# Read

"Our philosophy is you can't know the light without first knowing the dark."

Settle down and focus on the task at hand, which is, as it always should be: Writing the best story you can. Everything to come is not your problem. Not yet, anyway, and not unless you’re lucky.

I absorbed nothing, except her last words as she stepped into their car: “Children are easy to lie to. You’re smarter than most of them.”

Don’t worry about being good enough. You are good enough. Just do that thing. Then do it again even better next time.

Nick Hamm's Driven is a fast-paced, comedic crime thriller of a bromance gone wrong between John DeLorean, played by Lee Pace, and Jim Hoffman, played by Jason Sudeikis.

It’s funny the power of saying it out loud had: “We’re going to make a feature film.” And the more we said it, the more we dared to take the next baby step. And the next.

Arguably, if the work isn’t its own reward, you’ve not chosen your career wisely, no matter what the profession.

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 learned that if you write something from your heart, even if you think it's ridiculous, someone who reads it or sees it or watches it could be affected by it. Then you both might not feel so alone.

As a screenwriter, sometimes we tend to think we have to write "to the market," or follow the current trends, but if you try and chase a trend, you're already behind.

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 those ideas you have in your head of what you want to do and how you want to accomplish them? Write a plan. A business plan, that is.

What we’re usually talking about when we say “character development” is Character Arc—it presupposes that a Character Arc is requisite to a well-rendered character … to which I say: “nay.”

“'Just try not to die' is my standard advice for anyone helming a first feature. I nearly did, and I wouldn't recommend it."

For all the talk in Hollywood given to seeking out vital roles for women, the woman warrior has become every bit an egregious cliché as the hooker with a heart of gold was for half a century on film.