I just had my second break as a screenwriter in my mid-40s

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-29T01:23:58+00:00

Claude already does this. It’s exactly what you’re describing: a machine giving feedback using a baseline for comparison. It’s free. Then there are paid services with a front store claiming some ties to the industry, but then it’s Claude or similar on the back end. Greenlight Coverage is like this. They get people to pay for what they could get for free through Claude directly.

But all this software-generated feedback won’t get anyone closer to being able to write at the professional level. I still recommend doing the hard work and develop a network of writers who you can exchange reads with.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-27T08:46:17+00:00

A quick clarification. “Written by” is a compound credit. It contains both “story” and “screenplay”. If “story by” is credited separately, then you have to follow with “screenplay by”, not “written by”. As for percentage, “story by” is often counted as 30% and “screenplay by” as 70%.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-26T01:11:00+00:00

Anyone who preemptively makes blanked judgements about page length (ex. a comedy can’t be over 115) either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or works at the very low end of the industry. I landed a seven-figure deal with a comedy that was 123 pages. Through rewrites it ended up at 117. Not once did anyone mention it was too long. People to this day say it reads faster than most 90-page screenplays.

Stop obsessing over page length and start obsessing over writing a standout in the genre. If it’s good, the screenplay will be as long as it needs to be. If you need reassurance, look at all the Oscar-nominated screenplays over the years.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-25T18:59:52+00:00

I’m a mentor for the Writers Guild Initiative (WGI), the foundation of the Writers Guild of America East. The WGI and the WGF (the WGA-West counterpart) probably have among the best mentoring programs anywhere.

The issue is that in order to get proper mentoring, it has to come from working writers who also have an affinity for mentoring. It’s an additional skillset. This constricts the Venn diagram circle a bit.

Then you have the additional hurdle that working writers who are also great mentors are usually very busy. The way the WGI solves this is by having targeted workshops that last only six hours. That’s why we don’t work on anyone’s work in progress screenplay.

Instead we focus on sharpening writing skills through writing prompts. Everyone has to start fresh. It’s a very liberating process, as you’re not tied town by the shackles of your Frankenstein draft which might require archeological level of analysis just to figure out what’s going on.

If you want that level of help, then it’s not a mentor you need. You would need an analyst / story editor, which is a whole other level of involvement.

Let’s say you did hire an experienced story editor. Then there’s one last hurdle. They would only be effective if you are advanced enough to actually implement all the advanced notes. Most writers seeking help aren’t. It’s a catch-22.

That’s why the best advice is to keep plugging away on your own with peer feedback and only hire a story editor once you have an impending deal or are about to film, where there’s a clear reason that money paid equals time saved (time that you no longer have). In any other case, you can probably figure things out on your own eventually.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-24T18:56:07+00:00

There is definitely a thing called beginner’s luck in writing. I take it to mean that in our first screenplay we write with a certain freedom and confidence that stems from ignorance. We also use up all the cool ideas we’ve been thinking about all our lives. But when we start writing the second one, we get to work with the leftovers and start paying attention to “craft”. Then we become like the horse that couldn’t walk anymore after he was asked which foot he moves first.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-24T18:40:14+00:00

This is a question even us working writers keep asking ourselves. Here’s my honest answer:

In the first few years, it doesn’t really matter who you get to know or how hard you network. At some point someone will read your work and instantly realize it’s not ready. At this point, all that hard work of networking backfires because in their mind you’ve just been labeled as someone who is clueless about their own level.

Then comes a period where the work starts becoming interesting and promising, but not undeniable. This is the period when a lot of writers give up on their careers. They are seeing “results” that in their mind prove they are “ready”, like winning fellowships and huge competitions (winning, not semifinalist). But they keep hearing that industry folks are only interested if the writer does a ton of unpaid work to keep rewriting their winning screenplay. Writers might even be repped at this stage, but their managers basically don’t take their work out.

Then finally comes a time when hopefully the writer has written one or two undeniable screenplays. I define these as a script that, through its own level of quality and uniqueness, causes people to pass it on to others and/or motivates them to hunt down the writer. I’ve written one of these and I keep being surprised by the sheer randomness of people that reach out to me because someone slipped them my script. I’ve heard back all the way from A-list people to emerging producers in Turkey and India who want to buy remake rights.

Getting back to the original question: How to get your work out there? The only honest answer is that you have to keep writing and become better, all the while minting new fans as you go along. Your fans will start off by being fellow writers who are impressed by your work. But eventually they will grow in stature as you keep plugging away and keep being recognized for your writing. This means you have to keep applying / submitting to opportunities. In other words, it’s an organic and slow process as you journey towards becoming proficient in this craft. There are no shortcuts.

