Great post from Mr. Scoggins, much appreciated.

This was always my horrible conundrum when I was trying to do this for a living.

I tried L.A. I didn't like L.A. I got the hell out of L.A. rapidly. This was circa 1995 or so.

I'm sure there are 1000 reasons it's a wonderful town but I found 1001 reasons to leave so I did. I consider myself a slightly tragic figure in that I NEED and CRAVE my little Wisconsin town of Cedarburg (just north of Milwaukee, stop on by sometime, we have great coffee shops and the best pizza parlor on the planet called Tomaso's but I digress) to get through the day. I love it here. I wish to live here. I wish to die here.

This, of course, always clashed with my screenplay-writing antics. Unless you are a script-writing hobbyist (which strikes me as a tad odd... I mean, model railroading or stamp collecting would provide a bit more rewards in that department), one would do best to get themselves to L.A. if writing movies is the career they seek.

Jeff, while I would agree with Jason's point about relocation to the degree that I think it makes it much easier to be a screenwriter -- strictly in terms of meetings, networking, etc -- I disagree in two respects: (1) Yes, meetings may need to be rescheduled if you fly in from out of town, but I've done that for several years now, and it is not an insurmountable problem. (2) Some writers would actually not be served creatively by living in L.A. -- it is such a business town, it can be suffocating, and I know some writers who don't live there precisely for this reason.

So I still contend that you can live anywhere and be a screenwriter. There are hundreds of working screenwriters right now doing just that.

But Jason's point is fundamentally true: It is easier to break in if you live in L.A.

Live in LA... Check! Watch Entourage... Check!

Oh there's more???... Well I guess I need to keep pluggin' away at the other things. Great post as always Scott, thanks once again.

Jeff,

I'd like to go out for pizza with at Tomaso's. I grew up in Glendale Hights, Illisnois. We had GREAT pizza everywhere. But living up here in the state of Washington, though we have delicious salmon, we have NO good pizza joints -- and I miss that great mid-west pizza...

- (a hungry) E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

- E.

"Wordsmithing is your stock in trade, and there are few things more irritating to people who read for a living than typos and misspellings. Even in blog comments, by the way."

EVEN in BLOG COMMENTS.

Truly great advice. Even though, as we are merely HUMAN, the occasional spelling error slips through.

Great post, one that I hope place a link to in your side column, Scott, for us to reference in the future.

And also... My professor is a working screenwriter who does not live in Los Angeles. He flies out there a few times a year for meetings, but is able to get most of those done in New York.

I live in England and I can't stay in L.A. for more than 3 months at a time because of VISA restrictions. If I decide to go for it, I'd have have to live there for 4 to 6 weeks, take in the meetings and return home to finish off the assignment. I think that's feasible for me. At the end of the day, my writing will do the talking.

Scott, i've been reading your blog for a while now. I haven't made a comment before, but i just can't pass this by after the rush of part 3 from Jason Scoggins. Great post!!!!!!
Well, i'm located in Maryland and I don't plan to move to LA. When meetings start coming up, I will do everything i humanly can to get there. But why aren't these executives advancing in technology and try online meetings. All you need is a good webcam and phone. I guess that's a different issue.

The main thing i picked out of this part 3 is that invest in studio readers. In other words, new writers should TEST drive their script with all these professional studio freelance readers. They are known to be brutal, but at least your work will have checked out on almost every aspect.
How can we get list of professional studio readers. I plan to invest a couple of hundreds in this. Please how can we get a list???

J, I am a professional reader and a writer myself, who works development for a prominent A-list producer. I have over 5 years experience, I'm extremely thorough... and can assure you I'm far less expensive than the average reader coverage. More mileage per gallon.

Email me at iconixfilms (at) yahoo dot com for more information and/or credentials.

Or, for the list you are looking for, do a search re: script consultants on google. Or buy a copy of either SCR(i)PT or CREATIVE SCREENWRITING and search through the advertisements. Hwood is full of these services.

Hope that helps.

Best,

RC

I agree with Scott about the moving to LA thing... yes, it's probably ideal to move to LA, but it's not a complete deal breaker. I know of several screenwriters (not TV writers) who have broken in recently while living far away.

I live in Monterey county (grew up in LA) & don't really worry about it.

I also don't think you need to spend hundreds of dollars on good coverage. Scott the Reader & the Script Mechanic give notes at reasonable prices. And you can also trade reads with fellow writers if you're on a budget.

Oh... wanted to make the point...

One reason you don't want to spend $200+ on a pro analyst is b/c you need more than one opinion. With just one opinion you're never really sure how accurate that one opinion is.

5 or 6 different opinions gives you alot more info that you can use to improve your script & overall skills.

And of course, paying $200 a pop for 5 or 6 (or more) opinions can get expensive.

Do you believe that there will be more opportunities for screenwriters who live on the East coast when Hollywood East/Plymouth Rock Studios starts up?