Screenwriters for film and television were once the highest paid writers on the planet. This all changed in the last few years with the WGA strike and the economic recession. While paying jobs as a screenwriter are often the hardest to break into, they are even more difficult now. Feature films and prime time television are using established in house writers more and more. Even more so with the profits generated from computer animated films and reality shows.
Daytime soap operas are dying out with Guiding Light gone and As The World Turns on its way out. In the next two or three years, who is to say All My Children and One Life To Live will not be next? With only three hours of daytime dramas, there will not be too many opportunities for young writers to break into this genre of television. In such an event, The Young And The Restless, The Bold And The Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, and General Hospital would also rely on established in house writers.
One area where young writers are thriving in this medium are cable dramas. HBO and Showtime, USA Network and TNT, even AMC is now getting into the game. They have more flexible schedules and better chances of hiring young writers. A cable drama often lasts on average five seasons consisting of thirteen episodes each. As opposed to a twenty two episode season on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and much less, The CW, that is lucky enough to last one season. Cable dramas are one of the few revenue streams left in film and television for up and comers.
There are other opportunities for these same writers, yet do not pay as much money. Such as writing movies made for television, direct to DVD, or independent flicks. Children’s shows, games shows, and talk shows also pay a little. Even lower on the money scale are commercials and instructional for business and education. A young writer has got to survive, right? Sure he does, but it remains sad to see demand and talk about screenwriting dry up in such a fashion.
In spite of such options, screenwriting still remains the hardest medium of writing to break into. Years may pass before one even gets his first paid gig as a screenwriter. With all the politics setup between studio and network executives, agents, and the WGA. Along with the possibility of uprooting to Los Angeles and New York, these webs of complication cause the chances of an aspiring screenwriter to make it a one in a million shot.
For those who are having a tough time breaking into screenwriting, one option would be to work on a novel for a few years. While the pay is much less, the headaches and red tape are also much less compared to Hollywood. Also, only ten percent of the public outside of California and New York even knows what screenwriting is. Yet everyone knows what a novel or a best selling author is. Plus while only a fraction of screenplays get produced each year, thousands of novels get published.
Freelance writing is another avenue to consider. Writing articles, columns, and short stories also pay much less than film and television. Yet there is still more work out there in case screenwriting does not work out yet. Newspapers, magazines, and web sites that pay a small fee. These outlets would give one’s career a lot of exposure and a little cash on the side. Plus, it is much easier getting a gig at Associated Content or Examiner then Hollywood.
For those writers with a music background or an interest there, songwriting would be a bad option. Ideas come and they are written in a lyrical or rhythmic fashion. One also gets paid a small fee for their songs. As opposed to someone in Hollywood just discovering a screenwriter, and paying him a six figure sum. That is a one in a million shot. Songwriters have more opportunities, because it involves less work for less money. Therefore, songwriters get more work. Same goes for writers in radio and advertising.
Comic books and graphic novels are another way to go. Aspiring and former screenwriters alike have found an outlet here for their ideas. New ideas and ideas previously rejected for film and television alike. It is way for comic book fans to get exposed to up and coming writers, along with getting a look at what certain aborted films and cancelled television shows would have been like. Better than a screenplay or a bible for a television series siting on the shelf.
Two thirds of opportunities in Hollywood have dried up since the WGA strike and the recession. Hollywood and the writers alike should be glad the DGA solved its union issues early and SAG did not go strike. If both the Director’s Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild had gone on strike. One could bet Hollywood would somehow be flat broke right now if they had. All that would be left would be these alternatives to screenwriting.
