The Screenwriter’s Conundrum: But Do I REALLY Have to Live in Los Angeles?

Lee Jessup is a seasoned career coach for screenwriters, with an exclusive focus on guiding and supporting screenwriters as they parlay their screenwriting prowess into a focused and dynamic screenwriting career. Follow Lee on Twitter @leezjessup

Click to tweet this article to your friends and followers!

The question Does a screenwriter have to live in Los Angeles? is one that continues to be asked by scribes who have not yet made the move out to Tinsel Town. Just the other night during my online screenwriters support group session one of the writers asked: What's the honest-to-God likelihood of becoming a professional screenwriter without moving to L.A.?

The answer to the above question is: While it is possible to become a professional screenwriter (specifically in features) without moving to Los Angeles - and I have a handful of remote clients who have done just that - it is less likely to break in when you’re not living in Los Angeles. Being remote to Los Angeles is not a death blow, but it is a hindrance. You are going to have to work that much harder, be that much more consistent and have that much more to prove if you’re going to try to make it work.

To clarify: You can break remotely into film; less so if you want to go directly into television, most specifically if you want to become a staff writer. TV is an all-hands-on-deck proposition, and while it has happened, it’s very VERY rare to hear about a person staffing on a show if they haven’t already been living in Los Angeles. Unless, of course, they are East Coasters who are able to staff in one of the few rooms based in NYC. But as far as staffing remotely in an L.A.-based room goes, it’s a gamble to bring an unseasoned, never-before-staffed person into the room in the first place; the gamble is doubly as significant when you’re not only betting on the writer assimilating to life in the room, but also assimilating to life in Los Angeles. So if TV staffing is what you have in mind, get to Los Angeles, and fast. For writers seeking to sell pilots to the industry and bypass staffing, while that on its own is a lofty proposition, it is possible, though one should expect to have to be in Los Angeles often and for long periods on their own dime in the weeks and months leading up to the sale.

These are the basics. But it doesn’t end there.

The importance of choosing to live in Los Angeles runs much deeper. It speaks to your commitment to making screenwriting your business. Over the many years I’ve been coaching, I’ve worked with - literally - hundreds of writers seeking to break into the film or television space. And if there is one truism that’s emerged during this time, it’s this: My L.A. writers are much more likely to stick with it. This is what they’ve chosen. There is no Plan-B. For good or bad, it’s screenwriting or bust for them.

To more fully understand this, consider this simple fact: I meet with my L.A, writers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while my Tuesdays and Thursdays are usually dedicated to phone and Skype sessions with remote writers. On paper, I have nearly as many remote clients as I do writers here in Los Angeles. But my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are ALWAYS fully booked, so much so that my in-person meetings have been bleeding into my Tuesday and Thursday mornings. My sessions with my remote clients, however, are strikingly hit or miss. Some days are fully booked with back-to-back meetings from morning ’til night, while on other Tuesdays or Thursdays I’ll only have 3-4 sessions scheduled.

While I’ve worked with writers remote to Los Angeles who’ve shown substantial dedication and perseverance that’s paid off for them (you know who you are!!!!), that has not been the rule, but rather very much the exception. I can count on one hand (literally) my remote clients who have been absolutely dedicated to and consistent with their pursuit of screenwriting, both creatively and strategically, year after year, and their work had indeed bore fruit. Allow me to gush for a moment when I tell you that I couldn’t be more proud of them, especially because I know how tough it is to make screenwriting a consistent priority, especially when you are not completely immersed in it. But the reality is that for the majority of my remote writers, and despite all of their good intentions, screenwriting ends up presenting itself as more of a hobby, a “nice-to-have” rather than a “have-to-have,” and as a result, they’re not able to completely immerse themselves in this pursuit on an ongoing, consistent basis.

So if I were a gambling woman, and you put in front of me two writers possessing a similar skill set but one in Los Angeles and one not, and asked me which one would still be at it in five years, I would bet on the writer living in Los Angeles. And this truism is one that agents, managers and industry executives are very much aware of, one that often influences their decisions about who to work with, especially when it comes to new writers looking to make their very first splash in the space.

