WRITERS GUILD FOUNDATION

Founded in 1966, the Writers Guild Foundation (WGF) is dedicated to promoting and preserving the craft of writing for the screen. Our mission is to engage, educate, and inspire emerging writers—especially those belonging to under-served populations—and to preserve the rich history of writing in Hollywood for future generations. This is done through WGF’s three primary functions: our Shavelson-Webb Library and Archive, our outreach programs (the Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program, the Veterans Writing Project, the Visiting Writers Program, and the Volunteer and Mentorship Program), and our public events.

The SHAVELSON-WEBB LIBRARY is the crown jewel of the Writers Guild Foundation; in operation since 1984, it’s WGF’s longest-running effort to support the screenwriting community. It provides a quiet space for anyone—not just Writers Guild of America (WGA) members—to read scripts, consult with our librarians, and write. It is free to visit, open to the public Tuesday through Friday, and home to over 40,000 items available to read, primarily film, television, radio, video game, and new media scripts.

Reading a produced script is an invaluable way to educate oneself on the art and craft of screenwriting. Our Library is often the only place where patrons can access these scripts and serves a vital function in lowering barriers to entry for new writers, especially for people from marginalized groups or who lack connections otherwise.

In an effort to expand accessibility and lower barriers to entry for new writers—particularly writers who cannot physically visit the Library—even further, our Library staff also offer a wide array of online resources like virtual events and blog series that review popular patron needs like script formatting for television shows and films.

The ARCHIVE is home to a wide variety of rare and unique collections that tell the story of the past 110 years of screenwriting history, including Screen Writers’ Guild and Writers Guild of America historical materials, produced and unproduced scripts, letters, photographs, production notes, memorabilia, oral histories, and personal items of film, television and radio writers. These materials are available to the public upon request and are primarily used by academics for research purposes.

Our four outreach programs—the Writers’ Access Support Staff Training Program, the Veterans Writing Project, the Visiting Writers Program, and the Volunteer and Mentorship Program—work to overcome the systemic disenfranchisement of certain classes of people within the film and television industry and to connect writers with underserved populations of emerging writers.

The WRITERS’ ACCESS SUPPORT STAFF TRAINING PROGRAM provides writers from historically underrepresented backgrounds (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, over the age of 50, etc.) with tools and education to become a writers’ assistant and script coordinator, ultimately resulting in meaningful employment opportunities. These positions are an invaluable way to learn the writing process first-hand and serve as the first step on the ladder of a successful screenwriting career. In this way, this program aims to be a step towards greater inclusivity at both the “entry level” and, in the future, on all writing staffs.

Participants are mentored by writers who have previously worked in these support roles themselves. In 2021, this program’s inaugural year, over 2,000 writers applied for only 48 available spots. More than half of the first year's graduates are now staffed in writers' rooms in support roles. 16 spots were filled from over 1,200 applications for the Fall 2022 cohort, which recently finished. As this program continues to grow, we hope to be able to accept more applicants and expand awareness for this program amongst TV showrunners and hiring managers.

For over ten years, the VETERANS WRITING PROJECT develops the writing skills of military veterans for professional advancement and personal fulfillment. Serving 60-80 veterans each year, participants are educated on the fundamentals of screenwriting and are mentored by WGA-enrolled writers over the course of the year-long program. Participants gain the skills and ability to write scripts, and by the end of the program, they leave with a completed screenplay or TV pilot. Thanks to the skills and experience gleaned from this program, our alumni have gone on to write on shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Justice, Narcos, United States of Al, Manifest, Valor, Shooter, Animal Kingdom, and Proven Innocent, among others.

The VISITING WRITERS PROGRAM provides academic enrichment by pairing professional writers with colleges and universities (and occasionally elementary, middle, and high schools) both here in Los Angeles and around the country for in-person and online guest speaking and workshop opportunities. During the 2021-22 school year, we paired more than 25 different writers with classrooms around the country.

Similarly, the VOLUNTEER AND MENTORSHIP PROGRAM pairs WGA-enrolled writers with volunteer and mentorship opportunities at several nonprofit organizations around Los Angeles that implement literacy and/or writing programming for disadvantaged groups such as underserved youth and those emerging from the criminal justice system. We currently work with organizations like 826LA, Young Storytellers, Get Lit, and more.

In addition to our four core outreach programs, WGF also hosts a variety of PUBLIC EVENTS that provide writers, students, and anyone interested in film and television access to a variety of programming. Programming is both virtual and in person and includes: script breakdowns and Q&A panels with prominent WGA writers, workshops focused on the business of the film and television industry, seminars on important topics like the state of diversity and inclusion in Hollywood today, and more. All of our events are free, except for large-scale events like WGFestival, our annual convention featuring top screenwriting talent. These paid events do offer scholarships to student groups, WGF program participants, and other sectors of our screenwriting community, however.

Since transitioning most of these events to the virtual space due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of attendees; between March 2020 and December 2022, we received over 40,000 RSVPs spanning more than 100 different events. As we enter 2023, we expect to continue providing virtual events for the sake of accessibility, but also increase the number of in-person events.