When should a Screenwriter Work for Free? 5 Tips to Avoid being Taken Advantage of.

Hi All, 

A question I get asked a lot is: I’ve been asked to write for free, should I do it?  How do I know when I should bite the bullet and do work “on spec”?

My short answer is hopefully “never.” 

Unfortunately, over the years it’s become a norm in Hollywood.  And it pisses me off.  I’m more familiar with the TV space than the feature space, but it’s happening in both.

Because new writers often have to (or feel they have to)  “prove themselves”  it can be easy to get sucked into believing that you need to do free work in order to impress a producer, or foster a new relationship with a production company and ultimately get a paying gig with them.

The WGA has an outreach campaign called No Writing Left Behind that aims to stop producers from asking for written material after a writer’s pitch (aka asking for free work). But even with this initiative free work still happens.

In television I refer to it as the “Writers Sweepstakes”. Which means a producer or production company invites multiple writers to pitch their “take” on a piece of IP. Those 2, 3 or sometimes 4, writers each work hard to come up with a thoughtful, prepared pitch, but there’s no guarantee they’ll win out in the competition.  And once they do choose a writer, that writer is generally asked to write up a pitch document that lays out what the series is. That’s a lot of free work. And, as I said, it pisses me off.

Here are 5 tips to consider if you’re asked to write for free. They can help you avoid being taken advantage of. 

1. Just Give them Enough to get Excited

When you pitch on a movie or television IP, give the producers enough material that they can get excited about your idea and you as a writer, but don’t give away every last detail. Providing them with a dynamic outline that includes the first act hook, midpoint, and the ending is great - that way they know you’re the person to write it. But don’t give them every character moment and interesting story beat, that’s the juicy stuff that makes a script special - Think of it like giving them a taste so they know they want more, but save the full ‘meal’ until they’ve committed to hiring you.

2. Don’t Give them Pages on Their IP

The important phrase here is “their IP”. If you don’t own the idea you are pitching on, then any writing you do for it can only be used on that project. If they choose not to hire you, you can’t use those genius ideas you pitched for something else (not even a writing sample). Let’s say five writers pitched on a project, and all five writers leave pages with the producers to be considered for the job. That equals five documents that can act like a ‘creativity smorgasbord’ for the project. They probably won’t blatantly ‘steal’ your work, but they could certainly ‘borrow’ from or ‘be inspired by’ the ideas in your pages. 

3. If You Don’t Own it, Don’t Spec it

Spec scripts (I’m not talking about a “spec” script for an existing TV series, that’s a different animal, and used as a writing sample) are screenplays that a writer does for free based on the “speculation” that the idea will be good enough to sell. For writers with few professional credits this can be a great way to showcase your talent and prove to buyers, producers, and reps that even though you may not be a household name (yet) you are fully capable at delivering a dynamite script. But, following the same theme as my previous point, don’t agree to spec on an idea you don’t own for free. If a producer asks you to spec on their idea for free (no matter how passionate you are about writing it), and nothing happens with that project, you can’t take it anywhere else. Writing spec scripts is great - they can help land you reps, get you into writing programs and writers rooms, and you might even sell your script to a buyer - but only if you own the material. 

4. Make Sure You Own Your Work

There is a lot of debate over free option agreements (or $1 option agreements, which are basically the same thing). An ‘option’ is a when a producer doesn’t buy your script, but they buy the exclusive right to buy your script later. If you enter into a free option agreement, make sure it is clearly stated in the contract that no matter what happens you are the sole owner of your script. That way, if you don’t sell your project with that producer and your agreement expires, the producer (no matter how many notes they “contributed” to the script or treatment) has no claim to it. In the long run this protects you: if you own your work and it doesn’t sell within the time agreed to, you have every right to take your script somewhere else. This is super important for your career.

5. You Can Always say No

Creativity and time are highly valuable commodities, don’t give yours away for free to companies that can (and should) be paying for them. I’m not saying to never write for free, spec scripts are how a lot of writers get their foot in the door - but make sure the spec scripts you are writing are for yourself, on ideas that you own. If you ever feel like you are being taken advantage of, chances are you’re probably right. You always have the option to just say no.

What are your thoughts on screenwriters writing for free? Let me know @CaroleKirsch!