You got an education, you moved out to Los Angeles, you found a decent rental, got a job and now you’re ready to sit down and push that masterpiece out into the wide world of Hollywood moviemaking. You say to yourself, “I’m OK with ordering off the dollar menu — I’m OK with clipping coupons, Food 4 Less isn’t really any worse than Ralphs or Albertsons. All of this hardship will be worth it after I make that six-figure sale. I gotta get this script finished and get it into the right hands, people are going to LOVE THIS SCRIPT.”

No.

They’re not.

They’re just not.

They’re not even going to want to read it.

They’re not going to offer.

They don’t care.

And on the off chance that they pretend to care, give them at least six months to read the first ten pages, make a quick judgment and then go back to their emails and status updates.

Why is this? Because you’re one in a million. You’ve done nothing to prove that your script is any better than the rest of the garbage floating upstream.

But guess what?

Knowing this hard truth gets you one step closer to getting your script into the hands of someone who will love it.

Why?

Because you won’t give up. You have this expectation and you write, pitch, push and sell right through it. You don’t stop. You deal with that disappointment as if it’s par for the course — it’s a game, and as long as you’ve got material in the fight, you’ll keep playing.

But you’re human. And humans get sad.

How do you deal with the constant stream of rejection and the subsequent feelings of worthlessness that come along with it?

STOP THE COMPARISONS

The school environment breeds peer-to-peer competition: people your same age, with similar backgrounds, trying to prove their worth in an arena with limited opportunities. It was great in school because it taught you to be ruthless. Take the attitude, but lose the precedence. THE PATH YOU TAKE TO SUCCESS CAN NOT BE REPLICATED . It’s not possible. It doesn’t work that way. What your peers do should not affect you. Can you learn from them? Sure. Can you follow their leads? Yes. Should you compare your progress to theirs? No. This means being 100% OK with them finding success before you. The minute you allow that sting of jealousy to manipulate your passion is the first step down a long road of continual unrest.

MOVE ON

Don’t wait by the phone. Don’t wait by your email. This is especially hard due to being constantly connected 24/7. You have to allow yourself to reach out, then move on. People won’t return emails. They won’t tweet back. They won’t call you when they say they will. There are countless reasons for this and none of them matter. Point is, just be done with it. Work your tail off and then let what happens happen. Just don’t stop — don’t let the disappointment of “not hearing back” keep you from continuing to reach out. Don’t dwell.

DON’T SET YOURSELF UP FOR FAILURE

Listen, I know you’re excited when a manager requests to read a script or you’ve got a production company on the line interested in your latest spec. Just don’t post about it. Don’t go onto Facebook and update your status with something like, “X management company just requested X script, can’t wait to sign with them.” Why? Two weeks later X management company will fall through and you’ll be asked by multiple people how your new management is treating you. Mud on your face, you’ll have to explain (probably lie or skirt around the fact that they passed on your script) and feel twice as dejected as you did initially. Keep your leads personal, and your successes close to the chest or vest if you’re wearing one.

GROW THICKER SKIN

This sounds like a given, but so many green hopefuls miss the very real requirement of having to have thick skin. You have to be able to take people telling you that your work stinks. And you can’t make up some reason why their opinion blows. You have to take their opinion as if it’s the voice of God and deal with it. Don’t discredit it. Don’t act like you’re right and everyone’s wrong. Chances are, YOU ARE WRONG. Fess up to it. Fix it. Get better.

YOU AND YOUR GENERATION ARE NOT SPECIAL

So many aspiring screenwriters were raised to believe that their opinions, talents, and abilities are right and cannot be questioned. Defending your material against the oncoming slew of opinions will back you into a corner of corruption and disdain. You must be humble. YOU MUST BE HUMBLE. You might have a great screenplay, but if you get notes that tell you the opposite YOU MUST SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THEM. Art is subjective. You are subjective. By definition, not everyone will love it. And if you’re trying to sell it, you need to know this.

Sum of all parts, I think it’s a fundamental paradigm shift. Notes, suggestions, and revisions are not evil. They are a necessity and they actually show you that people care about your work. Secondly, people don’t have to care and most of them won’t. Here’s a shocker — TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Take it so personally that you GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON. Let it sting. Let it fester. Get upset. Cry. Then…move on. CREATE THE CALLUS. You’ll quickly realize dwelling on the nonsense of failure does nothing to help your screenwriting. Writing helps your screenwriting. Perseverance helps your screenwriting. Ignorance does not.