I live in Santa Monica, 6 blocks from the beach. I didn't go to film school, or really know anybody when I moved here years ago. But in that time I've... - Dabbled in movies. Co-wrote Shrek 2, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Disenchanted, the Smurfs movies, the Rugrats movies, and Are We There Yet? - Made a few dimes on my way to $2.5B cumulative box office across a 30+ year career writing, rewriting, pitching, and fixing projects for Disney, Dreamworks, Paramount, Fox, etc. - Written for Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Mike Myers, Neil Patrick Harris, Sofia Vergara, Ice Cube, Katy Perry, Antonio Banderas, Patrick Dempsey, Hank Azaria, Cuba Gooding Jr. etc etc. - Invested my dimes in a house in Pacific Palisades, so my kids could grow up in one idyllic little town, rather than get bounced from place to place like I did. - Watched said town burn down in Jan. 2025, including that house and everything in it. Then watched my daughter go from devastated to thriving her freshman year at NYU. - The same year, I built The Writer's Forge to 620+ members, coaching writers three times per week. Because it's all, all of it, about mindset. - Created the Primal Forge Method: a character-first story development process that helps writers find the emotional engine of their story before touching structure. - Developed proprietary tools already working inside the community: Primal Forge GPT and The Diner Test. Next up: Helping 25 serious screenwriters write, finish and market the best screenplay of their lives in a private cohort I'm calling The Screenplay Forge. If you're ready to get serious and take your writing to the next level, click here to apply. First in, first served. Lock your place now.

Today's business talk was awesome! Great participation, great discussions, and lots of inspiration. @Thia Markson shared what her talk with Melissa Verdugo, Operations Director at Women in Film LA, revealed to her. @Lena Lieuvin shared her recent pitching experience and what she learned and gained from it. We talked about pitching and strategies to getting our projects in front of the right eyes. @Jason Smith shared his pitch and the group gave their best insights, opinions, advice, and encouragement. @Chris Dyer is going to lead us in a talk NEXT WEEK about the psychology of WHY WE MATTER THE MOST in the BIG PICTURE as writers and creatives. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE else who was on the call today @Ameer Ahmed @Pia Crawford @Shauna G @Brijit Reed @Isaac Tut for jumping in and participating and sharing. It's always a pleasure to connect with this community and to know that we are all in this together, learning and growing. Cheers!

I used to be a hungry writer with ideas, instincts, and zero map. No industry access. No real feedback. No one who could tell me what was alive in my work. I once wrote a magazine piece I thought would be my big break. Got a form rejection. Cried in the shower because I felt like an idiot for believing it might happen. I knew what it felt like to be isolated, broke, scared, and creatively unsure. To write things that were funny but shapeless. To be told the work was clever while knowing you could feel the writer trying too hard on every page. Then I learned three things the hard way. Talent isn't enough. Silence only changes when you take action. And real story doesn't start with structure. It starts with what a character is avoiding. Those lessons carried me through a 30+ year career writing and rewriting for major studios. Shrek 2. Jimmy Neutron. Disenchanted. Walking red carpets. Watching movies premiere. And eventually building this groovy little place to help serious screenwriters get the process, courage, and professional direction I wish I'd had when I was starting out. Want the process I wish someone had handed me back then? Comment YES and I'll send you the details.

Boo hoo, the market's dead. It's not! It's transforming. And actively looking for new talent as evidenced by Backrooms, Obsession and the spec script market that's alive and well. Check out the stories below and think about where you are now and what you really want to achieve from your writing. From being here. And what stands in your way. If you have a vision and a voice, now's the time to take it to the next level. - The spec market is still alive in 2026. Studios and streamers have kept buying original specs and pitches this year, continuing the rebound that started in 2025. The takeaway for you is not "chase the market." It is that original material with a strong hook is selling again. The writers getting reads are the ones who finished something distinct and were ready when the call came. - First-time and emerging writer-directors owned Sundance this year. Beth de Araújo's "Josephine" sold to Sumerian in a seven-figure competitive deal. Australian writer-director Adrian Chiarella made his major debut with the queer horror film "Leviticus," bought by Neon. Nigerian-born Olive Nwosu, a Sundance Lab alum, took a Special Jury Prize. Different countries, different genres, same lesson. A specific, personal story with a clear voice still cuts through. - The Nicholl window is open. Deadline is July 20. Submissions for the 2026-2027 Academy Nicholl Fellowships opened June 22 and close July 20 at 5pm PT, or when 2,000 scripts are in, whichever hits first. That cap matters. Every year writers wait too long and the door shuts early. If you have a finished feature you believe in, this is the most prestigious free-to-enter shot you'll get all year. Up to five $35,000 fellowships. No agent required. Just the script. - A viral short became a Sundance feature. Again. Casper Kelly, the mind behind the cult Adult Swim short "Too Many Cooks," landed his feature debut "Buddy" at Sundance 2026, picked up by Roadside Attractions and Saban Films. This is the whole game in one story. He made a strange, personal short. It found an audience. That audience became a career. You do not need permission to make the thing that gets you noticed.

I am so excited to share the news with you all! The results are in on my entry to the Oxford Script Awards Best US Screenplay, and I am a FINALIST! I am incredibly grateful to @David Stem and everyone in the Writer's Forge for your insights and support! I have been carrying this story in my bones for decades, and it wasn't until finding this community in mid-March that I shifted from a memoir to a screenplay, and wow, I am so glad I am here! There weren't any other teenage girl Assistant Athletic Trainers for a Men's Rugby Team in California or Europe in the 1970s or early 1980s that I ever saw or heard of, so it's a very unique story to be told, and it could only happen here in the Writer's Forge! I researched Film Festivals that were in countries where rugby is very familiar, knowing my story might be seen as surprising, coming from California, a woman, and a member of an Elite San Francisco club from the 1960s to 1980s. We have a long history of traveling overseas to play top competition unavailable in the U.S., and they once played a match in Oxford, a well-established rugby community. So I am beyond proud of this achievement! From Film Freeway: The Oxford Script Awards is an IMDb-qualifying competition built for one purpose: getting your script into the hands of UK industry professionals looking for the next indie talent. Ranked as a Top 15 Most Popular Screenwriting Festival in the UK and Top 100 Best Reviewed globally, we provide the ultimate professional platform for emerging screenwriters. We run a specialized marketing portal for directors and producers where we actively promote the best scripts from every season. This is your chance to be part of a curated selection seen by industry professionals looking for new stories. Moreover, the best screenplays receive our Main Prize of $400 for further development and career support from our professional jury.