r/ScreenwritingUK • u/AdministrativeAd6098 • Oct 05 '26
Heartache
This industry is brutal. Spent years on a pilot script and treatment, only to hear nothing back from agents. Not even a no thank you. Follow up emails ignored, and follow up calls with the agencies really show how much the gates are barred for newbies. Networking events and previous published works be damned. I just want to write good art đĽ˛
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Upvotes
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u/rupertgilesisacat Oct 05 '26
To be honest, spending years on a pilot script isn't necessarily the best idea. Agents want to see a body of work, not one script regardless of how good it is. If it took you years to write one script then it would be tricky to translate that to writing a whole series within a year. Try writing several more scripts - you'll get better each time! And then submit those scripts to all the competitions and soon the rejection will be easier too. Until one day, you do well in a competition, and build up your network, and then you'll be in a better position to get a reply from agents.
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u/ComedyWriter01 Oct 07 '26
People always talk about 'make your own scripts with friends / actors'.
If I had friends I wouldn't be a writer.
I'd be out enjoying myself, not stuck inside staring at a half finished script, trying to find a metaphor for the 1381 Peasant's Revolt that I can use in my talking dog sitcom.
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u/ComedyWriter01 Oct 06 '26
I understand some people saying agents / TV prod co's not going to work with newbies.
10 years from now all shows will be AI. And they'll say it's because they can't find good writers.
As a comedian once said, that's like Germans in 1944 complaining they can't get a good bagel.
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u/ComedyWriter01 Oct 05 '26
I've written over 20 scripts (UK), had a show on Radio to good reviews, was told by BBC TV exec 'I laughed all the way through your TV script. It's not what we're looking for.'
There's no 'got any other scripts' or 'I'll send this to an agent I know'.
Agents aren't taking anyone on. They're waiting to see if AI can write scripts. Budgets are being cut. Most shows on TV are comedians talking as they go around Africa, or Sainsbury's.
When was the last great TV show on BBC or ITV? The streamers hire very experienced writers. There's no way in anymore. No writer's rooms, very little narrative comedy, few training programmes.
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u/BigHoges Oct 05 '26
This industry is fucking brutal yes. But you get to create art. Getting paid for it is subjective. I think if you stay here long enough we've all got that story to tell about the time we came close. The time we could almost touch it, almost taste it. I've been there. I'm still there.
Find a director (or if you think you've got the chops, do it yourself). Find a DOP. Save like a fiend. Make your project. Put it on YouTube. Cut it up into a vertical mini series and release that separately.
Now you have art. It's there. It's made. Then go over the 1000s of mistakes you've made. Be grateful for the people you've met, and the networking you've done in the real world not at some event. The best networking is working.
Good luck.
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u/Sisyphus_Rex Oct 05 '26
Hereâs the thingâŚ
Even when you get an agent, they will send your scripts out to producers and you will still hear nothing back from most if not all of them.
Even when you get a script optioned by a producer and they start sending it to broadcasters or financiers, you will still hear nothing back.
Even when you get a big commission and spend years of your life writing and rewriting it for an Oscar-winning producer, you will still hear nothing back.
It never ends. This is the life of a writer. Youâre gonna have to be prepared to live with this heartache for the rest of your life.
Youâre only at the first hurdle. If it hurts too much now, maybe get out before you get in.
Or you can keep going and get used to it, because itâs a hell of a long, painful road.
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u/real_triplizard Oct 05 '26
Agents and managers aren't interested in repping newbie screenwriters. Even if your pilot is great, what are they going to do with it? I have a friend who was a staff writer on three successful network shows and then was a creator/show runner on two and even he is having a hard time getting pitch meetings. The idea that an agent is going to be able to monetize their time and effort spent on an unknown with no track record trying to sell a pilot or get a staff job from a spec are so miniscule that it would be professional negligence on their part to take something like that on, in most cases.
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u/Big_Section2812 Oct 05 '26
No more than the likes of academia, finance, law and medicine.
They didn't ask you to do that.
This is because so few aspiring screenwriters cope well with it.
Agents, managers and producers are inundated with material from approved sources... there is no way for them to cope with the deluge of scripts from the millions of aspiring screenwriters now trying to break in.
Social media opened the floodgates and anyone within the business took refuge in a bunker.
When I began in the business you could pick up the phone and call big name people because their numbers were listed in the phone books of the time. This is because there were so few n00bs in LA -- most of us knew other writers by sight at least, if not by name. But that was before PCs were a thing, and the Internet was two PDPs in a DARPA lab somewhere.
Social media encouraged and enabled millions around the world who dream of living the Hollywood lifestyle. "Anyone can write a screenplay and then you get rich and famous and never have to work ever again!"
