Growing up, storytelling was always my favorite method of expressing myself. Whether it was my make-believe recess games in elementary school or sugarcoating tales of delinquency at high school parties, telling stories was how I connected with those around me and made a name for myself while screenwriting came much later. In fact, I didn’t start screenwriting until I was already a year into college. Part of that reasoning was that I wanted to explore different career paths before making such a big decision. I was also intimidated by film students my age who were so convinced of their artistic ambitions that they would head straight for an art major at 18 years old.

But whatever predispositions I had about these young artists and whatever fantasies I had about choosing a different career path than screenwriting evaporated instantaneously my first week of college when I finally met these students and realized that most of them had never written a screenplay in their life either. So, I got the application materials as soon as I could manage, and I transferred into my school’s film program the next year. I went to college for three years total, and only two of those were in the film program—my goal being to get out to Los Angeles with my degree as soon as possible so I could save some money and start grinding for the very long road ahead.

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And a long road it has been. My first year out of college was a complete and utter dry spell of work. Dotted only by a few small PA gigs and a part-time job at a matlifting company (which got me in the best shape of my life), my first year in the film industry was the total opposite of my productive schedule in film school. It was a harsh reminder of how much this career relies on patience and perseverance.

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Slow Beginnings

While these jobs and people that I worked with slowly and eventually got me work on longer, more rewarding projects, none of these gigs in my first years out of college were getting my screenwriting career any traction. Outside of a few very lucky exceptions, writing jobs have rarely been entry-level positions (even work as a writer’s assistant can take years and years of networking to come to fruition), so I kept driving home every day in 40 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic picking my brain as to how I could draw attention to my screenplays without a manager and without overstepping workplace boundaries with the people I worked for.

I had never stopped writing after I graduated, but these screenplays were no longer homework I could send to an instructor for a grade. They would instead sit on my computer collecting dust until I figured out where to send them.

So, I tossed around the idea of using them to apply to grad school, or maybe a lab, until a screenwriter friend of mine found the perfect solution: a screenplay competition that not only promised tangible advancements for my career as a prize but one that would also allow my family and comedy-focused scripts to compete in their specific genre instead of having to go up against every category all at once.

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Ready, Set, Launch

As you might have guessed, this competition was ScreenCraft, and to this day I still find it the best opportunity to get a screenplay directly into the hands of the very people who actually produce this genre of entertainment, without requiring a single connection to that industry.

Then, I placed. I placed as a quarter-finalist in September of 2021, and instantly I felt the gratification and motivation to keep working on these scripts every day, even if this was the furthest I’d end up in the competition.

Then, I placed as a semifinalist, and then a finalist, and by early December, I was staring at the grand prize winner announcement like I was in a fever dream. I’ll never forget the moment. I had just been asked to clean out an actor's dressing room on a soundstage in Burbank, and after scrubbing my hands free of literal garbage I sat mouth agape at my email for about an hour, in complete shock. The rewards came almost instantaneously, the finalist placement alone put me on a face-to-face basis with the other talented finalists, and the judges of the competition itself reached out to me for a general meeting after I won.

My professional screenwriting career had practically launched overnight. By the time I won my second ScreenCraft competition four months later, I was able to successfully option the script to an animation company with the help of the ScreenCraft team, a feat that I didn’t even think was possible for an original animated film when I set out to write it.

The best prize that comes from these contests is not the generals or the money, it’s the fact that ScreenCraft becomes your de facto manager throughout the whole process. Even as a finalist, I worked with the staff to chart my path forward, and, after winning the competition, it felt as if I was given a mentor for life in their professional program.

The Road Ahead

I still have a long road ahead of me, make no mistake, but three years after I read that life-changing email, I’ve since written for a Netflix animated show, gotten three writer’s assistant positions, and, most recently, was promoted to write full time for a reality true crime show thanks in part no doubt to the increasing merit that these ScreenCraft accolades are worth to every corner of the industry.

I’d be a liar if I said I did it by myself. Every draft I submitted and every job that hired me was thanks to the direct help of my friends and family who pushed and critiqued me every step of my career, and continue to do so to this day. But what my ScreenCraft win did for me was essentially create a shortcut that no one else could, and let me barge into the industry at a blinding speed that would have otherwise taken years of work and connections to accomplish.

So, if you’re looking for a change of pace, or just generally curious about getting your script to its full potential, I say give it a shot!

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Charlie Fellows has worked as a credited writer on the Netflix animated series Johnny Test, the true crime series iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas, and as a writer's assistant on Nickelodeon's live-action sitcom Warped. In 2022, his animated feature script Boba was optioned after winning the grand prize in both ScreenCraft's 2021 animation screenplay contest and their 2022 family screenplay contest.

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