages of building this passion into a profession.
Each level corresponds with how much you understand your craft.
Knowing what level you’re at will tell you what you need to accomplish in order to level up. A word of caution: No career is linear. Over the course of your career, you will likely find yourself stepping back a level if you realize something needs to be adjusted or fine-tuned. You could even potentially skip a level or find yourself in multiple levels all at the same time.
Don’t take this as an exact recipe for screenwriting success.
Do use it to evaluate where your career is at right now. This will help you determine where to best leverage your focus.
Level 0: Consideration
Most of you are past this step, but it’s worth mentioning!1
At some point in your life, you realized that people write the movies you watch. You thought about whether this was something you would want to do yourself.
Screenwriting can be a very rewarding career. Breaking down movies and TV shows, learning about scenes, and diving deep into character development is a lifelong pursuit. But it’s not for the faint of heart!
Many people decide they want to get into writing because they watched one bad movie and decided they could do better.
Perhaps you can. There’s only one way to find out…
Level 1: Exploration
Once you decide that screenwriting is for you, your first instinct will be to get to work on your big movie idea.
That’s exactly what you should do. Start writing a screenplay. I recommend spending at least 15 minutes a day on your script. Even just one page counts as progress to celebrate. Consistency is key here when it comes to developing a writing practice.
Because that’s what this is. Your first script is going to be really bad. It’s okay if you don’t want to show it to anyone. You probably shouldn’t.
What matters is that you started it and you finished it. You might be asking, “What’s next? How do I get my script into the hands of an agent?”
Don’t worry about that. Just focus on learning how to be a better writer.
To which you reply, “But then how will I get my movie made if I don’t know anyone in Hollywood???”
Don’t get mad at me. I did not tell you this journey was going to be a quick one. Many people spend years at the Exploration level, and you will too. You will write many bad scripts. But pumping out scripts over and over is not going to make you a better writer. Make sure you are accompanying your Exploration with:
Classes (I recommend Jen Grisanti and Corey Mandell).
Reading books about screenwriting and story structure (I love K.M. Weiland).
Reading as many produced screenplays as you can get your hands on (thousands are available online if you do a Google search for your favorite movie scripts).
Iterating at the small scale (Chase Jarvis talks about this in his book Creative Calling).
Watching movies and TV shows. Breaking down their structure. Studying them.
Taking relevant classes in improv, sketch comedy, acting, or prose writing.
Fostering interests in other creative pursuits.
Testing out different genres, themes, and subject matters to find what suits you.
Sending your material out for feedback from peers and audiences.
Giving feedback to other creatives in return.
Building a network of encouraging artist friends.
It will take years.
If you stay consistent with your writing journey, you will find your voice. The longer you spend in Exploration, the more life experience you will acquire, which means the more you will have to say. Drink life in. Everything you do is useful.
Finally, when you have built up the skills and confidence of a professional, it’s time to write the project that will change your life.
Level 2: Execution
After years of training, it’s time to find your calling card.
This script might sneak up on you. It might be a project you never anticipated writing. It might be an Exploration that you did not expect to resonate.
Or it might be the story that you have been waiting to tell your whole life. The script you wanted to write when you first started out but just didn’t have the skills to.
You might have a hard time writing this script. Maybe after so much Exploration, you’re scared to settle, to box yourself into one type of story. Let those fears go. Many writers end up becoming a different type of writer than the one that they thought they were going to be.
What matters most is that you discover the authentic writer that you are.
Then you tell a story in your voice from your Point of View about a subject matter that interests you.
Write a script that is so good that people will want to send it to their friends without even asking you. Then doors will start to open.
Level 3: Replication
Once you have written the script that will open doors for you, it’s time to do it again.
Ideally, during your Exploration phase, you found a creative process that works. During the Execution phase, you demonstrated to yourself and to the world that your creative process delivers impressive results. But the world is greedy.
Now you have to do it again.
Write 1 or 2 more scripts.
Your 2nd script should be in the same medium as your 1st script (for example, if you wrote a half-hour pilot, write a second half-hour pilot. If you wrote a horror feature, write another horror feature, etc.)