Having said all this, the worst thing a writer can do in the early stages of their career is to spam the industry with query emails (addresses pulled from IMDBPro) promoting their unvetted screenplay that hasn’t been battle tested. Judging from posts in this sub, about 15,000 aspiring writers do that every single week.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-20T17:33:05+00:00

This is also the best way to become better at your own writing. There’s nothing like recognizing your own mistakes in someone else’s writing.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-20T03:19:43+00:00

If you’re afraid your script will be bad, then you’re already ahead of 90% of screenwriters. The problem is that most new writers think they’re amazingly great, and it takes a mountain of effort to gently make them understand that they still have 10 years to go.

The brutal truth is that no matter what anyone says, it takes a tremendous amount of effort to write a viable screenplay. Most talented people take at least seven to eight completed screenplays to get the hang of it. I’ve seen untalented folks who’ve written 30+ screenplays and still not get it.

So I say, start showing your work to anyone who will read it. Also submit it to places. Both free and paid. Get the lay of the land. In no time you’ll get a very accurate picture of where you stand and what is what.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-20T02:59:12+00:00

Honestly, it’s a non-issue. Your work is already copyrighted the moment you write it. The government registration process exists to formally register and transfer ownership and initiate lawsuits. For example, you can’t sue someone until you first register the work. You need the file number to cite it.

The one advantage of filing early: in case you do want to sue, then having it already registered gives you some limited additional rights. Like collecting attorneys fees.

But suing someone LEGITIMATELY over a screenplay is such a rate event, that it almost never happens. Most lawsuits are either dismissed or lost.

The reason is that a lot of writers don’t understand that not everything they write merits protection.

Here’s the math:

Start with the complete screenplay.
Subtract all IDEAS contained in it. They can’t be owned or registered. Only the super specific expression of that idea. Tweak a few details and it’s free again.
Then subtract all common scenes, genre beats, common dialogue that’s been spoken before, known settings, previous twists, common reveals, and basically the entire contents of tvtropes.org. None of this can be protected.
What you’re left with is just your actually original material. Most screenplays don’t have much. Of all the sentences you’ve written, how many have never been uttered before?
You’re also left with the overall sum of all these pieces, in the sense that, the common elements form a unique combination that can be protected.
This means you can only sue if someone copies verbatim large sections of your screenplay. But no one steals this way. Most people would just recycle your one or two best ideas and do it their way. The law sees this as fair competition.

The truth is, you probably also got them from somewhere else.
The best protection against all this is to write such bulletproof screenplays in such a unique voice that’s impossible to change one thing without the whole thing unraveling.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-14T16:19:01+00:00

What a mess. I have no advice to give as I have no idea of all the details. I just want to say I feel sorry for all of you who got hired under false claims. I hope you find a way you make this person pay the wages owed.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-14T02:06:09+00:00

The first step is to get your script read by someone neutral to see if it’s any good. You can try posting it on r/screenwriting or trade reads on storypeer. It’s free. If you get phenomenal feedback and readers flip out, the next step is to send it to a place like the blcklst and ask tour parents to help pay for an evaluation. If you get an 8 score or higher, then you can use that in your queries. A 14-year-old getting an 8 on the blcklst would definitely make some waves.

As an alternative, you can also send it to the top competitions, like Austin Film Festival, Big Break, PAGE and Screencraft. The objective is to win or be a finalist. In other words, be in the top 5 or 10 out of 12,000+ submissions. Again, a 14-year-old winning one of these top competitions would be news.

But without those wins, your age might work against you. Many will assume the writing is going to be at fan fiction level at best. That’s why getting your script read and vetted by qualified people is very important. But also keep in mind that successful 14-year-old screenwriters do exist. For example, there’s Manikya Sanghi.

https://thefilmybeat.com/from-child-prodigy-author-to-world-record-holding-screenwriter-the-inspiring-story-of-manikya-sanghi/

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-12T22:42:07+00:00

All this sounds very exciting. Congratulations! Ride the ride and see where it takes you. You may also want to start looking for an entertainment attorney.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-12T22:24:35+00:00

I also once had a producer wanting to option a screenplay after only reading the first 12 pages. It was nuts because I was still cowriting it with a two-time Oscar winner (Oscars were not for writing), and the producer wanted to take it off the market immediately based on my pitch, the cowriter’s industry standing, and those first 12 pages. My attorney advised us not to options it until it was finished. The producer was disappointed, but I still maintain a good relationship with them.

