Wanted: Extraordinary screenwriters

Join the movement to jumpstart a generation of post-partisan storytellers

Hello, Story Rulers!

Every year at this time, Maurice and I begin the long, delicate process of finding the extraordinary screenwriters who will take part in our annual Story Incubator writing lab.

Recruitment for the Lab involves months of research, outreach, networking, zooming, reading, watching, talking, meeting, interviewing, debate, difficult decision-making, and, inevitably, more scrolling than anyone should ever have to do in a lifetime.

We do all this because it matters and because it works: We’re bringing together talented, rising screenwriters working on film and television projects that can catalyze the cultural repair we so urgently need right now. Every one of our writers is working on a project with the potential to become a commercial success — and so to achieve the audience penetration needed for real and lasting cultural change.

This year, we invite you to take part in our recruitment process.

Maybe you are a phenomenal rising screenwriter and you'd like to join the Lab. Maybe you know a phenomenal rising screenwriter who would be a great fit for the Lab. Maybe you know someone who knows someone who fits that description. Or maybe you are a generous soul who would like to support great writers as they craft the stories that can heal our divided nation.

You get the idea. We want to hear from all of you.

So we are extending this invitation to connect with us — drop a comment below or email us. If you’re a writer, we’ll reach out with an invitation to apply. If you’re a philanthropist, we’ll follow up to find a time to talk, or, if you prefer, you could simply make make a tax-deductible gift.

And now: a little bit more about the Story Incubator Writing Lab itself.

Happy to share our annual report — just ask!

I. What exactly is the Story Incubator Writing Lab?

The Story Incubator Writing Lab identifies writers working on film and television projects that can unite Americans around the values that bring out the best in us—community, individual rights, collaboration, and entrepreneurship—while attaining mainstream commercial success and the massive audience penetration required for real change.

No one else does what we do. We are entirely unique, and critically necessary. As one member of our fall 2024 Lab put it, “There’s no other lab out there like this one.”

Each fall, we gather a small cohort of extraordinary working screenwriters for our virtual writing lab. Every participant is a skilled and experienced working writer or writer/director who is poised to break out. Many are also directors, producers, and editors. All are making their living in the uniquely grueling entertainment industry, and all are at a critical career tipping point: Each needs make that one film or series that changes everything for their future, while at the same time changing the world.

Our 2025 Lab will run from September through December. We hold all Labs virtually over Zoom, involving one hour-long meeting each week. Every participant will present their work to the group twice for robust workshopping and troubleshooting. We will also devote several sessions to the neuroscience of storytelling and techniques for crafting high-impact post-partisan stories. Participants receive a small stipend to support their work during the Lab.

At the Lab’s conclusion, participants may apply for a Story Incubator Screenwriting Fellowship to support continued work on their project. Fellows receive a monthly stipend and work closely with us to complete and perfect their scripts, decks, and pitches. We position each Fellow to secure financing and/or sign with a top production partner, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that their project is beautifully produced and widely distributed.

Throughout the phases of the Lab, we work closely with our Fellows, functioning variously as story consultants, educators, creative coaches, and sometimes, as one Fellow put it, “artistic fairy godparents.” Where possible, we do this work in partnership with our Fellows’ managers and agents, so as to give their projects the best possible chance of being financed, produced, and distributed.

Altogether, the Story Incubator Writing Lab creates a high-impact domino effect that facilitates an enormous potential return on both commercial and cultural investment.

II. The Lab Is Jumpstarting Careers and Catalyzing Change

Our Writing Lab and Fellowship Program are developing a stellar reputation – as one studio executive said, it’s “the best in the industry.” Since 2020, we’ve run 90 customized writing workshops and 12 seminars on the neuroscience of storytelling. We’ve supported 57 screenwriters and have awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in writing fellowships, enabling 24 writers to step away from their day jobs and devote 64 months — as in, over five whole years — of time to their craft.

It’s working.

Story Incubator Writing Fellows are winning top awards — including the Nicholl Prize, the world’s most prestigious screenwriting contest. Our fellows are signing with managers and agents, optioning their work to producers, attaching A-list talent, and starting their own companies. Story Incubator-supported projects are also attracting the interest of world-class studios — I can’t name them here, because confidentiality, but trust me, you know the names.

III What Story Incubator Writing Lab Fellows Are Saying

“I’ve participated in esteemed programs with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Sundance Institute. None offered me the guidance and mentorship of the Story Incubator. The Lab gave me a perspective on my writing that I wouldn’t have gained anywhere else in the industry.”

—Brian Robau, writer/director, two-time Student Academy Award winner

“I worked twice with Erin on my feature screenplay Shelter Animal, years apart. The first time I worked with her I made Top 50 in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Nicholl Fellowship, out of roughly 8,000 script submissions. The second time we worked together I became a Nicholl Fellow, leading to dozens of requests from the top literary managers and producers in Hollywood to read. Their response has been phenomenal.”

— R.J. Daniel Hanna, writer/director, winner of the 2021 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship

“I have done about a dozen writer's labs, and I have never encountered one like what Erin and Maurice are offering. The freedom from judgment, the extremely high-level discussion, and the rigor of the notes makes for one of the best Labs currently available. This is sorely needed. Writers must be encouraged to be rebels, dissenters, and to be guided by their own minds, hearts, and curiosities so that we do not merely become a society in which we all just tell each other what we think we want to hear. By doing this Lab, I feel I've regained a sense of my own mission.”

—Vivian Kerr, writer/director/actor

“Erin and Maurice are working very hard to make this Lab particularly meaningful … It is focused and intense, and it does precisely what’s needed in order to help us move forward at this stage. I strongly believe [the Story Incubator Writing Lab] will ultimately help change the conversation downstream.”

—Anne Fortier, New York Times bestselling author

III. Will You Join Us?

The Story Incubator Writing Lab is young — we launched in 2020. And it’s already proving to be a career-maker and a catalyst for getting exceptional, necessary stories out into the world.

Stories are powerful engines of belonging and cooperation. They can bring people together where argument and persuasion fail. They can help us overcome our differences, enlarging and enriching our sense of who we are as Americans, and what we can accomplish together.

Will you join us as the Story Incubator Writing Lab begins its sixth year?

Leave a comment here, or drop us a line. If you’re a writer, we’ll let you know how to apply. If you’re a philanthropist and would like to support our work, please consider making a tax-deductible gift. We’d also welcome the opportunity to speak and learn more about your giving priorities.

Okay! That’s it for today, everyone! We’ll be back soon with posts on everything from Bob Dylan to the power of listening to the wild things we learned while studying the brain on Dallas Buyers Club.

Until then, I give you Pip, a silent partner who often attends Story Incubator Zoom sessions, pacing in deep thought, and occasionally offering important commentary.