So much of what you adore when you read or watch is the result of an author, screenwriter, actor, director, stepping out onto a limb and offering you more.

In a world where female directors are scarce, this sisterhood and creative collective provides more momentum for all of them to make it to the mountain top. And to do it together.

My answer is a frustrating one, but it is an answer. You must give yourself agency over your work and your career. You must reach out to what’s in your means and take action: make things.

Research awakened me to the vast array of knowledge contained not only in books and the internet, but also in the people around us, and reminding me how much there is to learn about the world in which we live.

When you write something and present it to the world, it’s exciting. It might feel like a dream come true. But what they don’t tell you is that it’s also terrifying.

"But, alas, what's the point of saying what we already know? This is your grievance, so what, dear sir, is your solution?" Call them out …

They did not want to collaborate with me. They wanted to use me. And thankfully, I was smart enough to see the difference.

Life isn't promised to anyone.

I didn't want to say it. As I scrambled through my phone looking for photos of Canoe #1 on the roof of the Kia—Did we really not take a photo?

Writing multiple POVs drove me crazy at times ... I wrote Mary in first person because I wanted readers to feel an intimacy with her, and I thought it would help them connect to her as an outsider.

Be careful to avoid binding your identity too closely to your pursuits.

If we get too attached to the goal—get an agent, sell this project—and forget that writing is allowed to be fun.

Art conveys truth in ways that propaganda and misinformation of war cannot readily combat. And art is a means to a better future.

Clearly there is a knowledge gap out there … there’s something that a hell of a lot of writers out there need to know, and they don’t know it right now.

But for our other mediums we must travel to what some cynics describe as the least truthful place of all—Hollywood.