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WGAW members mentor military vets as part of WGF’s Veterans Writing Project.

(5/21/2021)

On this Memorial Day, the Writers Guild Foundation honors the current participants and alumni from the Veterans Writing Project, the WGF’s yearlong mentorship program targeting emerging writers with U.S. military backgrounds.

Founded in 2010, the program welcomes 50–60 veterans each summer with a weekend writing retreat and pairs them with a WGAW member-mentor whom they’ll meet with regularly throughout the year. Their mission? To finish or fine-tune a screenplay or pilot script, which each veteran writer will pitch to a room of producers, executives, agents, and managers at the end of the program year.

“Our program is unique in its comprehensive coursework, which is designed to address both the fundamentals of writing for the screen and the mechanics of the business,” says WGF’s Programs and Community Outreach Manager Kira VandenBrande. “Upon graduation, each writer leaves with a holistic view of the industry and hands-on experience submitting quality work within tight deadlines.”

Alumni from the program have gone on to become WGAW members and staff on shows such as S.W.A.T., Station 19, Doom Patrol, Grey’s Anatomy, and United States of Al. Some, including 2019 alumnus Harsha Rao, have sold original features since graduating. Daril Fannin, a 2015 alumnus, co-created Netflix’s upcoming Green Beret’s Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse and recently co-wrote the comedy pilot Adopted with Jimmy Kimmel.

For mentors, the experience has been an opportunity to give back to service members and has enriched their engagement with their own writing.

“It can be a culture shock to transition from military service to Hollywood, and I wanted to contribute to helping make that transition a little easier,” says TV writer, author, and WGAW member Tony Camerino (The Enemy Within, Taken), who is also a retired Air Force veteran. “It has improved my own writing as I apply to my own projects the lessons that I share with the veterans. Also, meeting people from so many diverse backgrounds shapes your ideas about characters in your own scripts.”

Over the next month, the Veterans Writing Project welcomes a new batch of storytellers and mentors who’ll embark on a year of learning that has forged meaningful connections among the hundreds who came before them. “We've bonded over our shared service to others, which is a little like the camaraderie of being in uniform,” says Camerino.

If you’re interested in speaking on a panel, mentoring, or volunteering with the Veterans Writing Project, contact the Writers Guild Foundation at vets@wgfoundation.org.