Appreciate you making this video Nathan - rare to see a screenwriter be realistic and admit the situation publicly to their audience. Wishing you all the best for the new job and I'm looking forward to the next video where you announce the next script of yours that gets greenlit!

As a successful Director with 4 Netflix Top 10 projects, this is so incredibly relatable!!! Thank you for sharing your story 🙏

Appreciate the openness and authenticity. Stay blessed 🙏🏽♥️

Nathan, I really appreciate you posting this video. I appreciate the honesty, candor and vulnerability, because I think a lot of what you’ve gone through and what you’re feeling resonates with many of us out here, no matter what level of success we’ve reached in this industry.

I’m definitely guilty of some of the things you mentioned. I’ve pursued this dream to the detriment of relationships, sacrificed the possibility of starting a family, and left behind a city I loved, full of people I loved, because I thought it was what I needed to do to get ahead in this industry.

At this age, I don’t regret chasing the dream, but I do regret some of what I neglected along the way: people, relationships and other possibilities my life might have held. So I definitely hear you, and your video has me giving a lot of thought to how I want to move forward with my own pursuit of screenwriting.

But like you said, if you love movies and you love writing, it’s always going to be part of you. I’m still going to write no matter what. We’ll see how everything shakes out.

Appreciate you, man. Best of luck, and I’m sure we’ll still chat on the socials. ✊🏾

Just wanted to say thank you for all you've done for the writing community. A reality check can be a bitter pill, for sure, but your openness about it still helps. I hope you keep your foot in that door, though, and that the industry shifts back in your favor. Enjoy that stable income and your family. And may those projects bear fruit one day. I appreciate you.

This business is the only business where success doesn’t make it easier, or even probable, that you will be able to repeat your success. It can be soul crushing if you let it.

I've done the exact same thing :)  Screenwriting is just not worth it anymore. The industry has changed so dramatically it's just fucked. Congrats on the move. Now Im just writing books. Also a fool's errand but at least the publishing industry is more humane :)  Anyway ... smart move on your part.

As a writer who’s worked in writers rooms and optioned a few scripts. I truly believe the only way to make it in movies nowadays is to find a director and build a relationship with them and make stuff as a team. I know Emmy nominated writers who can’t sell their material. And I’m going to be so honest I wish I had started writing books at the start because you don’t have to beg people to get stuff made.

16+ years as a professional screenwriter and member of the WGA, and I can related to ALL of this.

Massive props to you for your transparency, and for leaning into a healthy acceptance of the reality we writers face. I relate to all of this, and feel seen. Onward, friend!

Props to you. I really appreciate you not sugar-coating any of this daunting process and also not being one of the writers for whom talking about screenwriting seems to have become their fulltime job. The spot-the-pro-writer comparisons were great too, I enjoyed these a lot. All the best with what comes next in your writing career.

Really appreciate the honesty and sharing your experiences. It was around half a year ago I heard on Scriptnotes that someone was asking about a relative of theirs, younger and starting school, about screenwriting. This was the first time they said "I do not recommend it, and would say there are lots of creative outlets and ways to express yourself that can make you feel fulfilled." or something to that degree.

Being open and real about the environment and opportunities of what you love helps you from getting your heart broken.
It also helps you approach it in a healthy way and grow with it so it doesn't consume you.

I am disheartened to hear about scaling back screenwriting videos, but like others here genuinely really and truly take what you have put out there to heart. Thanks for sharing so much with us!

Btw, nurses work three days per week, four days off every week, and make 6 figures in plenty of states. I'm a painter, not a writer, though I painted full-time for 11 years before my art job got automated. That's why I became a nurse. But my days off provides time to paint, and this will allow me to spend time pursuing my own art rather than getting paid to make someone else's art.

Based. I wonder how many screenwriters’ lives you just changed with good old-fashioned straight talk. This is the only vid I’ve seen by you, but you have a knack for connecting with the viewer. Much luck to you in the future and thanks for posting.

It’s a lot like being a gold miner in an exploitative mine in an undeveloped country.

