Brilliant example here of perseverance! Well done and congrats Alan Donahue, Richard Cordiner and Lynelle White. Just goes to show, "You can lead a horse to a pen, but you can't make him a writer." We still must put in the work. Everyday. Success is a muscle that must be exercised, maintained and challenged. Even in the face of not being selected to The Quest Initiative last year, Alan Donahue stayed positive and turned the opportunity into a success! I plan on following this same recipe if my logs are not selected for the QI, and participating in the GOYOQ. Still, hope to see you in the finals though ;) Good day, good writing and cheers to Scott! @rojomayne

Nice work everyone. Wonderful to hear such brilliant success stories. And it proves yet again that a great script will see you succeed no matter where you live.

What great stories and fantastic morale boosters for those of us still working at breaking in....I guess one would be a fool not to go for the QUEST and, failing that, GOYOQ at the BlackBoard.

Lydia, so true: All comes down to a great story concept executed as a great script. I've got another success story to share, hopefully soon once the deal is complete. But this writer has been a longtime follower of the blog and sent me a very nice note. And everything that is happening to him is a direct result of him nailing a script. As confounding and hard as writing can be, and there's no doubting it is, at one level, it's all quite simple: If you write a great script, Hollywood will find you.

Congratulations Alan, great news. And for the record love your "words for" pdfs. Have lots of new words for walking and looking now. Cheers. :-)

That's amazing! And definitely inspiring. Good to hear these kinds of stories to help recharge the ol' writing batteries and remember hard work pays off. Thanks for sharing with us. And good luck to your proteges. Regardless of what happens, I look forward to the journey and the fact that there will be something to fall back on with GOYOQ! Gotta love the BB :) Curious... what's a 'blind deal'?

Congratulations everyone. Sounds like Scott knows how to pick tenacious workers. I feel like I owe Scott a debt of gratitude for the good things happening in my career. Not necessarily Quest related, but GITS makes magic. Thanks, Scott.

Congratulations, Alan, and warm wishes on all your writing endeavors! Thanks for sharing Alan's news with us, Scott, and for making GOYOQ happen.