Your 3rd script should be in a different medium but with similar themes, tones, or motifs throughout. You have spent years honing your perspective as a writer, so your portfolio is the opportunity to convey range while also solidifying a distinct writer voice and establishing a brand that is unique to you.
If you are writing more than 5 scripts at this Level, you are not in Replication. You’re in Exploration.
This Level is about quality, not quantity. You’re building out your portfolio but doing so in a strategic way that continually refines the way you frame your offering to the world.
Eventually, someone will notice and want to help.
Level 4: Representation
Once you have crafted a portfolio of 2-3 scripts, it’s time to find a manager.
During this Level, you expand your network and add people to your team. This is the time to start thinking of yourself as a company. You are a business whose product is your writing services. Experts in the field can help you sell your services to customers (studios and networks).
Treat the search for an agent or manager the way you would hire an employee.
Don’t just agree to bring on the first person who applies.
Carefully consider what your career goals are. In conversations with potential reps, listen when they talk about what they can do for you. Suss out (through instinct, research, or by asking around) whether they can actually deliver on those promises.
Then build a team that can take you to the next level (the hardest leap in this journey).
Level 5: Vocation
You have built up your skills, network, samples, and team. Now you build a resume.
At this stage in your career, you are working for other people. This can mean staffing in Writers’ Rooms of TV shows or writing a feature for a studio. Your reps and your network will help you get that big break you have been longing for: Someone offers to pay you to write something for them.
Now is the time to prove that you have spent the past few years doing the work.
Now is the time to show up and deliver what is asked of you.
If you consistently deliver great work on time that blows your executives away (and are a pleasure to work with), they will keep hiring you again and again. This part is important, and the most overlooked by many new writers.
Getting the job is only half the battle. You have to impress. Every single time.
Level 6: Creation
Many writers are happy to keep working for others for the rest of their careers.
There is nothing wrong with that! It’s great money if you can get it. But if you got into this career because you want to be a filmmaker or a show creator, it’s time to originate ideas that last long beyond you.
This is why it’s essential that you build a great reputation with executives as you work.
They will want to hear your ideas, and you can bring them a pitch for a series or movie.
Depending on how much work you have done at the Vocation level, you might need to write your script on spec (meaning write it for free before anyone pays you—like you did with those samples from Replication). If you do this, your reps can help you package the script up with a producer (hopefully one with an overall deal at a major studio), director, Showrunner, and/or actor.
For more information on how a TV show actually gets made, no one lays out the steps with more brutal accuracy than Sara Schaefer in this video.
Level 7: Expansion
There are only a handful of people in the entire world at this level.
You know their names: Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, Dick Wolf, Greg Berlanti, Dan Harmon, Tina Fey, etc. These are the people who have created multiple hit shows. Once you can prove your ability to consistently generate not just great work but juggernaut hits, you will have the industry in the palm of your hand.
This often comes in the form of an Overall Deal. A network, studio, or streamer pays you tons of guaranteed money every year, and in exchange, you can only sell your shows to them.
You might decide that you personally want to conceive of, write, and run each of your shows. Or you might prefer to create an empire, serving as Executive Producer over other people’s ideas run by other Showrunners.
At this point, it’s up to you.
Creating a brand like this is a stressful life. It’s not everyone’s dream. But it’s how you turn your writing career into a production dynasty.
Level 8: Transition
Eventually, you will become too famous to churn out groundbreaking work.
Once you have successfully built an empire for yourself, it will become your responsibility to find the writers who remind you of you when you were younger, hungrier, and just starting out. You can use your power, reputation, and money to be an EP of someone else’s stories. You can find and nurture new talent, be someone’s mentor, and give a new voice a chance.
By this point, you work will have inspired creatives everywhere.
And the cycle begins again with a new generation of writers in Exploration.
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If you are interested in tarot like I am, you will find that these levels also correspond with the first 8 cards of the Major Arcana (with the Fool being 0).
This is so useful, thank you Audrey. I learnt so much in just ten minutes of reading and I'm going to share this with my writing groups. I think I'm somewhere in the exploration/replication phase and this make it very clear where I should be putting my effort. Thanks again.
Can you please clarify what is meant in Level 3 - Replication - what the different mediums are if you are a feature writer? Do you mean different genres?
Thank you.