Why It's So Hard to Break In

Call this the dream-killer post. 

There's a formula for success, and it's this:

SUCCESS = (TALENT x WORK) + (OPPORTUNITY x LUCK)

Do you get that? Without work, talent is useless. You can't control how much talent you have. What you can control is how much work you put into developing that talent. Learn what good writing looks like, figure out what makes good writing good, and practice writing in ways that improves the quality of your work. 

Opportunity is largely about putting yourself in the right place at the right time. Without luck, opportunity is useless. People don't like to acknowledge the role of luck because luck is out of our hands. It's a big part of success. 

I see hundreds if not thousands of self-identified screenwriters on Twitter and Facebook. There's an entire cottage industry of books and videos and classes on how to write screenplays. There are hundreds or maybe thousands of contests that promise to make your career if you win. 

Screenwriting is the rock star career of writing. Big money, relatively short works. If you want to make money writing, Hollywood is where you go. 

Your odds of selling a screenplay are not good. If you maximize your abilities by working hard, and you put yourself in the right places at the right times, then your odds improve dramatically. 

- The Illiterate Writer