Joining the screenwriting community

John writes: I would appreciate any advice you might have to give me in terms of getting into the Los Angeles screenwriting environment.

If you're interested in TV at all, I definitely recommend the TV Writers Networking Group and JHRTS. Unfortunately I don't know of equivalent groups for film. You can also start attending events at the WGA and try to strike up conversations with people.

Beyond that, the best thing to do is to get a job in the industry so you will start making contacts. The tricky part is that the best jobs are all filled through word of mouth, so you kind of need to have some contacts before you get one. That's why a lot of people do internships first.