1. If you’re a delicate, sensitive woodland creature, then scriptwriting isn’t for you.
2. Don’t tell anyone “this is your first script.” But don’t think you’ll set the world on fire by writing one script.
3. Learn to suck up constant rejection. Never spend more than a few hours wallowing in rejection or failure. Remember, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. With each setback, learn how to sally forth with renewed vigor.
4. The best cure for rejection is writing; particularly if it’s better writing.
5. Sometimes a script just sucks. Everyone thinks they have a great idea for a script. More often than not, they’re wrong.
6. Sometimes a script just sucks, no matter how many times you rewrite it. Therefore, don’t attach yourself to any one effort too much. It may take writing twenty scripts before you find something that really resonates with readers.
7. If you see writing scripts as a path to riches and fame, you may wish to consider other options.
8. There ain’t no such thing as writers block. There are only writers that write and ones that don’t. Look at Bukowski. Drunk or sober, he did great work every day of his life.
9. Writers who build relationships, maintain their humility and help their colleagues will do better than ones who don’t.
10. If you keep losing script contests, then write better scripts until you win one.
11. Read books, take classes, seminars, and good advice about scriptwriting and then march to your own creative drummer. If I listened to every asshole who told me I couldn’t do something, I’d never accomplish anything.
12. Don’t write something because you think it will have commercial appeal. Write something you believe in.
13. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. Endeavor to be an original.
14. Don’t ever rest on your laurels or laurel leaves. Keep writing until it becomes second nature to you; and you can produce even under adverse or stressful conditions. You may one day have a job that presents you with just that set of conditions.