Your manager tells you someone at a production company read your spec script and wants to schedule a meeting with you. However, they’re not producing your script, and there isn’t an open writing assignment on the table. If you’re new to the industry, you might wonder what they want to talk about if they are not looking to buy your script, or if a job is being immediately offered.
In short: they want to talk about you.
This is a general meeting or “a general” (as most people refer to them). They’re an important part of a screenwriter’s career, and most writers initially misread what these meetings are for.
What a General Meeting Actually Is
A general meeting is a professional introduction between a writer and someone who develops content for a living: a producer, a development executive, a studio exec, or a showrunner scouting future staff. They read your script or pilot and responded to it enough to want to meet you.
The script that earned you the meeting already did its job. What you now need to convey is a sense of your voice, your taste, and whether working with you seems appealing over the long stretch of a development process or a writers’ room. Generals run on your personality and potential. In this way, it’s not dissimilar to being a writer with a voice, but now that voice has to be on display off the page.
That distinction shapes how you should carry yourself. Writers who treat every general like a sales call tend to present as exactly that. The people across the table or screen already know you want to work; spend your energy being someone worth remembering.
Volume is also part of the reality here. A writer with real heat off their script might take a dozen generals in a single month, and if the script travels far enough, considerably more. However, the number doesn’t change what each individual meeting is for. Every general is still just one relationship, worth building on its own terms.
Why General Meetings Matter to Your Career
Feature specs and pilots don’t always sell fast and generals can lead to other things, even if it wasn’t the initial purpose of the meeting. Maybe there’s an assignment job on the horizon, a spot on a studios or network’s shortlist of writers considered open work, or a standing invitation to send your next script the moment it’s ready.
On the TV side, generals put you on a showrunners or network radar for staffing, sometimes a year or more before a room is actually being built. Only the writers that execs met and liked tend to stick in their memory.
In the feature film world, a run of strong generals can put a writer’s name on a list for future projects. Maybe it’s turning a producer or execs’ idea into a screenplay, or it’s a rewrite job, or a writer’s round table (i.e., when a group of writers are paid to offer their thoughts on a script).
In addition to your writing, generals help build your reputation. A producer who enjoyed meeting you will mention you to a colleague; a development exec who remembers your take on a genre will call when they’re working on a project in that space. This impression can lead directly to you pitching and owning the room, once there’s an open writing assignment and chance to sell something.
How General Meetings Get Set Up
Almost every general starts with representation. A manager or agent sends your script out, collects the responses, and converts the promising ones into meetings. It’s part of their job, and it’s also why representation matters well before you have an assignment to negotiate.
If your script “goes wide” (i.e. it gets simultaneously sent to numerous producers and execs), you’re bound to get various reactions: some will pass, some will respond with interest, and the interested ones turn into meeting requests. A writer whose material is landing well might end up with several generals in a single month. Ideally, your reps will prioritize the meetings that matter most.
Once in a while, a general comes together outside that system, through a referral from another writer or an introduction from someone already in your network. Regardless of how the general got set up, if it’s with a reputable company or industry professional, the same opportunity exists and it should be treated accordingly.
Zoom Changed Where Generals Happen
A decade ago, most generals happened in person, in a conference room on a studio lot or at a production company’s suite. Most generals now happen over Zoom (or occasionally Google Meet), and the shift has reshaped who gets access to these meetings.
You no longer need to live in LA to build a screenwriting career or take the generals that advance it. The people setting up your meetings care about your script and your voice, not your zip code.
A Zoom meeting should be treated as seriously as an in-person one. It’s a professional appointment with someone deciding whether they want you in their orbit. Dress for it, sit in a quiet and well-lit space, and give the call the same focus you’d bring to a meeting on a studio lot. Despite being over a screen, all the above principles still apply. You can still own a room, even if you’re not in the same room.
Do Your Homework Before the Meeting
Every general meeting goes better with preparation, and there’s no good reason to skip it. IMDbPro, a company’s recent slate, and a quick pass through the trades will tell you what a production company or executive actively develops, the genres and budgets they typically work in, and who else they’ve collaborated with.
Know the person’s own background too: where they’ve worked before, what they’ve produced, what they’re currently developing. Knowing this context beforehand lets you ask sharper questions and recognize a genuine point of connection when one surfaces.
Once you’re in the meeting, it’s worth asking directly about the company’s current mandate: how many projects they produce in a given year and what genres and budgets they typically work in. Mandates shift constantly, and knowing a company’s current appetite tells you far more about whether you’re a fit than their history does.
Be ready to talk about your own material with the same clarity. What got you writing the script that led to this meeting, what you’re working on next, and what kind of projects genuinely excite you. This is the actual thing being evaluated: whether you’re a person that possesses other ideas and vision beyond your sample script.
Reading and Working the Room
Whether you’re literally in the room or across from the person on a screen, reading their reactions, picking up on their vibe, matters as much as anything you say. Most people working in development have ‘tells’: leaning forward when something piques their interest, or checking their phone when it doesn’t. You might even get the occasional yawn. Picking up on those signals in real time lets you adjust your approach rather than plow through a rehearsed version of yourself that isn’t landing. In general, the ability to adapt is a good skill to have.
If it opens up naturally in the conversation, this is also where a soft pitch belongs (i.e. informally pitching a concept or future script). A brief, casual mention of something you’re working on that fits what the company develops can plant the seed for an official pitch or submission down the line. Read the room first: an executive leaning in and asking follow-up questions has just invited you to go further, while one checking the clock has told you to wrap it up.
Positioning yourself for an assignment job pretty much works the same way. The conversation is where you demonstrate that you’d be easy to collaborate with on a project. That impression, more than anything said outright, is what matters when an assignment opens up.
What Comes After the General Meeting
Follow up with a short email of thanks after every general, regardless of how it went. If you later read about a green-lit project or success connected to the person you met, an email congratulations keeps the relationship warm without asking for anything in return.
Most generals won’t lead anywhere immediately, and that’s fine. A general is still one of the most reliable building blocks in a screenwriting career: no assignment on the table, no pitch to close, just an introduction that can turn into a future spec script being read, a spot on a studio or network’s shortlist, or eventually an assignment.
Whether it happens in a conference room or over Zoom, be prepared, do the research, and let your personality and voice shine through.