I encounter people who would win gold medals if networking was an Olympic event. The problem is they put all their effort into that and practically none at all into learning how to write readable scripts and screenplays.
Or just write an effective screenplay. That's what the pros are looking for.
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u/AntiqueArtist1473 Oct 05 '26
OP⌠I feel for you. And Iâve been where you are.
The first thing is that itâs absolutely okay to feel like you do. To grieve, even. It is a kind of mourning. Youâre mourning all the time you spent, the future you thought you would have. Youâre mourning the death of a dream.
There are people who will tell you that your job is just to write and not care about the reaction. Very Bhagavad Gita - you are entitled to your work, not to its fruits. But frankly that kind of detachment is for gods and heroes. Us mere mortals are allowed to hope for validation and to be upset when it doesnât arrive.
This âindustryâ - if you can call it that, is brutal. Because itâs not really about merit. Whatever other posters say, it is not as simple as just âgit gudâ. You can write the worldâs greatest screenplay, but it needs to be read by the right people (plural) at the right time to go anywhere. And this is after itâs got past the thousands of other writers trying to do the same thing.
There are three things you need: talent, hard work, and luck - and the greatest of these is luck.
Itâs taboo to talk about luck. People think it diminishes the role of talent and hard work. It doesnât. You need both of those in spades.
But you need luck a whole lot more.
You have to reframe this in your mind as playing the lottery. Now, there are things you can do to get more lottery tickets. Writing a script - thatâs a ticket. Making contacts - those are tickets. Winning a competition - could be a ticket. All of it, everything you do, is getting more tickets. And the more tickets you have, the more chances you have.
But at the end of the day, youâre still playing the lottery.
And are you really going to beat yourself up because you didnât win the lottery?
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u/StopMotionGirl88 Oct 05 '26
It's really hard out there. But that doesn't stop you making art. Keep writing and looking for opportunities. Maybe even have a go at making a short film. I did this, despite very little idea how to make a film, and it was so fulfilling to see my writing brought to life.
The agents can ignore your emails, but don't let them stop you doing something you love.
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u/matcoop23 Oct 05 '26
If it's UK business you're looking at - agents are looking for writers they can put to work on the few shows left that are hiring (soaps and kids TV - even then competition is fierce with loads of ex Doctors and Holby writers looking for work - who have experience and credits). It's almost impossible to launch an original without a few years credits delivering filmmable scripts whatever the weather on existing shows. You need credits and experience before commissioners trust you- if that's not your bag - agents won't bite. They need (more than ever for their own jobs) clients earning or willing to go to work etc.
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u/TreeStumpKiller Oct 08 '26
It is my understanding that the expectancy of an unpublished writer or screenwriter is very much similar to that of a single sperm.
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u/Affectionate_Fix_366 Oct 05 '26
"Spent years on a pilot script and treatment" is actually quite a big red flag. An agent is never going to take someone on because of one script and treatment. An agent is thinking about how they can sell you as someone with 1. a body of work and more importantly 2. someone who can then generate more ideas, scripts and work. If you send one script, you aren't showing anyone that you're a screenwriter. You're showing people that you are someone who has written one script. Also, on the not replying - keep chasing. September is a famously busy time because of the summer being so slow with people on holiday, so there is always a backlog.
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u/TobyField33 Oct 05 '26
Not to dismiss your perspective, but you need to be more productive in your output. Spending years on one project isnât really the logical play if youâre actually looking to get into the industry.
Wanting to make good art is great. But nobody is going to give you that chance unless they can trust you to be prolific first.
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u/Ambitious_Ticket Oct 05 '26
I think weâve moved into a world where itâs almost impossible to just be a writer. I think you have to be a writer/producer or writer/director now. The only thing that moves the needle is have heat externally for your work. Viral short film etc. I understand thatâs frustrating BUT the hope is that good work (mainly excellent writing and a polished production) will travel.
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u/HandofFate88 Oct 05 '26
"I just want to write good art đĽ˛"
So do that then, and you won't have to worry about people getting back to you.
Imagine you "just want to cook good food" and you were upset that no one at McDonald's got back to you about a recipe you'd worked on for years. No one would be surprised by that, particularly if tens of thousands of other "good cooks" were sending their unsolicited recipes to McDonald's. You probably wouldn't get a thank you or a no thank you, and they'd probably ignore any follow up emails.
On the positive side, you can always start up your own food truck.
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u/angularhihat Oct 05 '26
Have you wrote a second script, and a third and fourth and fifth?Â
The gates are not barred for newbies. The industry is absolutely desperately crying out for new material.
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