What If You're the One Holding Yourself Back From Success?

Why Don't I Care About You?

Screenwriting is not like any other job out there. There is no clear line in the work. You have to write a ton for free and then hope you get such a good reputation or sell so many scripts that you can no longer be ignored.

I have sympathy for everyone trying to forge a career in screenwriting. I'm doing the same. I have good days. I have way more bad ones. It's not easy; it really has to be your passion because you have better odds of making it into the NFL or NBA.

But at the end of the day, the only person accountable for you not being good enough to do all these things is you.

And you emailing me about it is a waste of your time.

I don't care if you love using AI to write or edit your scripts. I don't care that you think your prose is so wonderful that Hollywood must actually not care about good writing. I don't care that you were not able to break in the way I did, and therefore think I must be lying about my advice on breaking in.

I don't care about why the world and Hollywood are built against you.

I do not even remotely have the capacity to care.

I am working hard on my own screenplays. And I suggest you do the same.

Stop Complaining and Just Get Better

Complaining feels good. I have a group of writers I text every day to bitch and moan about work. It's a group thread that gives me life, and one where all the people in it have a vested interest in the others' success because we are all close friends who deeply care about each other.

That's the exact place to go to complain, well, there and to my poor manager, who gets paid to function as a pseudo-therapist when I need help.

You could even tweet it into the ether, but I would suggest, like me, the ether does not care.

Although, it could be a good place to find the friends you eventually turn into your confidants.

I know what it is like to feel helpless in this industry. But I promise you, the only things you can actually control are the words you put on the page.

So do that. Make that your release.

Not only is it more productive, but it can teach you how to dig deep into your emotions and really get them out in a coherent and empathetic way.

Writing should make you feel better when you're angry or insulted; it lets you get your ideas out onto the page and explore those deep and dark hallways of your heart.

It's a personal journey that you then get to share with the world.

But if you want to email complaints about it...send them elsewhere.

You're Holding Yourself Back

The header should say it all.

And yet, I'll add some nuance so you don't go overboard calling me a psychopath.

I know Hollywood isn't fair. I know it's frustrating. It's a real bastard at times, and at other times it's even worse than that.

There are real, verifiable things I would change about Hollywood to make it better, but I'm not in charge. And the only way I think you can make those changes is if you have a lot of people.

I don't have that either.

So, in lieu of all that, I just keep my head down, and I try to get better.

And I suggest you do, too.

Sending 1,000-word emails to a glorified blogger may make you feel better, but as someone who has written and sold things, I can tell you that nothing feels better than that.

If you have time to write an angry email, you have time to work on your script. You can add that speck of nuance, you can tweak that one line of dialogue, you can even email someone and ask to buy them coffee to network.

Your email ire is holding you back. It's developing a complex that's not true, and that can stop you from getting better.

You're slowing down not only your progress, but the speed at which you can finish a draft.

Instead of blaming other people for not understanding you, find a better way to communicate your ideas with them. Rework that opening scene, move your low point to your midpoint, and see if that opens up the story. Do the hard work of rewriting and polishing and tearing it all down to rebuild it again in agonizing fashion.

Learn some hard lessons and forge onward.

This stuff is easier said than done, but I promise you it will feel better to take this advice and pass me on the highway to success than to email me how much you hate me and how I'm a hack right now.

Just bury me with your success...Trust me, that's what I'm trying to do to all those angry email senders out there.

Summing It All Up

The top of the mountain isn't full of people who send angry emails; it's full of people who kept climbing, even when their first ascent led them to a dead end.

These are the people who had the courage to get better.

I hope to be among them someday, or to die trying, probably shot by one of you.