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There've been moments where I just was tired of being in L.A. It was very difficult. I mean, you're constantly rejected. And that's OK, it's just really frustrating for me, because I try to read scripts and projects that have really great, deeper, meaningful qualities to them.

I remember moving out to L.A. straight after college and just starting to try to write scripts and trying to get stuff off the ground.

Live an interesting life. Meet people. Read a lot and widely, learn from the great writers.

It's hard to make a living as a novelist. My first novel 'Tapping the Source' made quite a splash in Hollywood, and people started asking if I wanted to write scripts. I quickly realized I could make a lot more money that way.

I couldn't get an acting job to save my life when I moved to L.A.

I'm from a small town in North Carolina and went to a small college and didn't think that someone like me could make a living in L.A. doing comedy. I worked hard, especially in college, but at that age, you don't know what's next.

I'm still very blunt: If you want to be a writer, get a day job. The fact that I have actually been able to make a living at it is astonishing.

I've never written a movie, I'm not in the movie business. I go out to L.A. and I'm like everyone else wandering around in a daze hoping I see movie stars. I write the novels that the movies are based on, and that feels like enough of a job for me.