CompuServe Thread

There are any number of ways. But they don't always work for each person who tries them. The most important criteria I can think of are the need to write (whether anybody will pay you or not), and being able to express yourself in the screenplay form. There are many ways to learn the craft of screenwriting: books, college extension courses… I read a bunch of screenplays, went so far as to put a stopwatch on the types of shows I wanted to write for to see how long scenes were. You keep cranking out the scripts, learning not to spend too much time on each one. I knew a guy who was working on the same spec script for two years. This man will never be a professional screenwriter. Show your work to people whose opinions you trust. If they are affiliated with the business in some way: actors, directors, other writers, etc. even better. You can get a list of agents who have signed an agreement with the Writers Guild of America. Find the ones who'll read new material, contact them. You can register your scripts with the WGA, too. Hopefully you'll find one who's willing to shop your material. It is almost essential to live in Los Angeles. Even New York won't do you much good. The producers want to know they can get their hands on you, if they like your work. That's the nickel tour. The full answer to your question occupies hundreds of pages of how-to books, hours of seminars… or one long discussion into the wee hours of the night. Every screenwriter (hell, every writer) will tell you a different story about how she or he got that first leg up. And the procedure I outlined above is not really even how I did it. It's sort of a generic way of going about it. Even so, this is kind of a long answer to such a short question, isn't it? 8)