Cool Scott. There's a movie I recently caught called "Adult World" (2013 written by Andy Cochran and directed by Scott Coffey). The story is basically based on your premise. I think it's a great underrated, under-the-radar film. It's about a young poet (Emma Roberts) who confronts a known one-hit-wonder published writer (John Cusack) who basically tells her as much and even says that fame and success mean nothing. There are numerous situations in this film concerning the illusions the young writer has, like being great, getting published, and so on. She has a friend who she finds out has been an artist but had never shown his work anywhere, which she couldn't understand. And his response was 'didn't you ever just do it for yourself?' Bottom line, I think you need to just write for yourself, not for some illusion of success, not for the market. As David Milch has said, when you write for yourself, that's the stuff that ironically is the most marketable and sought after. So yeah, it's not about making a living. It's about doing what you love.

Haven't seen that movie, Jon, but I'll put it on my list. While a certain awareness of the marketplace is important -- it's smart to have some understanding of how Hollywood operates -- at the end of the day, as you say, write for yourself. Take a strong story concept. Then write with passion. Write with feeling. Write with conviction. And hope for the best!