How valuable is experience in screenwriting?
My first lit job in the entertainment industry was as a script coordinator on THE ADVENTURES OF PUSS IN BOOTS.
In animation, a script coordinator is essentially the same as a writers’ assistant. I was tasked with taking notes in the room, distro-ing script drafts, keeping track of which takes the showrunner wanted to use during records, and so on and so forth.
I was the SC for about a year and a half in my early 20s, and the job taught me so much about screenwriting and animation and how to operate in a writers room.
But, towards the end of my assistant tenure, I found myself growing incredibly frustrated and bitter.
Because of the nature of my job, I knew the show forwards and backwards, arguably better than any of the writers. I scrutinized every draft of every script, combing through the text line by line for typos and inaccuracies. I was at all of the bi-weekly records, getting a front row seat as the actors shaped their characters. I watched every animatic, seeing how the board artists took what was on the page and brought it to life.
In my mind, I had proven myself. I’d written three freelance episodes. I was an active contributor in the room. I was a team player. I was so immersed in the world of the show…
So… why hadn’t I been promoted to staff writer??
It’s because, while it was true that I knew THE ADVENTURES OF PUSS IN BOOTS so well, what I didn’t know how to do as well as the other writers… was write.
In a recent 1:1 consult with an emerging screenwriter client, he asked me how to get from Point A to Point B in a scene he was trying to crack. I instantly spit out a couple of different ways he could quickly and cleanly make the transition on the page.
He just stared at me for a moment. And then he asked, “How did you do that?”
The answer, truthfully, is experience.
The more you write, the better you get. The same goes for being in a room or conceptualizing story or pitching… these are all learned skills that you hone over time in this profession.
Looking back now on the scripts I wrote ten years ago, there’s promise on the page. But those scripts don’t hold a candle to the work I’m putting out now.
I wrote my last feature in about 4 weeks. And that was a polished first draft, ready to show producers. There’s no way I could have done that earlier on in my career, even just a couple of years ago.
Now, I’m able to find solutions to problems in my work, where honestly, I wouldn’t have even known they were problems when I was just starting out.
Maybe turning thirty-five last week (!!) has got me feeling old and wise, but if I could go back and talk to my younger, script coordinator self, I would drop some hard truth:
“You’re not there yet… because you’re not there yet.”
And I can guarantee that twenty-three year-old me would be pissed. But the most important thing I would want to convey to my younger self—the most important thing I want to convey to newer writers— is that just because you’re not there yet, doesn’t mean you’re not going to get there.
It just means that when you do, you’ll have more experience.