How To Get Started As A Writer

So You Want to Write for Hollywood: A Guide That Won’t Sugarcoat It

Let’s start with the bad news, because I respect you too much to bury it: breaking into entertainment writing right now is hard. Not “eat your vegetables” hard. More like “the industry is in the middle of a streaming contraction, an AI reckoning, and a round of studio mergers all at once” hard. Entertainment and media companies cut more than 17,000 jobs in 2025 alone, and writers’ rooms have gotten smaller and shorter as streamers chase efficiency over everything else.

Okay. Deep breath. Now the good news: people are still breaking in. Every single week. Because Hollywood has never run on a tidy checklist, it runs on persistence, weird lucky breaks, and a whole lot of people who simply refused to leave.

So here’s what working writers, assistants, and industry pros are actually saying right now about how to get your foot in the door, minus the fluffy “just believe in yourself” nonsense.

First, Understand What Kind of Door You’re Trying to Open

“The entertainment industry” is not one job. It’s television, film, video games, branded content, streaming originals, short form, animation, and a growing pile of hybrid roles that didn’t exist five years ago. Before you obsess over “how do I get staffed on a sitcom,” get clear on which corner of the industry you actually want. A TV writers’ room, a feature film career, and a video game narrative team all require different paths in, even though they all start with the same thing: you, actually writing stuff.

Which brings me to the part most people don’t want to hear.

Step One Is Boring: Write. A Lot. Then Write Some More.

Every working writer who talks about breaking in says some version of the same thing: you need a killer sample before anyone takes you seriously. In TV, that used to mean a spec script of an existing show. It can sometimes still be useful to have one spec script, just in case. Now it’s more common to write an original pilot or short script that shows your voice, your sense of structure, and that you understand how a story actually moves.

Think of your script as a business card that happens to be 100 pages long. Nobody is hiring you off a vibe. They’re hiring you off a page that made them forget they were supposed to be reading ten other scripts that day.

Build a small portfolio. Two or three strong pieces beats one script you’ve rewritten 40 times looking for perfection that doesn’t exist. Perfection is a trap. Finished and good is the actual goal.

The Assistant Track: Hollywood’s Strange Apprenticeship System

Here’s something that surprises a lot of new writers: most working TV writers didn’t walk straight from film school into a writers’ room. They got in through the assistant pipeline, and honestly, it’s one of the most consistent paths that keeps showing up in interviews with people who made it.

The general ladder looks like this:

Writers’ PA (production assistant attached to the writing side): entry level, thankless, occasionally involves being sent to get dinner at 9pm, but at least you’re in the building.

Writers’ Assistant: the golden ticket job. You sit in the actual writers’ room, take notes, and absorb how episodes get built in real time. People who’ve held this job describe learning more about storytelling in a few months of sitting in the room than in years of school, simply because you’re watching professionals solve story problems live.

Script Coordinator: manages drafts and continuity, another strong perch inside the room.

Showrunner’s Assistant: closer to the top of the ladder, with more access to decision makers.

One assistant who worked her way up from office PA to showrunner’s assistant put it well: the assistant world functions like a small, tight-knit network where the people you meet at the bottom keep showing up throughout your entire career. Be kind to fellow assistants. They become executives, writers, and eventually the people who hire you.

Fair warning from people who’ve lived it recently: with shorter seasons and fewer episodes per show, there are fewer rungs on this ladder than there used to be, and less time to get noticed before a show wraps. It’s still a real path in. It’s just not a guaranteed escalator anymore.

Networking, Minus the Ick Factor

I know. “Networking” is the word that makes creative people want to hide under a blanket. But in this industry, it doesn’t mean working a room with a stack of business cards. It mostly means informational interviews, staying in touch with people you meet at low level jobs, and showing up consistently in writer communities.