More than anything, living in Los Angeles as you try to get your career off the ground is a sign of your dedication. It’s an indication of how serious you are about breaking into the space. The industry is here, so being here allows you to meet it on even ground, rather than seek to have it make concessions and accommodate your geography. When I interviewed him for my upcoming book, longtime manager John Karas told me, “It’s really important to be around to network, to take a meeting at a moment’s notice, to hang out with your peer group – peer group meaning more executives from the studios, your team, etc. – you can’t do that if you live some place else, you won’t succeed. Or let’s put it this way, you will have the odds go way against you. Is it because L.A. has nice weather? No, it’s because the industry is here.”

Recently, I introduced a ridiculously talented feature writer to a manager friend. The manager read the writer’s script, and much like me LOVED the work. Which, for the record, was entirely deserved. The writer has a voice out of this world. But as soon as I reminded the manager that the writer is not based in Los Angeles, the manager got nervous, and asked to see more work. He even went online and did a quick search. When I asked the manager why all this unusual diligence (after all, he represents two other L.A.-based writers I work with, and never put them through this sort of vetting process) he told me quite simply, “The writer doesn’t live in Los Angeles, so I have to make sure that he’s really serious if I’m going to take a chance on him. I have to make sure he is all in.” I’m happy to report that with a respectable and substantive body of work, the writer was easily able to prove that writing was no hobby for him. But this incident served as an important reminder that industry folks are skeptical of non-L.A.-based writers for a specific reason.

In the simplest of terms, the decision not to move to Los Angeles may cause some agents and managers, at least initially, to question your commitment.

As Jon Karas mentioned, there are practical benefits to living in Los Angeles as well, the first and most obvious of which is your ability to connect with other writers, and eventually folks working in the industry. For those moving to Los Angeles in their twenties, taking an industry office, or even PA job can be beneficial, as it will connect you with other people in your “class,” who will - with any luck - grow and evolve with you, and hopefully one day land in positions where they are able to lend a helping hand. Additionally, by living in Los Angeles, you make yourself available for impromptu meetings and unofficial coffees, consistently growing your network of contacts. Writers who do not live in Los Angeles but are able to keep at it year after year should, and often do, make the trip to Los Angeles every few months to take meetings and stay in front of their contacts. When a new script goes out and a slew of generals are set up, the writer is required to be in Los Angeles for an intensive week or even two, taking back-to-back meetings every day, as well as getting some face time with their team. Those can be both exhausting and - due to last minute cancellations - frustrating. Living in Los Angeles makes you available for rescheduled meetings, not to mention the endless events, panels and mixers that happen here on a regular basis, ones that you wouldn’t travel to Los Angeles for especially, but that can prove to be informative and constructive to your overall screenwriting trajectory.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not saying that if you’re just starting out, if you have yet to have written a word, you should pack up your bags IMMEDIATELY and make the move to Los Angeles. I am not quite as radical as others on this. Some writers have families and commitments, and can’t just uproot their whole lives, which - as a mother of two I have to admit - is totally fair. But to those who can, my advice is to set a plan into action, one that includes a little time staying put and developing your voice and body of work without the pressure of assimilating to a whole new world. If you can save money and lay down the foundation for a big move while developing your writing chops, you will be well served. Just make sure that plan is executed, and that the move doesn’t get postponed again and again until it evaporates, your whole life gets side tracked, and you wake up five or ten or twenty years later wondering what happened.

At the end of the day, it’s the immersive Los Angeles experience that makes the difference for writers trying to make a go of a screenwriting career. The intangibles. The stuff you can’t plan for. The people you will meet. The friends you will find who, just like you, are trying to make a go of this. Moving to Los Angeles allows you to grow your network, develop your community, immerse yourself in the world of screenwriting as well as makes you available for impromptu meetings and opportunities, while putting your commitment and dedication on display.

Or as Manager Josh Adler of Circle of Confusion told me when I interviewed him for my upcoming book Breaking In: Tales from the Screenwriting Trenches, “My advice would be to get here. I know it’s not an option for everybody, people have families, people have jobs, whatever—but, and it may not be fair to say, for the most part, if you’re trying to break a new writer into the business, they need to be here. It makes it easier, and it shows that this isn’t a hobby to you. That you’re passionate about this, and this is your goal, and you’re sacrificing and risking everything to try and make it, and you’re not just a weekend warrior writer. It’s not playing second fiddle to some other passion that you have. So most of the time, I would say, if you can, be here. It’s the easiest way to start.”