Thread by @BobSnz

1/ Got a question on how I broke in as a writer, so… I wanted to be an actor. At 40. So, I took every extra job that came to town. I was background in a LOT of films. It was there I got my education on how everything worked on a set. It has turned out to be invaluable.

2/ I got my SAG card by uttering one line in a film. Got a local agent thru networking with a casting director. Got auditions. Got tiny parts. Ended up on a series for 6 seasons, Nash Bridges, as a glorified extra who spoke occasionally.

3/ Those 6 seasons on Nash Bridges were like a film school. @DonJohnson @CheechMarin @jeffperryreal @JodiLyn_Okeefe @KellyHu James Gammon Jaime Gomez … the directors, the ADs, the crew…. what an education. You couldn’t buy it.

4/ But I also knew I was never going to be any kind of real enduring actor. I wasn’t good enough. So I looked at the Nash Scripts and said, “I’ll try writing.” That was the impetus. I wrote a Nash script. I found out quickly… so did everyone else there.

5/ The guy who watered the plants on set even had a script. But amazingly enough, thru some networking on set, @CarltonCuse read my script. He probably won’t even remember this. He wrote me a letter. It said, “We can’t use your script, but you have some skill.”

6/ That encouragement sent me on a mission to learn as much as I could about screenwriting. I wrote my first feature and thru what can only be called a miracle, ended up on Polygram Pictures slate until Universal bought them and wiped out the slate. My first big industry lesson.

7/ But I kept writing, I kept networking, I kept acting anywhere I could. I optioned scripts. They didn’t get made. I did rewrites on independent films that never went anywhere. I wrote instructional videos. I wrote industrial videos. I wrote anything anyone would pay me for.

8/ And a mere 12 years after that first Nash script, I had my first produced film. A milestone for me. Since them, 18 other produced films with my name on them, 4 sold projects that haven’t been made, and 3 others I’m hoping will go this year or next.

9/ The point is… everyone has their own crooked path to breaking in. There is no one way. There’s only your way. You query. You enter contests that count. You get yourself on sets, to film festivals, to writer’s conferences and network your ass off.

10/ My golden rule is that you anything that’s not immoral, illegal, or stupid to get there. You network with grace and honesty. You write and write and write. You realize screenwriting is a craft and a business and treat it that way. And you never give up. #screenwriting