His writing career began with three years of experience as a reporter; he worked at a Louisiana newspaper owned by his brother.

[1] After his departure from the University Settlement, Scott and his wife came to live in Greenwich Village at "A Club", a writers' cooperative housed in an old mansion on Fifth Avenue[4] that became known as a "radical center.

In 1906, Scott helped arrange accommodations for Maxim Gorky during his visit to the United States.

[7] To research his book about labor relations, The Walking Delegate (1905), Scott joined the Structural Iron Workers Union.

When Goldwyn Pictures determined a need to produce movies in New York as well as on the west coast, Scott's Partners of the Night was chosen as the first work.