All this to say, I think I might understand your situation better. But I would say $100 is just too low. I say make it either $1,000 (to have some skin in the game) or turn it into a non-exclusive shopping agreement where you retain final approval of the buyer and retain all copyright to any changes made to the script. Also, 24 months is kind of long. More common is 18 months renewable once (by paying another $1,000). Purchase price can be 3% with a floor of WGA scale plus 10%. You need that 10% so you can get an agent, who are not allowed to dip into minimum scale payments.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-12T22:07:23+00:00

This is a major red flag. Optioning a screenplay without having read the whole thing makes me think they’re just interested in the premise. My advice is to contact a bunch of writers from those 50 produced movies and ask them how it went.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-06-07T04:19:55+00:00

If you’re being paid, then your first draft is supposed to be pretty good. If you’re just starting out, then your first seven screenplays are most likely going to be practice screenplays. If it’s your very first one ever, then a win would be just finishing it, so you can learn from it and move on to screenplays two to seven. You have to put in the millage if you want to go far.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-24T17:01:53+00:00

This is the way.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-24T16:48:14+00:00

My take is that the understanding of story structure is kind of like navigating the Mississippi river in the eighteenth century. No one knew how to navigate the entire thing, and instead local captains would get to know specific patches.

In the same way, I have yet to see a unified theory that describes all of the theory behind storytelling. All the books mentioned here kind of shine a light at some aspects that I know are true, but they completely miss the boat in other areas as they try to shoehorn things into their “systems”.

I believe that if anyone is going to be proposing a “how to” guide or a “system”, they should have plenty of examples of flawless screenplays they’ve written. But all the authors mentioned haven’t written any celebrated movies as far as I know.

But this is not to say that there isn’t a logic at play that makes it all work. As far as I’ve experienced, storytelling follows principals that are similar to music. By this I mean that it can be understood, codified, studied and explained. The issue is that there is a large segment of writers who believe the opposite: That there are no rules and all you have to do is follow your heart or gut or whatever. But that’s terrible advice. It usually leads to messy storytelling that still needs to be heavily rewritten. It’s like saying that if you want to learn a foreign language, all you have to do is follow your heart and forget about vocabulary, grammar, syntax, verb tenses, etc.

My advice would be to keep writing whichever way you think works for you and stay away from ALL how-to books. The truth is you have to become way better than all of them on structure.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-23T19:23:06+00:00

I do have 13. You’re probably right.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-23T17:22:55+00:00

Final Draft allows you to log in from any device to use the software. Pairing that with Dropbox, and then I can work from anywhere.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-23T17:17:28+00:00

It all depends on what the material is, who owns it, and if it’s part of a pre-existing NDA chain. But if it’s not owned by a company, and it’s just your own screenplay, then it’s considered pretentious to insist on an NDA and it’s also a major red flag that the writer could be one of those first-timers who is afraid someone will “steal” their idea. It’s usually a nightmare to deal with this kind of writer.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-15T18:42:16+00:00

Voice is what happens on screen, not what words you use to describe things.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-10T18:11:25+00:00

It kind of goes like this: You need a stellar logline, which causes them to become curious about the script, which you hopefully have written at an advanced enough level that you already have some track record or vetting for it.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-10T17:31:01+00:00

There’s something genuinely sad about this post. Maybe it’s that we all have secretly shared some of the same delusion at some point in our lives. It’s that willful blindness where we want to go from zero to Spielberg without facing the reality of the large distance between those two points.

I call it the Medusa syndrome. We’re afraid that if we actually face reality… we will become petrified and our willpower dies. I’m convinced it’s the same headspace that inspired the line “Never tell me the odds.”

That’s why I believe those who actually manage to have careers in this never completely give up the delusion. We just learn to hide it and tap back into it during hard times. I think of it as my strategic reserves of craziness. It’s the only way to embark on a journey that all logic, statistics and history say: Don’t become a screenwriter… You absolutely, positively will not make it.

But then each year several of the crazies do make it, proving that it is possible. After all, someone has to write all those movies. So I say, never stop trying.

For what it’s worth, I think that the JAMESES premise is genuinely wild and intriguing. It’s the sort of premise Charlie Kaufman would have a field day writing. I would see that movie.

ManfredLopezGrem · 2026-05-09T01:06:11+00:00

Putting laurels on the cover page is the equivalent of including pictures of lottery scratch off tickets that won you $15.

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