Screenwriter

What is a screenwriter?

A screenwriter (also called a scriptwriter or screenplay writer) is the member of the film crew who writes the screenplay, the document that everyone else builds the film from. The producer budgets from it, the first AD schedules from it, the production designer breaks it down into sets, the actors learn their lines from it.

That makes the screenwriter's job different from a novelist's. A screenplay can only contain what a camera can photograph and a microphone can record. A character's thoughts, history and feelings have to become behavior, dialogue, objects and edits. A good screenwriter writes pictures and sound in the order the audience will meet them, and leaves the choice of lenses and shot sizes to the director.

Screenwriting is a craft of its own (see the screenwriting guides); as a job, screenwriters work in feature films, television, animation, games and branded content. In features the writer usually delivers the script and steps back once the director takes over. In American television the writers run the show: the head writer is usually the showrunner, who oversees the room, the edit and the budget.

What does a screenwriter do?

The work moves through the same stages on almost every project, whether it's a spec or a hired job:

1. Idea and pitch. A premise compressed into a logline, often pitched out loud to producers or executives before a page exists.
2. Treatment and outline. A prose film treatment or a scene-by-scene outline that locks the structure before dialogue is written. On assignment, the studio often has to approve this step.
3. First draft. The full script in industry format, roughly one page per minute of screen time, so a feature usually runs 90–120 pages.
4. Notes and rewrites. Producers, the director, executives and sometimes stars give notes; the writer revises. Contracts usually spell out how many drafts and polishes the writer owes.
5. Production revisions. Once the film is greenlit, scenes get cut for budget, rewritten for locations or adjusted for cast. Changed pages go out on colored paper so the crew can tell which version they hold.

Many writers also plan visually before they draft: on a FlashBoards board you can pin the reference frames, location photos and character notes for each sequence next to the outline, and generate a few look frames for key scenes to test whether a moment you are writing will actually read on screen.

Who a screenwriter works with

Producers find, buy or commission the material and shepherd the script through development. The director turns the script into a shooting plan; on many features the writer does a pass with the director before prep to make the script theirs. Executives at studios and streamers give notes and decide whether a project moves forward. Agents and managers find work and negotiate deals.

In TV the writer works inside a room: a showrunner, senior writers and staff writers break stories together on a board, then one writer takes each episode to draft, and the showrunner rewrites for a single voice.

Screen credit is its own system. In the US, the Writers Guild of America determines writing credits on films made under its agreement, not the studio. Written by means the writer did both story and screenplay; Story by and Screenplay by split them. An ampersand (Writer A & Writer B) means a team that wrote together, while and means they worked separately, often one rewriting the other. That is why a credit like Jurassic Park (1993), screenplay by Michael Crichton and David Koepp, tells you about the development history as well as the authors.

How to become a screenwriter

There is no license or degree requirement. What gets a writer hired is a script that people want to pass around. The usual path looks like this:

• Write specs. A spec script is written on your own initiative, with no contract. Most careers start with two or three polished specs in one genre that show a clear voice. Very few specs sell; most work as writing samples that get you meetings.
• Get the script read. Fellowships and competitions such as the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship, industry lists like the Black List, film festivals and short films are the common routes. Jobs as an assistant to a producer, agent or showrunner teach how scripts are really bought and developed.
• Get representation. Managers tend to sign newer writers and develop them; agents close deals. Most sign you after someone else already wants your work.
• Move from samples to paid work. In film, that means pitching on open writing assignments, where a studio owns a property and hires a writer to adapt it or rewrite a script. In TV, the entry rung is the staff writer job in a room.
• Join the guild. In the US, writing work sold to companies that have signed the WGA agreement earns units toward membership, which brings minimums, health coverage and credit protection.

Careers are rarely only original work. David Koepp moved between adaptations (Jurassic Park), rewrites and co-writes (Mission: Impossible, 1996) and his own films as writer-director (Secret Window, 2004). The early 1990s spec boom, with scripts like Shane Black's The Last Boy Scout and Joe Eszterhas's Basic Instinct, made the lone spec sale famous, but that route has always been the exception.

Screenwriter vs. script doctor

A script doctor is also a screenwriter, but hired for a narrow fix on a script someone else built: sharper jokes, a clearer second act, a character who doesn't land, dialogue for a new cast. The work is short, well paid and often uncredited, because WGA credit rules require a substantial contribution to the final script. Robert Towne is a well-known case: he did uncredited work on The Godfather (1972) shortly before writing Chinatown (1974).

The difference is scope and ownership. The screenwriter carries the whole story from premise to structure to final draft and usually gets the credit. The script doctor comes in late, often close to or during production, solves specific problems in a few days or weeks and leaves.

Further reading

Writers Guild of America West, Screen Credits Manual. William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983).