A few concrete places industry people point new writers toward:

Reddit’s r/Screenwriting, where writers at every level swap advice and feedback

Stage 32, which connects writers to classes, other creatives, and occasionally reps

The Black List, a script hosting and coverage service that reps and producers actually browse for material worth reading

There are differing opinions as to whether those sites are effective or not. So do your research before making a decision. If you need help with your networking strategy, that’s one of my specialties. It’s how I came to end up producing with Willie Burton, a 2x Academy Award winner who worked on The Odyssey, among 100 other films.

Another tip for new writers: Don’t underestimate the power of simply being a good hang. Multiple assistants who eventually got staffed describe getting their break because someone remembered they were reliable, low drama, and easy to work with. Talent gets you in the room. Being someone people actually want in the room is what keeps you there.

Competitions and Fellowships Are Not a Scam, They’re a Shortcut

Programs like the Nicholl Fellowship, the Austin Film Festival screenplay competition, and Final Draft’s Big Break exist specifically to surface new writers who don’t have industry connections yet. Studio backed programs, like Disney’s writing program or NBC’s Writers on the Verge, go a step further and can lead directly to representation, mentorship, or a staffing opportunity.

These aren’t guaranteed golden tickets, but placing well in a respected competition gives you something priceless when you’re starting out: a reason for a stranger to read your script.

Don’t Sleep on the Side Doors

Here’s something worth considering, especially if you’re the type of person building an audience on a platform like this one. The traditional “move to LA, become an assistant, climb the ladder” path is still real, but it’s no longer the only path, and honestly it might not even be the fastest one anymore.

A few side doors that industry watchers keep flagging as growth areas:

Video game and interactive narrative writing, a genuinely booming field for people who can write character and dialogue

Branded content and short form, which studios and agencies are investing in heavily as budgets tighten elsewhere

Building your own audience first. Showrunners and executives increasingly pay attention to writers who’ve already proven they can hook an audience, whether that’s through a newsletter, a web series, or a following built around a specific voice. Owning your own IP and your own readership is quietly becoming one of the more reliable forms of leverage a new writer can have.

If you’re already sitting here writing a Substack, you’re not behind. You’re doing one of the things people with twenty years in the industry are now telling beginners to do on purpose.

So, Practically Speaking: How Do You Land Your First Job?

Here’s the part you actually came for. Based on what’s working for people right now:

Write your samples first. Don’t apply for a single assistant job until you have at least one (preferably two) scripts you’re proud to hand to a stranger.

Apply for entry level industry jobs broadly, not just writing jobs. Script coverage, PA work, reality TV production, casting, post production. Anything that gets you on the “inside” and adds real experience to your resume. My first job in the industry was as a receptionist on a hit game show. I beat out 200 other applicants.

Once you’re hired, take the first six months of the job seriously before angling for a promotion. People notice who puts their head down and does the unglamorous work well. It buys you enormous goodwill later.

Then you can ask to sit in the room if you’re anywhere near a writers’ room, even informally. Most showrunners say yes more often than you’d think, and it almost never hurts to ask politely.

Enter one or two respected competitions a year with your strongest material, not everything you’ve ever written.

Keep a short list of informational interviews you’d love to have, and actually reach out. Most people in entertainment got help from someone once and are more willing to pay it forward than the industry’s reputation suggests.

Build something of your own on the side. A newsletter, a short film, a web series. It signals initiative and gives you a body of work that exists independent of anyone hiring you. If you don’t have a YouTube channel, start one. It’s a great way to build an audience and get noticed by industry professionals.

The Honest Closer

Nobody’s journey into this industry looks the same, and anyone who tells you there’s one correct order of operations is selling something, usually a course. What actually seems to separate people who break in from people who give up isn’t raw talent. It’s the writers who kept writing, kept showing up, and kept being decent to the people around them, even during the unglamorous PA years, even when the industry itself was going through it.

The industry is genuinely in a weird, contracting, AI anxious moment right now. That’s real and worth acknowledging instead of pretending it away. But contracting industries still make things. Shows still get written. Scripts still get bought. Someone is going to fill those rooms in the next few years, and there’s no rule that says it can’t be you.

Now go write something good. Preferably today.

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