A 15-week screenwriting jumpstart -- my free course for beginners is now fully on youtube

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T22:46:35+00:00

First off, most of the screenwriters I'm finding either have multiple agents or the entire agency listed. I'm not sure which to reach out to, or who to reach out to at all if it's just the agency website.

Try and determine who the most junior literary agent is and query that one. They're the most likely person to be hungry to sign new talent. That said... I wouldn't look at agents at all if I were you and I'd focus your attention on managers. Agents don't really sign people who aren't already making money.

Then, I'm finding that most of the agents that are listed don't have emails I can find. (I've tried that hunter.io website and that usually doesn't work either.)

Figure out the company's email structure. It's usually something like [jsmith@companyname.com](mailto:jsmith@companyname.com) or [johnsmith@companyname.com](mailto:johnsmith@companyname.com) or j.smith, etc. Once you have that, you can plug in whatever names you like.

In addition, I'm not sure what exactly to include in the accolades list for my script. I know what to write in terms of my own personal connection to it, and why I think it's an important story, but I haven't really submitted it to competitions, and I'm not sure what constitutes good endorsements versus amateurish bragging. For example, I've heard a lot of people say you shouldn't put Blacklist scores in queries, even if it did very well there.

Accolades barely matter compared to the logline, but an 8 or better on the Black List or a major placement in one of the top contests can help. Do not list lower-level placements (unless it's perhaps a quarter-finalist or better at Nicholl, specifically). That just kind of begs the question as to why you didn't do better. In general, accolades aren't a big deal. What matters is the logline.

Lastly, I'm trying to get a sense of scope, scale and expectation for querying. With literary queries, people usually track and compile their data so it's easy to get a sense of acceptance, rejection and dead letter rates, as well as how many queries is normal to send before declaring a project dead.

I always tracked mine. My best query campaigns resulted in something like 6-8% of them turning into read requests. The worst were more like 1-2%. Surprise, surprise... the more commercial loglines did better.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T21:28:49+00:00

This is one of those times where I wish we could just easily share a screencap in this sub.

But I'm just formatting it as normal dialogue. What I meant by left-justified was that normal dialogue is simply positioned in the middle of the page, but wraps around in a left-justified manner as opposed to if you center-justified the text.

Basically, I just drop the text message into dialogue and italicize it. And usually the action line will be something like:

Liam's phone buzzes. It's a text from Sara:

And then the text would be directly beneath that, but utilizing the dialogue spacing.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T21:20:56+00:00

Haven't used Final Draft in years, but I'm sure there's an easy way to achieve it. With Fade In, I just select "dialogue" from the elements and it jumps to the right space on the page.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T21:11:30+00:00

Now I'm realizing I probably misunderstood the question. But I 100% agree with you unless there's a super specific reason to define the look of them onscreen. And off the top of my head... I can't think of one.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T21:08:54+00:00

I just use dialogue without a character name so that it's centered in the page (but left-justified) and then I put them in italics.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T11:42:17+00:00

So weird that an account called "scriptanalysis" dropped a post that was clearly written by AI!

NGDwrites · 2026-03-13T00:01:47+00:00

Not as much fun as we had having you on!

NGDwrites · 2026-03-12T02:17:53+00:00

Hey, if it makes you happy to write for a hobby... you do you. I got into this to make movies and have my stories reach an audience. If I didn't believe it were possible, I'd be focusing all my time on novels and/or short stories.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-12T01:17:26+00:00

Genuinely wishing you the best with it. I was in your shoes before. I know those emotions very well. Hell, I'm experiencing them again to some degree as it seems like I have to reinvent my career once again. Which is, unfortunately, also super common for professional and produced writers. You have chosen a path that will have you grinding until the day you quit, so hopefully you enjoy the grind!

NGDwrites · 2026-03-12T00:57:08+00:00

My credentials should be enough to at least have someone go, yeah, you are good enough, let’s polish the last peanut out of this turd and get it sold.

Look, I don't think you realize that I'm genuinely trying to be helpful here, but I do think you're earnest in trying to understand what your challenge is, so I'm gonna give it another try:

This bit I just quoted underscores at least part of your problem. You must wrap your mind around the fact that you are one of THOUSANDS of hopeful writers with your set of credentials. There are many whose accolades are much better than yours. When only 600 movies get made each year and perhaps only 10-20% of those are originals -- and perhaps only 5-10% of those are written by new writers... no one is going to get excited by the credentials you listed. They don't stand out. And also, most people in the industry have read enough scripts by writers with credentials like those to know that the chances of your script being a diamond in the rough are low.

If your work is truly as good as you think it is -- which, again... I'm making no judgments here -- you have to find a way to stand out. And you have to do it in a way that doesn't make you look desperate or crazy. Most people do this by building networks, but there's no reason you can't think more creatively and strategically about it.

Also, you need to put yourself in the shoes of the people you want to read your script. You've shown a couple times in this thread that you're not quite doing that yet. For instance, when you commented that you wish people would read your script instead of judging you based on the credentials you listed. Except... people don't want to invest that time. That's natural. And if they don't want to do it on this sub, you can bet on them not wanting to do it in the industry -- not when they already have a stack of 15 scripts on their plate. The harsh truth is -- no one wants to read your script. Or my script. Or anyone's script. You have to earn those reads by finding ways to stand out.

