Can a retired or retiring US military veteran become a Hollywood screenwriter?
Yes, in fact there is a remarkable tradition of U.S. military vets transitioning into screenwriting, ranging from West Point-trained fighter pilots like James Salter to Navy SEALs like Ray Mendoza, often bringing their firsthand military experiences to powerful storytelling in Hollywood.
Screenwriting has always held a certain mystique. The idea of sitting down at a keyboard and conjuring entire powerful storytelling in Hollywood.worlds—then seeing those worlds come to life on a massive screen—draws countless people to Hollywood each year. But behind the glamour and mythology lies a career that is both rewarding and notoriously difficult to break into. In this article we’ll pass along a few important tips from insiders on how to climb the glass hill of Hollywood and achieve success in this hyper-competitive field.
The Appeal of Screenwriting
At its core, screenwriting is about telling stories that move people. Movies and television shows are among the most powerful cultural products of the modern world. The screenwriter has the unique role of being the architect of these experiences. While directors, producers, and actors may be more visible, everything starts with the script.
A good script can launch careers, define genres, and resonate across decades. From the suspense of Chinatown to the vast universe of Star Wars, screenwriters can leave a huge mark on culture.
Training and Preparation
There is no single route to becoming a Hollywood screenwriter. Some writers graduate from film schools like USC, UCLA, or NYU, while others study literature, theater, or journalism before turning to screenwriting. Some never actually study film but learn by watching movies, reading screenplays, and taking screenwriting courses.
Books such as Syd Field’s Screenplay, Robert McKee’s Story, and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! have long been “must” reading for aspiring screenwriters. Some writers try to improve by following the advice in these books and writing “practice scripts” they know will never get produced, but honing their skills in dialogue and visual storytelling.
Competitions and fellowships are common pathways into the industry. Programs like the Academy Nicholl Fellowships, the Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop, and the Disney Writing Program have launched more than a few careers. These platforms allow unknown writers to showcase their work and gain industry attention.
Breaking Into the Industry
The greatest challenge of screenwriting as a career is simply getting a foot in the door. Hollywood is inundated with many thousands of scripts each year, and only a tiny fraction ever get produced. Hollywood is the ultimate “who do you know” industry. Networking is as important as writing ability, since producers, agents, and executives rely on recommendations from colleagues when considering new projects.
Representation is also crucial. Screenwriters need a script agent or manager to submit their scripts to studios and production companies. Landing representation often comes from winning contests, placing in fellowships, or self-generating buzz through independently produced short films or web content.
Another path is working in adjacent roles: assistants at agencies, production companies, or television writers’ rooms to gain contacts. Many successful screenwriters, including Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, started with small television writing jobs before developing their own projects.
The Work Itself
Once a writer breaks in, the reality of professional screenwriting is a mixture of creativity and business. A typical Hollywood screenwriter may be hired via any of several types of projects:
- Spec Scripts: Original scripts written without pay, with the hope of selling them to a studio. These also can serve as writing samples.
- Assignments: Scripts commissioned by studios, producers, or directors based on an existing idea, novel, comic book, or franchise.
- Rewrites and Polishes: Tweaking or overhauling existing scripts, sometimes under tight deadlines
Screenwriters must not only tell stories well but also deal with feedback. Notes from producers, executives, and directors are part of the job, and the ability to revise quickly and effectively is highly valued. Unlike novelists, who control their work from start to finish, screenwriters operate within a collaborative and often hierarchical system.
Deadlines are tight, revisions are constant, and the possibility of being replaced by another writer is always present. That’s why so many films credit multiple screenwriters, reflecting the highly collaborative (and often chaotic) nature of Hollywood moviemaking.
Lifestyle and Income Realities
Screenwriting is rarely a stable career, especially at the beginning. Writers may sell one script and then go years without another sale. According to the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the median annual income for screenwriters varies widely, and many supplement their income with teaching, copywriting, or television writing
For a single WGA-covered feature film, a writer can earn a minimum of approximately $106,000 for an original screenplay and about $54,000 for a rewrite or adaptation, as of 2025. However, these are just the minimums, and top-tier writers can earn well over $1 million for studio assignments, while more typical annual incomes for WGA-eligible screenwriters might range from $60,000 to over $100,000 annually, depending on experience, connections, and project type.
But for every writer earning six or seven figures, countless others are struggling to land their first sale.
