# Read

Excavate your past and present for the emotional states you once felt, and apply those emotions to your characters.

... if you’re a tired, overwhelmed producer, what seems more appealing? A 10-page document of straight, unformatted blocks of text, or a pretty pitch bible with lots and lots of pictures?

... we were not asking writers to reinvent the wheel; it was about what they could do with that wheel. And that usually started with great writers giving us characters that surprised us.

It’s easy to put the onus on risk-averse executives. However, the real work starts with us.

There are way more elements that influence the impact of a scene than just our skill on the page.

You do have to justify why you are the right person to write it, but it’s not because you have it as a lived experience. It’s because it evoked an emotion in you that drove you to write the story.

Nonprofits and similar orgs can benefit from a little Hollywood magic to capture audience attention ...

Having Imposter Syndrome makes you more aware that you’re one bad performance from the job at Home Depot you never want to think about.

... part of being a writer is that willingness to keep going and keep getting better at it, even if you don’t make a living at it.

Alarm clock openings were never in style. They're not in style now. They will never be in style.

... when we consume stories showing us the potential of emotional growth, we suddenly believe we can grow, too.

... it’s quite possible you have something that you are really good at. That’s the thing you want to sharpen. That’s the thing you want to own.

She always gave us a wall to paint on or to draw on, no matter where we were. Art was everything. I never felt poor because we always had art.

Hard as it’s been, I can’t let go of the seductive, ‘What if?’

Remember that your story already exists inside you. If you sit down at the keyboard, the words will come.