Thoughts on becoming a professional script writer, and finding a literary agent.

Breaking into Script Writing

Please note that this page consists of my own personal opinions, and should not be relied upon as professional advice.
All I know from personal experience are stage, television and radio in the UK, so that's what I’ll write about here. But the underlying principles probably apply to getting novels published and movies produced — and maybe also to other countries.
The most important thing to understand is that you’re going to start at the bottom. That’s sometimes difficult to accept if you’re a 20-year-old bursting with enthusiasm and ideas; but the sooner you learn it, the better. You’re simply not going to walk straight into an existing TV series or get picked up for production at a quality theatre. Even less are you going to get your original TV series into prime-time. It isn’t going to happen.
The way you’re going to do it is by starting at the very bottom and working your way up. It’s not possible to start too low. It’s a start, and that’s the important thing
Exactly how and where you start depends on circumstances, so you’ll need to think creatively and see what opportunities are available. These are some obvious ideas:
It’s an excellent idea to get involved with some of these before you start submitting work. That way you’ll learn how productions are put together, and even how a script is laid out on the page, so your own work looks more professional.
Your initial aim is to get your work published or produced — anywhere — and gradually move upwards from there. You won’t get money to begin with (but if you don’t enjoy writing in itself, you might need to think about a different career). As your work is produced, at whatever level, you gain experience — and with growing awareness and understanding, your skills improve.
This bit about ‘understanding’ is important. If you don’t understand how some of your writing works better, and you’re unable to tell the difference between what works well and what doesn’t, you’re probably never going to get anywhere as a writer. ‘Understanding’ doesn’t mean academic success. Some writers were hopeless at school subjects, but they know a good story when they hear one.
Experience gives you the opportunity to develop your craft, but you need the basic awareness of craft to begin with. There are useful things you can do to build your awareness, such as reading scripts for a local theatre, or writing film reviews for any small magazine you can find. You get this work exactly the same way as you break into writing: you start at the bottom and work upwards.
The first big break in your career comes with the first amateur production of something you wrote. The second big break comes when you get your first professional production. There may be many years between the two.
At some point, you’ll need to make a basic decision about which direction you want your career to take. Do you simply want to ‘write for television’ and any programme will do? You may enjoy this if your real passion is the craft of writing, and you’re happy as a hired gun writing for whichever programme is paying. Or do you only want to write your own original dramas, or a specific genre such as crime or science fiction?
If you’re comfortable writing for the good, the bad and the ugly, then — with talent — you can probably make a good living from writing and eventually give up the ‘day job’ (but not yet please!). However if you’re only happy writing original dramas or specific genres, that kind of work work is rare, so you’ll always need a ‘proper job’ to pay the rent.
It’s worth being honest with yourself about where your true interests and abilities lie. A useful guide is to think about what types of programme you most enjoy watching. Not everyone is suited to writing soaps, or police dramas, or whatever.
Only you can make this decision, based on your inner temperament — and the best choice is whatever feels right for you. It’s not irrevocable, and whatever you decide now, you can choose a different direction later. You simply need to appreciate the pros and cons of whichever route you choose.
Either way, you’ll definitely need a day job early in your career, while you write in evenings and at weekends. In the same way that it’s useful to get involved in a student or local drama group before you start submitting work to them, it’s likewise helpful to work for a theatre or TV company before you start submitting work for professional production. It doesn’t matter what you do: secretary, bookkeeper or maintenance engineer. They all get you closer to your goal and give you valuable insights into how the business works. You don’t have to work for the same company that you’re going to submit your work to (although check your employment contract, as some companies insist their employees give them first refusal on any work).
Once you’ve built up some non-professional writing credits — say, a couple of fringe theatre plays or some student video productions — you might start approaching the professional broadcasters and theatres, starting with radio and the bigger fringe venues. BBC Radio broadcasts a lot of original drama every week, and is a market waiting for good scripts.
You need to listen to radio drama to get a feel for how it works, and also to discover what genres are broadcast in which time slots, and the lengths of these slots. As a general rule, submit original drama rather than adaptations. This is partly to avoid copyright complications, but mostly because original dramas show what you can do.
Organisations like the BBC and writers’ groups often have web sites or hold workshops where you can learn what producers are looking for and how to submit it. You may also discover which TV or radio programmes have an ‘open door’ policy of encouraging new writers. (Recently, Doctors on TV and The Afternoon Play and The News Huddlines on radio have all had a good record of accepting work from new writers.) Joining a writers’ group is also a great way to pick up tips from other writers.
If you’re an SF fan, there are lots of openings for fan fiction — so search around on the internet. The breakthrough rate from fan fiction to professional writing is low, because there are lots of fans writing and very few professional markets for such specialised genres — but I know a couple of paid writers who came by that route.
If at any stage you find you’re getting nothing but rejections, with several pieces of work in succession, that’s probably because you need more experience at a lower level; so focus for a couple of years on getting more experience at a level where your work is accepted. Then try moving back up a level. The whole point is to get your work produced — anywhere — because that’s how you learn and pick up author’s credits.
Once you’ve gained good experience in fringe theatre or radio drama, you can explore the best avenue into television, which is soaps. The big shows that go out in prime-time are exclusively for highly experienced TV writers; but there are smaller ones in daytime or on satellite and cable channels which may take on new writers. If you’ve had a few good credits in fringe theatre or radio, the small soaps are probably interested in hearing from you.
A good ‘calling card’ script might help — an original script of your own that demonstrates your talent — but always send an enquiry letter first. Often soaps ask instead that you write an episode from a story outline they provide, to give them some idea of whether you’re up to scratch. When submitting a calling card or sample script, make sure it’s complete and written to your highest possible standard. An unfinished or second-rate work will simply get you rejected.
(If you’re approaching a soap, you’ll also need to be prepared for several surprises. First, you’ll be expected to have watched the programme for at least a couple of months so you know the characters and their relationships inside out. Second, you will most likely be given a dossier on character histories ever since each one joined the programme. Third, you’re almost certain to be given a 3 or 4 page scene breakdown that describes the action for all the scenes in your episode — and you must stick to this. Fourth, you may be given specific instructions on how your script must be presented: margins, line spacing, italics, etc. Fifth, soaps are like sausage factories, churning out the product as rapidly and cheaply as possible. And sixth, writers are sometimes treated quite badly by soaps.)
A similar pattern applies to breaking into comedy writing. You’re not going to walk straight into writing your original sitcom on prime-time television; so you start with some late-night sketches for a local drama group, and then progress to writing single gags for radio comedy shows, then sketches for radio comedy shows, then sketches for a TV comedy show, before finally getting to write a one-off pilot for a radio comedy series. It’s a long process that might take several years; but at the end of it you might just get to write some episodes for an established sitcom or even create one of your own.
If your ambition is to write only original dramas, your big markets are currently radio and theatre; so get your foothold at the bottom, in fringe theatre and short radio plays, and gradually work your way up to bigger theatres and longer radio series.
If you ambition is to write a specific genre, then your best market may be short stories, novels or radio, rather than television. (Successful prime-time television productions only ever commission work from very experienced or exceptionally talented writers.) There may also be one or two low-budget or cable programmes who would consider someone with a good record in radio. Either way the only realistic way to break in is by sending a strong calling-card script to the producer or script editor. It doesn’t need to be a script for their programme, but it does need to be written in the same genre.
Local video and film workshops are worth exploring if you want to write original dramas. Sometimes they’re looking for short scripts to produce. It’s also worth exploring fan fiction, because entrepreneurial groups of fans occasionally get together and produce professional audio dramas or even a low-budget video.
If you’ve set your heart on writing for movies, then prepare to be heart-broken. You may be better advised to write your story as a novel, because there are considerably more novels published each year than movies made.
Whichever route you take, the techniques are the same: contacts and research. First ask everyone you know and find out if ‘someone knows someone’ who is accepting scripts or manuscripts. Unless you’re very good at networking, this is a low-rating prospect — but you may get lucky. Otherwise you’re down to cold-calling, and that takes research.
Watch lots of television (or listen to lots of radio, or go to lots of theatre) and take notice of any dramas or comedies you particularly like. Read the credits at the end and find out who the script editor and producer were. Then when you have a script to submit, send it to script editors and producers who make programmes similar in style to the one you’ve written. If a producer has already made, for example, a historical drama, there’s a better chance they’ll be interested in reading your own historical drama. (And it doesn’t hurt if you briefly mention in the covering letter how much you enjoyed their earlier production.)
You have to work exceptionally hard at targeting each submission. Send it to a specific, named producer or script editor, who you know has worked on the same genre before.
The difficulty with this is that TV programmes you’re watching this week were probably made six to twelve months ago, and the script editor and producer may now be working somewhere else. You’ll need to start by phoning the production office (you can probably get the name of the production company from the switchboard of the channel who broadcast the programme, and then get that production company’s phone number from a trade directory such as the British Film Institute’s Film and Television Handbook). Then you can ask if the producer or script editor still work there, and if not, where they are now. There’s a lot of phoning around goes on in this business.
Some big broadcasters have schemes to attract new writers, and there are also regional schemes to encourage new writers. These are worth submitting your work to — but don't hope for too much. As far as I know, I’ve never met a single writer who got their work produced as a result of submitting it to a new writers’ scheme. It may be better to think of these as ways of making contacts and gaining introductions to the producers and script editors who actually make programmes.
Once you’ve got to write for small soaps, or a couple of episodes for a sitcom, then you’ll build up your experience and contacts, and gradually move into writing for programmes that really interest you.

