Breaking into Hollywood as a screenwriter can seem almost impossible at times, like a hero trying to enter an impenetrable fortress. But Joseph Greenberg’s journey, from contest winner to having his scripts set up with major talent attached, offers an invaluable guide for up-and-coming writers. 

After his script Man Alive won Final Draft’s Big Break screenwriting competition in the sci-fi category in 2014, it was acquired by 20th Century Fox with Noah Hawley attached to direct. Now, his latest project Dreadnought is in development with Dave Bautista set to star. 

Final Draft caught up with Joseph to hear about his amazing journey since winning his Big Break category, and to get his advice for emerging screenwriters on navigating a screenwriting career.

Use contests as your Hollywood calling card

For writers without industry connections, screenwriting competitions can be your way in. Living on the East Coast far from Los Angeles, Joseph says he needed a strategy. 

He didn’t see the prospect of becoming “another bartender or pizza delivery guy walking around” Hollywood as his path to success. Instead, one of his professors told him to submit as many scripts as he could into screenwriting contests, advising him to do his research and see which contests were the best ones to enter.

Joseph did, and also took advantage of contests that offered feedback as an additional part of the submission process. “If you have a chance to get feedback, check that box off,” he said, noting that this feedback also became a key part of his screenwriting education. 

“Even those first couple of notes could totally change the way that you write, could totally change your process,” he said. “And even if it doesn’t, it helps you fine-tune your voice. It helps you make your point better. It helps you write more concisely.”

Instead of getting discouraged by rejection, Joseph used screenwriting contests as a way to plan what was next. “I would mark which contest [I’d entered], and I would resubmit, and I noticed I was doing better and better and better in these contests.” 

His persistence paid off when he won Big Break’s sci-fi category. Just a year later, another project was named Best Screenplay at LA Screamfest. The aftermath of his wins were exactly what writers dream about. 

“The immediate effect was just getting tons of calls. Tons of calls and emails ... it was all managers and agents,” Joseph says. This led to meetings across the industry, getting representation, and eventually having his script optioned by Noah Hawley’s company.

Balance the familiar with the fresh

Here’s a million-dollar question: How do you stand out among thousands of screenplay entries? And how do you write something commercial enough to sell but original enough to stand out? 

“The thing that I go for is to try to give the reader something that feels familiar, but you’re getting a new twist on it,” he said. “And I think that is the sweet spot that as a screenwriter you’re trying to hit.”

Screenplays, generally, have established frameworks and structure. Joseph believes you can find creative freedom within those boundaries. 

“There is a box, for lack of a better term, that you do need to keep it contained in if it’s going to be a film. It’s almost more like a blueprint than it is prose, really. And you need to be artistic within that and to try to show [something] different within those kinds of confines.”

With his Big Break winning screenplay Man Alive, Joseph took a familiar sci-fi set-up—”an update to Invasion of the Body Snatchers”—and flipped a character premise on its head. 

“We’ve all seen the movie where there’s a soldier that goes off to war, and he comes home and he’s different, he’s changed, and that’s what the conflict is ... well, what if there was a guy that came back, and he was normal, but everything else had changed?” 

Joseph also warned against writing purely for the market. “You can’t write with the idea that you’re chasing the money, because that’ll kill any kind of creative vibe that you have in your head. I wanted to tell weird stories that people were like, ‘Wow, that was really strange, but I kind of dug it.’”

Characters over concept

You can have the coolest high-concept idea in town, but without compelling characters, you’ve got nothing. Joseph emphasized this point.

“Man Alive’s a character story, and if you’re paying attention in any screenwriting class, character is the most important thing. You can have two people in a room with no furniture in it, but if they’re interesting characters, and they’re believable people, that’s what engages us when we’re listening to a story, when we’re watching a film.”

Joseph described his creative territory as “character-driven, weird stories, elevated genre.” We asked him his best advice for developing characters.

“I think every character is an amalgam of people,” he said. “First and foremost, every character is you. It’s going to be at least 70% you, and that’s going to be a good character, because these are things that you think, these are things that you feel. These are motivations that you have, and that makes them genuine.”

This character-focused approach also guided his latest project, Deadnought, which features Dave Bautista as a father protecting his terminally ill daughter from alien forces.

While the as-yet-unseen ending of this story delivers “a healthy dose of action,” Greenberg said that “at the same time, it’s a big character piece” with a finale that promises a protagonist who faces his inner demons. 

Embrace the grind

Joseph said that during quiet periods in the industry he has always kept writing. “During all this time I’ve just continued to write, continued to work on specs, so that way I never feel like there’s wasted time.”

He also adopted a professional mindset even before getting signed or paid. “I said to myself, ‘I’m a working writer,’ even though I hadn’t sold anything, and I approached it that way to keep me focused.”

Joseph doesn’t mince words about the impact of winning Big Break. “I owe all this to Final Draft,” he said. “It was the attention, the spotlight that was on me after that win that allowed me to get to where I’m at today.”

The Final Draft Big Break Screenwriting Contest is now open for entries.