You start off wanting to put your heart on the page, and wind up realizing you’re essentially a speculator gambling on the success of ideas — and if you strike gold, you ultimately lose ownership of those ideas anyway, and you’re definitely not able to properly capitalize on their value.

It’s like toiling for years in a mine, finally finding a huge gem, and then immediately being forced to hand it to your boss and accept a finders fee worth .01% of the value.

Inherently exploitative business model!

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I will always be thankful for your channel and work, Nathan. Truly. It's helped me get started, and that's all I was looking for when I stumbled upon your various series. The basics with clarity (with neat visualizations and templates!). It's been an inspiration that has helped me jump back into writing whenever the opportunity strikes.

Your contribution to the YouTube void knocked it out of the park, which is saying something. Because most of the writing content creators I see are not as willing to level with their audience like you do. At least without a price or a meta to chase. It's mostly noise in here.

I know you don't, but still, never doubt the impact you have made on us, and yourself. You know the craft and all the tricks and truths. I simply think you were unlucky and treated unfairly on those deals. It's a numbers game, and I think in time, and with the right people, you can breakthrough Hollywood's circle-jerk bubble. Stunt on these fools!

However, from a strategic view, perhaps getting into the WGA before pitching a script might be a lesson learned here. I don't know, I'm a no one.


Anyways, the fundamentals you taught are definitely worthwhile and genuine, despite how tough the market is these days (and kinda always has been). But being in the right environment to create art is the most fundamental thing to achieve, first.

There is no shame in changing direction, for life is nothing but a course of change. I wish you only the best and happiness. You, and everyone here, deserve it.

As for writing, I agree it is a safe bet to have a day job and work on your passions on the side. It's the healthiest and most productive route because, sadly, this world (that we designed) revolves around paying a goddamn bill. I know firsthand that not being able to make ends meet hurts creativity and, more importantly, freedom.

Art is an expression of freedom. It is also a luxury, like freedom, not a given. Sacrifice is an involuntary aspect of the real world. But what we sacrifice is still a choice.

This is not the end of your journey or anyone else's. Simply a change. And what I know for certain is: no one knows anything, and anything can happen.

Thank you for an incrediably genuine video and advice. I tried writing pilots - I gave it up, so much time for little to no return, Writing is now my hobby and I have switched to writing plays - no money, but I am able to see my work produced. Good luck to you and whatever you do in the future. You can always go back to screenwriting at any point in your life. You made an incredible decision to put friends and family firts so you are already WINNING. And even though your produced screenplay didn't take you to where you thought it would - YOU DID IT! You got a screenplay sold and produced. Congrats and all the best!

Man, you are so real... I recently had two requests to see my 1/2 hour comedy and my feature. I know it's a far reach but I write because I love it. I do have a regular job that allows me to write in between. I'm a lot older than you and a lot of my writing is shaped by the movies and experience I lived over the years. One of my scripts got placed in the Page Awards but now, I feel much like you do. Write because you love it and if something becomes of it, great. Keep putting out content and thank you for sharing your knowledge.

This was not the kind of video I expected when I saw you posted, but it was surely a realistic one. I wish you keep making yt videos. Regardless of your current situation, you still know a lot of things and have a lot to offer to aspiring writers. Hope you get back to it.
Thank you for everything you did for screenwriting community. And best of luck to you and your family!

I straight up just found your channel today coming across this video while scrolling but I can already tell and admire that you do care so much about your chosen art form and it is very unfortunate that the Screenwriting business is just so difficult right now. But what you've chosen to do is very wise and I really understand and respect that. I won't lie I can't help but feel disheartened whenever I hear stories like yours and am reminded that whatever creative industry people are in it's downright miraculous that anyone is even making a living off of it. And it makes me wonder myself as someone who can't help but feel like I would want more than anything to do what I love for a living in this world where we just seem to do nothing else but survive if I can ever be successful in it. But you are right that we should not make art our whole identity lest we be forever disappointed and depressed whenever it doesn't work out a lot of the time. In any case I wish you and your family well and that you have a great time returning to your old job and that perhaps someday you shall have  a project picked up that will have all your wildest dreams come true! :)