The person who watches a television program or a movie likely doesn't think much, or perhaps even care, about how actors come to say some things and not others. The fact of the matter is however that actors are almost always reciting dialogue that's been written for them: they don't just come up with things to say on their own. Actors memorize and then deliver what it is they are to say. The person behind the actor's dialogue, the person who actually thinks up what actors ultimately say, is usually known as a screenwriter.



Those relatively few people who do have an interest in what screenwriters do often would like to become screenwriters themselves, assuming they aren't screenwriters already. The fact of the matter is, there are a variety of ways for one to become a paid screenwriter. Notice the usage of paid here. Virtually anyone has the capacity to write a screenplay. A small number of people have the ability to write a legitimately good screenplay. And some few literally earn money by writing screenplays.

All things considered, the number of people who are paid to write screenplays or television scripts is small. Screenwriting is a competitive industry in the sense that more people would like to get in than are needed, and that it's often difficult to connect with people who pay for scripts: the path to established entertainment industry professionals who regularly pay for some form of screenwriting is blocked by any number of gatekeepers. This isn't to infer that becoming a paid screenwriter is an impossibility as it's clearly not, but there are challenges involved.

One of the forms people take to establishing screenwriting careers is to get screenwriting training at a university. Various university screenplay writing programs exist, with the programs that have close connections to the entertainment industry being the most competitive to gain entry into. The southern California schools UCLA and USC both have established and competitive screenwriting programs. Since these schools are located in what is essentially the capital of the entertainment industry, the immediate area around Los Angeles, they have an inside access schools located elsewhere don't have. This geographic advantage adds greatly to the prestige of these schools' screenwriting programs.

It is absolutely not mandatory to attend university screenwriting training. Many screenwriters have established careers, some quite successful, without any formal screenwriting training at all. At the end of the day, all that's required to become a professional screenwriter is to have a screenplay that the industry wants to buy. No one in the entertainment industry cares much if at all about how a screenwriter learned their trade. The only concern is for the finished product, and that's the script, which in screenwriting is the most important thing of all.