1247
9 min 2 sec

PR Pro Writes Herself Into Screenwriting Career

An “only for fun” romance novel leads to a multiple six-figure side gig writing real-life screenplays for this PR and marketing whiz.
Screenwriting Service Writing

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What It's About

A marketing professional becomes a movie screenwriter.

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Writing & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

At the urging of her accountant, Melissa started a production company. To write off things like manager, lawyer, and agent commissions, it’s better to be an S-Corp than an LLC. The production company then acquired Melissa’s marketing business, which was an LLC.

Fun Fact

Melissa got her gig with Lifetime because she wrote a spec script, which is an entire sample movie script—for free—so she could show them what she was capable of. Her writing was good enough to land her the job.

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

Yours in the revolution,

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Quote of the Day
"Now, I try to avoid getting overly caught up in other people’s opinions, but her comments definitely boosted my confidence. I started thinking to myself, “Maybe this is something I could pursue seriously, not just as a hobby…”"
—Melissa Cassera #SideHustleSchool

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