Literary Agents

In the early stages of all this, you probably don’t need an agent. In fact you probably won’t even be able to get an agent! The good ones only take on the most promising writers. But you can write for local groups, sell a radio drama and probably even land your first episode on a daytime soap without an agent. A good agent can be helpful, but in the UK it’s a myth that you need one to get work. I’ve a friend who has worked as a full-time scriptwriter for about twenty years without ever having an agent. He’s very good at networking and is happy writing whatever he’s offered.
Even with an agent, you’ll still need to do most of the legwork yourself. But good agents can point you in the most productive direction, and can put you in touch with script editors and producers who might be interested in your work.
A good agent can also negotiate fees and contracts. Thankfully most producers are pretty honest and use standard contracts and fees, but every writer seems to have one or two stories of being ripped off by an unscrupulous (or just plain incompetent) producer.
The real advantage of having a good agent is that your work gets treated more seriously.
The key word here is good — and the best way to get a good agent is the same way as you get to sell your work: by building up experience. You are far more likely to get a highly regarded agent if you can tell them you’ve already sold two radio plays and an episode of a daytime soap. It proves your work is sellable, and that you’ve the initiative to go out and sell it.
Also, once you’ve sold some work by yourself, you can ask the script editors and producers you’re working with for their recommendations of good agents to approach.