Written by Ali Laventhol
Way back in 2005 I’d been working as a full time visual effects artist for 15+ years. I loved the visual storytelling aspect of vfx but in climbing the ladder to work on bigger and bigger projects, the creative fulfillment plummeted, and burnout set in. I wanted to switch gears career-wise but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what I wanted to do. At that time, I was getting into yoga and alternative healing modalities while continuing to dream of telling stories.
Luckily, I had enough saved to take a month off work, so I signed up for a 30-day massage therapy course and a 6-week screenwriting course that met at night. I had never even read a screenplay let alone written one – so you can imagine my elation when at the end of the 6-week class I had a completed a 100-page script that actually sort of made sense. I had a long way to go, but I was hooked. I also learned that massage therapy was not for me, but a bit of anatomy knowledge was my consolation prize.
From there, I signed up for a 22-month feature screenwriting course despite the astronomical cost. (Can you guess who my instructor was? Keep reading…) Classes met at night so I could keep my vfx job during the day. It was an intense time and a big investment but after that 22-month course I had three completed feature scripts. I didn’t know what to do next. It made sense to broaden my horizons to tv, so I signed up for a 10-week tv writing class that went from idea to outline. The teacher was a BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER fanatic, which was so not my thing, but the class got me to write my first outline for a tv episode.
For the next several years I wrote and wrote, both feature and tv scripts. I joined a writers’ group with some old classmates. I begged anyone who knew anyone in the business for a read, for notes, even just to let me buy them a coffee in exchange for picking their brain. I submitted scripts to contests and bought packages from script consultants in an effort to continue to improve my skills on the page. The other thing that was so important was reading as many scripts as I could, as well as breaking down movies and tv episodes scene by scene. Screenwriting is a language all its own and that obsessive reading and reverse-engineering was a significant part of the way I became fluent.
At the beginning of 2010, Tawnya – who had been my feature writing teacher in the 22-month course – and I decided to team up on a feature script. We had been friends for a few years and had both had a script optioned by the same producer. The feature we wrote together went so well that we decided to write a tv spec next. We joined several iterations of writers’ groups, participated in Writers On The Verge at NBC (now NBC Launch), and bought script consultations from prominent consultants – in fact we got notes via a consult on the script that got us into NBC WOTV in the first place. Well worth it!
The point of all this is that feedback – whether in classes, script consults, writers’ groups, coverage from contests or from someone on the producer/executive side of the business – has been and continues to be essential.
Everyone’s path into the business is different but typically the paths that lead to a sustainable career include the willingness to invest in yourself day in and day out along the way.
I can definitively say, from teaching at Script Anatomy for 10+ years now, that students who have persisted in taking class after class and writing script after script have been the ones to get staffed or sell shows.
I wish there was a short cut but as of yet I haven’t seen it. Although, I 100% believe and have seen how the Script Anatomy method has been a short cut for people in terms of learning and bettering their craft and helping them break in sooner — I wish it had been around when I was starting out in TV.
Bottomline: The more you invest in your skills and continued growth as a writer, the better chance you’ll have of turning pro and succeeding.
Make the investment in your craft and your future. Sign up for your next Script Anatomy class and get the feedback you need to advance. Feature writers have a great feature development lab coming up with Tom Shepherd, the writer of Dolittle. Check it out!Â
Ali Laventhol has been Tawnya‘s writing partner for over a decade, most recently as the Co-Executive Producer for My Life With The Walter Boys (Netflix), and Bel-Air (Peacock), as well as several Lifetime movies. She is a long time Script Anatomy instructor.
