You may remember a 1967 movie How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Here is the IMDB plot summary:

Twenty-seven year old New York window washer J. Pierpont Finch believes he can be a success in the corporate world after he impulsively picks up the book “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”. The book promises its reader that he can climb the corporate ladder simply and quickly. The Worldwide Wicket Corporation, the business in the office building whose windows he washes, is, according to the book, the perfect type of business. There, he meets secretary Rosemary Pilkington, who sees in Ponty, as she calls him, an unassuming man whom she believes the corporate world will eat alive. But Ponty, memorizing what the book tells him, does quickly climb the corporate ladder, but not by doing any real work.

Ah, if only learning the craft of screenwriting was so easy. It’s not. Despite all the products in the marketplace promoting “proven systems” and “secret formulas,” there is only one way to become proficient at the craft: You have to really try. That is the only legitimate path to success as a screenwriter.

This week I’d like to present to you five things you can do to help you learn the craft of screenwriting and put you in a position to succeed. They are completely free. They don’t require anything at all except this — your time, commitment, focus and effort.

In other words, by really trying.

Can it help to read books, attend seminars and take screenwriting classes? Absolutely, I wouldn’t have co-founded Screenwriting Master Class if I didn’t think Tom Benedek and I could help mentor writers in what it takes to write and approach the craft like professional screenwriters. But no matter what you learn in any formal setting or through your own ad hoc approach to educating yourself about the craft, these five practices I’m presenting to you this week are important and should be an essential part of your learning process.

Part 5: Do It

Here’s the deal.

There is no secret formula, no magic approach, no easy way to success as a screenwriter.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or full of shit.

Either you will do it… or you won’t.

And by “it,” I mean the hard work necessary to put yourself in the position to be a success.

Not just write one good screenplay… anyone can do that.

Rather develop a mindset, a set of skills and daily practices that will enable you to open the door… and be prepared to march in when Hollywood beckons you.

That’s the subtext of everything I try to convey here at GITS.

That’s what we teach at Screenwriting Master Class.

These five tips — Read scripts. Watch movies. Write pages. Set goals. Do it. — don’t comprise everything you can do to become a screenwriter. But they are essential.

And there’s no better day to start acting like a professional screenwriter than today.

To give you that final boost you need to commit to this path, here is a blast of creative juju!

Good luck, fellow travelers!