I have recently been approached for advice by someone whose 14 year old son wants to be a screenwriter.
Their son has been writing as much as they can (including starting a sitcom!), but they (the parent) wondered whether AI means that this was a career that simply won’t exist by the time their son is ready to go.
The advice I gave was this:
- I don’t think AI will get rid of screenwriters; I do think AI will settle into the role of “writers assistant”, and maybe make tv writers rooms smaller.
- I think there will always be a place for talented (especially the talented and funny or the talented with a unique voice), but it has and always will be a tough beat to make a living in.
- He should learn to use AI, but even more importantly, he should learn to do things without using AI. This is his apprenticeship, his time to learn the craft, not outsource it.
- A great skill to develop now is how to take feedback. Get comfortable sharing his work and engaging with comments; seeing feedback as help to strengthen both skills and the material; learning when to ignore the what of the feedback (suggestions on how to fix) and look at the why (this reader stumbled on something in this section).
- Focus on building his “pile”. The storytelling part of the craft develops over a series of stories, not by reworking the same one, plus when he’s getting ready to start talking to representation, etc, he’ll hopefully have a bunch of strong samples to share and give confidence that he’s selling himself, not a single script.
To those (e.g., @popcornflix) that know better than me…
- is that good advice? Is there anything I should walk back?
- Is there anything you’d add?
- What resources (books, podcasts, YouTube channels, groups, classes, etc) would you recommend for a 14 year old?
(Although clearly this 14 year old is much more mature than I was at that age. And potentially at this one.)
And if you’ve got advice for me too, I’d love to hear it!
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I think it’s pretty good advice overall.
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I think AI will soon get rid of the jobs for screenwriters of the lowest skill levels. For example, the non-union cheapie “verticals” that are being financed out of China now. Also, there’s a big industry of making cheapie movies for English speakers based on adapting Indian and Chinese movies. Both these jobs will be replaced by AI very soon, because they require so little ability to be “good enough.” A year or two later, it will be the low-budget “mockbusters” like Asylum makes – SHARKNADO 12! Yeah, that stuff will be made by AI.
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Another diminishment of the job of screenwriting will come when non-union producers use AI to write a terrible first draft, and then they will hire human writers to do a revision or a polish at a lower rate, because they aren’t writing the first draft. (Nothing New, Roger Corman used to do that back in the 70s.)
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Writing a screenplay is a subtle, complicated process. LLMs have found it surprisingly difficult. I’ve never seen a script page worth a damn come out of any LLM. They are getting MUCH better at brainstorming ideas, and they are beginning to encode the patterns of drama, so they can suggest things that actually make the story more dramatic or more intensely emotional.
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I think at 14, he should be deliberately avoiding AI, so he can build some real writing muscle. Start off with as few crutches as possible. Learn self-reliance, then pickup AI in a few years when he doesn’t need it.
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He should be writing a lot, and shooting a lot of short films. One of the hardest-won skills for a writer is to understand how things on the page read on screen. There is only one way to acquire that skill: you have to write a lot of pages that get shot and edited into something that people watch, and you do that over and over again. When I started (when dinosaurs ruled the earth), the only way you could get that experience was by getting things made by a studio. Now kids have a movie studio in their pocket, and film is free. He should be writing short films and webisodes and shooting them with his friends and putting them up on YouTube.
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He should train himself to be able to write for hours, day after day. Kids today have short attention spans made worse by multitasking and incessant interruptions from their phones. Get him training to dominate early. If he can apply butt to chair and bang out more good pages in an hour than anyone his age, he will get hired when the time comes.
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One of the problems I’ve encountered with young teen writers – especially bright, talented ones – is a strong desire to be rewarded, instead of a strong desire to become a great writer. This is the road to disaster. If I could make one wish for this kid’s success, I would wish that he would be obsessed with becoming an outstanding writer. Steve Martin, who has had massive success as a comedian, movie star, television star and musician, says the secret to success in show biz is “Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You.” Before you try to get an agent or a job, you should be trying to get really really good, so that people will fight for the opportunity to work with you.
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Resources: I’m a feature guy, so no idea about sitcoms. I always pass on my rule: you’re only allowed to read a second screenwriting book after you’ve written a draft using what you learned from the first screenwriting book, and so on. Write a draft and try out everything you learn.
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Save the Cat is a great starter kit for a new feature writer. Linda Seger’s Making a Good Script Great is a great guidebook through the rewrite process. How to Write Screenplays for Fun and Profit is the best book about the nuts and bolts of a screenwriting career, and it’s damn funny too. There’s a great course called Writers Boot Camp that forces students to write a script and show their work. Teaches some great craft tools, too.
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If he wants to be a feature film writer, tell him to download the scripts to his three favorite movies from the internet, then TYPE THEM OVER is his screenwriting app. It helps if he prints them out, so he can lay the pages next to his writing machine. Typing over a screenplay in format has an amazing effect. It makes the writer study the language more closely than reading, and the typing somehow encodes the style and use of language into the writer’s fingers. When I was starting out, it made a huge difference in my writing. It works best if all three of the scripts are in a similar genre.
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He should also start thinking about his brand/wheelhouse. He should be thinking about what kind of movies and shows he loves, and narrow it down to 2-3 related flavors. Suspense-Action-Horror can work; Rom-com, Romance and Chick Flick can work too. Any variety that feel related will work. Peter Berg does Guy Stuff – Sports, Business Warfare. He smokes cigars, but you could guess that from his genres. If the Kid can narrow it down to one, it’s even better for his career. Pigeon-hole yourself before the industry does it for you. Then he should start writing in those/that genre and build a body of work.
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Warn him to avoid trying to chase the market or game the system. It always ends in tears. Famous rules of success: Ask For What You Want, Don’t Ask For What You Don’t Want, and You Can’t Win The Game Unless You’re Playing At The Table. If you chase the market, at very best you end up being well-known for writing things you don’t like. This sucketh hard, verily.
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The real key is the get good, get comfortable in your own voice, and write things you are absolutely passionately in love with – that’s how great scripts are written.
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Last point - tell him there are only two real rules in screenwriting: (1) it has to look like a screenplay, so get Scrivener, Final Draft or Writer Solo to format it, and (2) make the reader turn the page. That’s it. Every other rule – every “don’t use We See” or “don’t use adverbs” is just someone’s opinon that doesn’t really matter. Quentin Tarantino is the most atrocious speller and with all his millions he doesn’t hire a proofreader. Know what? Nobody cares, because you keep turning the pages. Don’t let the Kid get caught up in a bunch of rules. Just make the reader turn the page. Always be interesting.
Hope that helps.
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