# Breaking In

... the world shines a light on success stories but doesn’t always highlight the struggle to get to that success, or the blatant truth of failure.

The Pipeline staff was beyond supportive in my quest to produce a readable screenplay. They were encouraging but pushed me to produce something worth filming. It took about 50 drafts, but I got there with their help. My screenplay was born!

... desperation can kick in—you chase “what’s popular” rather than staying true to your creative vision.

... I still could feel that cursed imposter syndrome setting up camp in my gut, a disruptive, loud-as-shit tenant, if there ever was one.

Friends and people who believe in you are worth 10x more than funding—and they'll make the journey a lot more fun.

As the rejections racked up, we felt frustrated: How is no one seeing what we’re seeing? This is the right comedy for the right time ...

Some people get bit by a creative bug early in their lives that keeps an inner flame lit from within, and for those who share this quality, sometimes you just need to see how it all gets made.

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.

Survival is tough in this town. Like following a hundred pieces of string that just fall to dust in your hands.

I was so focused on selling and too green to know myself that I ended up losing myself in the process.

Was there money in it? No. But there was that other thing, possibility, which over time, can end up being worth a whole lot more.

If you’re super entranced with a story, if you can’t wait to get home from your day job and work on it every single day, that’s going to come through in your writing, right?

I’m no guru, but I can share what I’ve done in hopes that it encourages and enlightens you on how to make money while fostering industry connections until you become a working screenwriter.

“All we really have is what we make and put out. And that’s the only stuff I enjoy doing.”

You will have to make changes to your story, at some point or another, that you might not want to ... This is just how the world works, for better or worse.