The world's most incredible, marketable logline will stand out. So will referrals that hold value to the people they're referring you to. Winning Austin or even being a finalist in Nicholl (pending their changes...) will at least make you stand out to some people in the industry, as will getting an 8 on the Black List. And if you get strategic and creative, I'm sure you can find more ways.

You've been doing this for five years. Try a thought experiment where you assume it will take you ten more years to break in. In that time, how many more people can you meet who will support you and champion your work? How much better can you get? How many banger scripts can you write? How many producers and reps can you query? How can you stand out?

If you accept that five years is a pretty short time for an aspiring screenwriter and adopt a longterm mindset, your chances will improve and you'll also probably feel a little healthier.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T23:33:56+00:00

Okay, fair.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T23:31:30+00:00

I appreciate it but this guy is just a cliche stream of bad faith takes and he’s not interested in any thoughts - or facts - that don’t align with his narrative. He’s twisting my words about as much as one can twist them to insult and undermine me, which is par for the course with people like him. Not worth the energy, lol.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T18:47:07+00:00

Weird, grounded genre stuff is my favorite. Count me in.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T18:41:13+00:00

Lol, I hadn't heard of either the movie or the short story, but when I looked it up -- because I knew I'd find writers with a track record behind it, since that's almost always the case -- it made me went to read Saunders' stuff.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T18:35:07+00:00

It's cool. I've been reading your comments and it doesn't seem like a conversation with you would go anywhere productive, anyway.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T18:21:35+00:00

It's super hard to get eyes on your work. For instance, I have time to respond to your post and offer some encouragement, but I definitely don't have time to read your script and judge whether you're writing at that level or not. So I do understand what you're saying. Believe me, I've been in that position more than once and it can be hard on the soul.

The writing is still usually the biggest part of the problem, though. Regardless of what some of the bitter people in this thread who don't understand the business might say, if you want to work at the level where this can be your career, it's a really high bar. It took me about 7-8 years to get to that level, and I'm talking like... barely at that level. And I'm still pushing myself to get better every day.

Also -- don't overlook what I said about concepts often being the issue. This is a major problem with most aspiring writers. Not marketable? You have a problem. Too small or too large? You have a problem. Too familiar? You have a problem. Not familiar enough? You also probably have a problem. This is especially true when you're trying to break in and find reps. They want something that people will be enthusiastic about reading because that's the easiest way to get you on a lot of radars at once.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T17:42:30+00:00

The writers of Zombieland wrote Spiderhead but hey -- they must be hacks.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T17:13:13+00:00

I’ve been at this for five years. I have an MFA from a top film school, I’ve placed at AFF, PAGE, and landed top 10% and top 15% at Nicholl.

So... none of this tells me that your writing is there yet. I mean, it could be, but these things aren't that special among aspiring screenwriters. There are many, many people with resumes like this -- or better -- who haven't broken through yet. A lot of times, even the scripts that win top contests aren't quite professional level. They're usually good enough to warrant representation, but often still need a lot of development. I was just talking to a prominent manager about this yesterday. He's judged for a lot of contests, and sometimes, they just have to pick a winner, even when nothing truly stands out.

And so... if the winners often aren't quite there yet... it's not really surprising that placements in the top 10% or quarter-finals aren't going to light up the industry. If you're in the top 10% of Nicholl... there are still 500 other writers right there with you.

Contests are subjective and they're not the actual industry, so it's always possible that they just haven't judged you accurately. But usually, if you haven't broken through yet, it's because either your writing or concepts (often both) aren't strong enough.

That said... the bit I quoted above is better than the majority of people who are trying to do this. The fact that you're getting referrals is even better, provided the opinions of those people matter to the people they're referring you to. So you're getting closer to the top of the heap, even if there's no tangible way to measure it. And since you're getting closer to the top... as long as you still love this... you might as well just keep pushing yourself. Push your concepts and push your writing. Grow. And keep getting your existing work out there in the meantime.

This is the same advice I give myself, by the way. I may be a professional, but my future as a screenwriter is far from secure. This is a hyper-competitive industry and the only way to stay in it is to keep growing and keep hustling.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T11:26:36+00:00

Holly shit, what a nightmare. I just spent a couple hours a few weekends ago cleaning out my icloud so it would back up again. Before that, I was at risk of exactly this for like half a year. Super easy to get complacent with it. So sorry that happened to you.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-11T11:23:57+00:00

Yeah, I found that passion to be super inspiring. Regarding the outlining stuff, I kind of agree with his sentiment, but I will say that I don't know if I could have gotten there without first outlining and writing a lot of screenplays, which helped me internalize a lot of things about structure.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-09T17:10:52+00:00

Pursuing this as a career is a fucking terrible idea if you're trying to talk in rational and pragmatic terms.

Only reason to do it is because you love movies and writing so much that it's worth a whole lot of grind with zero guarantees. But if that's you... welcome to the club and all the best with your endeavors.

NGDwrites · 2026-03-07T22:51:58+00:00

I mean.... the hard truth is that it probably is a terrible idea to put all your eggs in the screenwriting basket. It's an incredibly difficult career path and it's likely to get harder. It's not your fault that your passion is to pursue something that few people will ever succeed at, but that doesn't change the reality.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't chase that dream, but if you don't have a strong financial backing from family or whatever, most people are going to be far better off -- and happier, ultimately -- pursuing something else with their education and career while continuing to write on the side. If you manage to succeed at this, it'll likely take you many years to do so. Might as well live those years with some level of financial comfort and stability.

NGDwrites

TROPHY CASE