by Robert L. McCullough, WGA

SCREENPLAY CONTESTS: THE BEST SCREENWRITING SCHOOL AROUND

I spent eight years learning how to write a screenplay the “proper” way. USC Film School. UT Austin. AFI. I collected film-school credentials like some people collect parking tickets.

And after all that? Ten years of rejection.

A decade of hearing “Thanks, but no thanks,” from managers, agents, producers, development execs, and anyone else who I could convince to look at my stuff.

Then, only after I’d failed upward for a decade, I spent the next 25 years working as a top-level professional writer in film and television. Which really just means: I’ve seen both sides of the studio gate held firmly shut by those mysterious "gatekeepers.".

I know what gets in, I know what gets thrown back over the fence, and—most importantly—I know why.

So trust me when I tell you: Screenplay contests are hands-down one of the easiest, fastest, most brutally honest ways to get better at writing screenplays.

Better than online courses. Better than the “gurus” who claim some special "story" wisdom. Better than your best friend Chad who “reads a lot of scripts on The Black List.”
And yes, better than the most prestigious film school.
Way cheaper. Way faster. Way less existential dread.

Why contests? Because contests give you what no one else will: cold, ruthless, professional feedback. 
Working producers rarely tell you the truth; too much politics, too much hedging, too much fear that you’ll tweet about them and ruin their day...or that the next pitch meeting you take result in a hit movie they didn't produce.
Your friends won’t tell you the truth because they like you (Mom always loves what you write, of course.That's what mothers are for.)
Your Reddit group are great critics...but they rarely know what the hell they’re talking about. If they did, they'd be writing and selling their own scripts instead of handing out free advice.

You need to find professionals who are brutally honest and utterly uninterested in your feelings. The right contest judges or skilled screenplay analysts might not blow smoke your way, but "nice job" doesn't really get you any closer to the professional level.

You need honest, knowledgeable feedback from professionals who have been where you are, who have overcome rejection, who have made careers out of this crazy business.

You'll find them right here, at the highly-respected Where Hollywood Hides competitions.

So how do you approach this whole "screenplay contest process"?

You can learn the craft without lighting your bank account on fire when you:

• Enter smaller competitions.
  Why? Because you’re not competing with 12,000 other writers. You might even win something, which is nice ego-fuel.
• Enter early.
  Early-bird pricing exists for a reason. Respect your wallet.
• Get (the right kind of) feedback.
  ALWAYS. Don't just enter a contest to "see if you can win." Enter those contests where professional WGA-level feedback is part of your entry. Entry fees are high enough, aren't they? Avoid contests that upsell or promise introductions to agents-producers-managers for an additional fee...which is total B.S.

What you do with that feedback...well, that's the real secret, isn't it? Ignore consistent notes at your peril. When two or three experienced writers see the same problem in your script, you've got a problem that needs fixing.

News Flash: Great scripts aren’t written in 90 days.
They’re rewritten over six months, a year, sometimes longer—through discovery, distance, and notes, notes, notes.

Screenplay contests force that process upon you. You submit, you wait, you cool off, you get the notes, you scream into a pillow, and then… eventually… you see the truth hiding inside them.

Your feedback at the Santa Barbara International Screenplay Awards is different because our judges aren’t interns. They aren’t college kids. They aren’t people who “just love movies.”
We built this competition around actual, lived, professional trenches-level experience—the kind that comes from:

• studying this craft intensively
• surviving the rejection factory
• working in TV and film for decades

Our feedback comes from people who have been hired, fired, produced, rewritten, and rewritten again.

We know what a real professional script feels like because we’ve been paid to write them. Repeatedly.
No other online competition can say that with a straight face.

Bottom line: Contests aren’t about winning. They’re about learning.
Winning is nice. Winning feels amazing. Winning looks good on Instagram. But the thing that actually moves your writing forward is the feedback.

So...Do this if you're serious about your screenwriting:

• Use contests strategically.
• Forget flattery. Use them to improve your work.
• Use them to become the writer you know—deep down—you can be.
• Enjoy the process; you're becoming an artist.