Welcome to Screenwriting Truth

So, what is this site?

Screenwriting Truth was born from two things… the first was my frustration with all the bad advice and information out there for newer, emerging screenwriters. And it’s no coincidence that 99.75% of it is coming from people with little to no professional screenwriting experience. 

If you’ve written a short film, or a couple of episodes of your web series idea, or an 88-page feature a few years back, well, sure, you can call yourself a “screenwriter” all day long, but to call yourself one in the context of having knowledge and experience to give other people trying to forge a screenwriting career is dubious at best, and egregious at worst. 

This is not an elitist opinion or mindset. I am not one who believes you have to be paid for your writing to be a writer. Not at all. But I do believe IF you’re going to give people “expert advice” or charge them money for said advice, then you damn well better know what you’re talking about, and being a struggling, aspiring, emerging writer yourself does not qualify you. 

The second was from the social audio app CLUBHOUSE. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people on there claiming to be screenwriters or Hollywood experts, and giving absolutely terrible and sometimes hurtful advice. 

After being in a multitude of Clubhouse “Screenwriting” rooms, and hearing dozens of people either sincerely trying to help folks, but giving them uninformed opinions and advice, or hearing people that are absolute frauds – trying to lift their self worth by pretending to be what they so desperately want to be, or by literally committing fraud charging folks money for their expert opinions, I decided to help. 

I started a Clubhouse room on Mondays called Screenwriting Truth where myself and some other professional screenwriters do our best to answer questions truthfully. 

I have been putting SCREENWRITER on my tax returns every year since 1999. I am a professional, working screenwriter. My point is I am not someone who perhaps sold a script back in 2002, but haven’t been paid for work since. I am still a professional, working screenwriter. 

It breaks my heart when I connect with newer writers and they tell me something they read in a book about saving cats, or something they were told by a fraud on Clubhouse, or the money they paid a website for feedback that was coming from someone with zero experience. 

I love writers, and I want ALL writers to succeed. Your success helps me, and mine yours, and so on. 

Thus, Screenwriting Truth came to be. The name is obvious – because there is so little truth on the Internet when it comes to screenwriting. Most of what you read is regurgitated fodder from the three or four screenwriting books that NON-professionals think are bibles; Save The Cat, STORY, and whatever Syd Field’s book was called. 

On this site I will have posts for you to read that cover various tips and thoughts about screenwriting - from the craft, the process, to the business and beyond. 

I’ll occasionally drop videos from my Instagram or TikTok. And if you sign up with your email, you’ll have access to FREE monthly video AMA sessions with me - where you can do exactly what an AMA is - Ask me anything. 

And if you want more, I offer my services to you, subject to availability. Anything from a private meeting with you (in person or virtually), to giving you indepth, professional notes and feedback, to even working one-on-one with you from conception to finished product on your idea, I want to help. But again, you need not spend a dime here, there’s plenty to absorb for free. 

Welcome to the Truth! — Paul Guyot