PR Pro Writes Herself Into Screenwriting Career

Notes from Chris

Episode 1247

When Melissa Cassera was growing up, she had a dream of writing soap operas. But life took her in a bit of a different direction. She ended up working in marketing and PR. For a time she took her work on the road, spending three years traveling around the U.S. in an RV with her husband and their three dogs.

Eventually they decided to settle down in Napa, California. It’s a beautiful area, but also a bit isolated, and Melissa suddenly had some free time on her hands. To entertain herself, she decided to start working on a romance novel, just for fun. She never intended to share the book publicly—it was purely for amusement. She’d write chapters and send them along to a few friends.

Things kept up like this until one day, while visiting LA for a work appointment, Melissa picked up a book called The Coffee Break Screenwriter. The book teaches you how to write a screenplay in little mini-bursts of about 10 minutes a day.

This got her thinking—could her private novel become a public TV show? Intrigued, Melissa bought the book and immediately went to work. A few months later, she had a draft of a pilot episode. She contacted the author of the book, and shared her writing. The author had worked as Senior Story Analyst for DreamWorks, gave her glowing feedback. She told Melissa her writing was just as good as some professional screenwriters who’ve been working in Hollywood for years.

Melissa left that meeting ablaze with renewed excitement. She threw herself into screenwriting, working in the mornings, at night, and on weekends. She even scheduled work-cations where she could write more.

She received tons of rejections. But there was also some interest, and within a year she got offered her first paid writing gig—an original movie for the Lifetime Network.

Just like her mentor promised, good work got found.

Things happened quickly. One of her mentors introduced Melissa to a literary manager and they started working together. With his help, Melissa sold an original TV series called “Addicted,” loosely based on her own dark experiences with pharmaceuticals.

Her first movie, “Girl Followed,” premiered in April 2017 on Lifetime. She almost cried when she saw her name on screen for the first time.

The best part of the experience is knowing she is a professional writer, even though she was told for most of her life by teachers and colleagues that she wasn’t good enough, or that she had to follow certain “rules” to “make it.”

Moving forward, she’d love to fund and produce an original web series, film, or maybe even a documentary through the production company she started four years ago. Her advice to others is to keep their eyes on their own paper. Good work gets found, so keep working away.

 

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Melissa at her website, MelissaCassera.com.

SEE ALSO:

• Movie Industry Friends Rewrite the Credits, Earn $20,000/Month: Those long credit sequences at the ends of movies can include a LOT of names—and they also take a lot of time for producers to coordinate. When two industry friends team up to simplify the process, they crawl their way to a highly profitable side hustle.
• Writing Duo Makes a Vow To Improve Wedding Speeches: Two freelance writers use their wit with words to write wedding vows for tongue-tied brides, grooms, and sometimes even the best man.
• Movie Editor Turns 19th Century Art Into Full-Time Job: He started creating webcomics back in 2003. Little did he know this labor of love would eventually turn into a $10,000 per event side hustle.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,