Television writing offers a steadier path. Staff writers on a TV series earn consistent pay during a season, and the collaborative writers’ room environment provides mentorship and experience. With streaming platforms creating unprecedented demand for content, television has become an increasingly attractive avenue for new screenwriters.
Rewards and Fulfillment
Despite the challenges, screenwriting can be very rewarding. Writers who succeed enjoy the satisfaction of seeing their words turned into living, breathing performances. They influence the tone and direction of stories that may reach millions of viewers. A successful script can provide financial security, industry respect, and creative fulfillment.
Screenwriters also enjoy unique flexibility. With laptops as their main tool, writers can work almost anywhere. Many balance their Hollywood careers with independent projects, novels, or stage plays, using screenwriting to support a broader creative life.
Challenges and Sacrifices
But the glamour of Hollywood masks a difficult reality. Rejection is constant, and writers must cultivate resilience. Many scripts are optioned—purchased for development—but never produced. Writers may pour years into projects that never see the light of day.
The collaborative nature of film also means that screenwriters often see their work changed dramatically by directors, producers, and actors. Some writers find this frustrating, while others embrace it as part of the medium.
Another sacrifice is uncertainty. Freelance work, inconsistent income, and the pressure to remain “hot” in a competitive market can strain personal lives and finances. Writers must balance creative passion with business acumen, learning to market themselves as much as their stories.
Keys to Success
For those considering screenwriting as a career, insiders offer a number of recommendations, most not well known by wannabe screenwriters, but which can make the difference between success and failure –
- Topics – What kinds of screenplays sell best? Believe it or not action-adventure is not a top seller, say agents. It is too expensive to produce. If you are planning to write a spec script your best bets are drama and romance. There is also always a good market for horror, we’re told.
- Script Formatting – It may sound petty but proper formatting of your script is crucial. Hollywood readers will quickly dismiss a script which is not in standard screenplay format as “amateurish”. There are many tutorials online on correct movie script formatting. Getting this simple clerical aspect right can make or break a script.
- Budget – This one is important. Many new writers make a mistake by writing “big budget” movies. Movies like Taken or Superman. However these blockbusters can only be produced by a few major production companies, which are next-to-impossible to break into by an unknown. Industry insiders say your best chance is with low budget spec scripts, e.g., those with a minimum of characters, scenes, and settings, and lacking crowd scenes and special effects. These are most likely to be optioned or produced by small production companies and can provide a foot-in-the-door to the industry.
- Screenwriting Competitions – Although many script doctors and industry gurus suggest getting a list of Hollywood production companies and sending query letters out by the dozens, this is very likely to be unproductive. These companies don’t have the personnel or interest in reading dozens or hundreds of inquiries every day. Your best chance of attracting attention is by winning a screenplay competition, of which there are scores every year. You will find a fairly complete listing of them on the screenplay referral website InkTip.com.
- Referral Websites – Inktip,com and another similar site called The Black List (as well as other such services) are important to know about. They are meant to be staging grounds for new screenwriters and producers. They will publish your logo or synopsis or even your entire script and make it available to producers on their site.
But do they work? Yes, for low budget, well-written scripts these services can work. Unfortunately, like screenplay contests, they are not inexpensive. If you are serious about breaking into screenwriting, you will need a budget to cover the costs of referral websites.
But as in all creative fields, it’s networking – building relationships – that opens doors the fastest. In Hollywood, this can mean many things, such as working in the mail room at a major agency like Creative Arts, or as a production assistant for a small production company. Or it may just mean having social connections to some of the various so-called “players” in the industry (i.e., the people who can “greenlight” movies or get scripts read). However for most aspiring screenwriters, this route is not practical as it means moving to the Los Angeles area. Not to be discouraged though – most new writers who break in are not LA natives. They are usually good writers who have mailed out many queries and scripts to agents and entered many contests from all over the country. In screenwriting, it’s the script that matters most, not the writer. As one agent put it, “Nobody really cares if the writer is from the moon if the script is great.”
Conclusion
Hollywood screenwriting is a career of paradoxes: glamorous yet grueling, creative yet commercial. And very difficult to break into. For every celebrated screenwriter, thousands struggle in obscurity.
The path to success demands hard work, resilience, and more than a bit of luck. But despite the challenges screenwriting remains one of the most exciting—and challenging—career choices in the creative arts.