MY SCREENWRITING JOURNEY Growing up under apartheid in South Africa, a screenwriting career was unthinkable. We were socially engineered by the government into specific industries and steered away from certain sectors through job reservation policies. People of colour were explicitly excluded from ANYTHING in media. Despite loving film, television, and storytelling, I never imagined I could work in that space. Everything changed when I spotted a newspaper ad for a week-long filmmaking course at a local university. As a creative, I was intrigued. I applied and was selected as one of twenty participants. The course covered all aspects of filmmaking - lighting, camera work, directing, blocking, editing, etc. I hated everything except the writing. When workshops were offered during the Durban International Film Festival, I chose screenwriting without hesitation. That workshop transformed my life. I fell in love with screenwriting and was blown away that I could actually have a career in this field. The reality, however, was daunting: I lived on a cattle farm in a rural area, worked in a hardware store, had no computer or laptop, and virtually no internet access. But I was determined. For five years, I worked full-time at the hardware store plus two extra jobs to support my family while studying screenwriting. Every night from 10pm to 2am, I wrote on an old Blackberry(That's the one in the pic). There was only one spot in the house with cell phone signal, so I'd stand there to research, send emails, or submit assignments. I took on free writing gigs to build my credibility and CV. Finally, breakthrough came. My first paid gig earned me $25, and I felt like a king. After two more years of relentless writing, I sold my first short film. Two years later, my first feature script was commissioned—and I resigned from my day job. A year after that, I landed my first TV writing job. I never looked back. Since then, I've written on 16 local TV shows and 12 paid features. I've been a Final Draft Big Break Winner, signed by a manager, and hired to write a feature for one of the directors of BBC's Doctor Who. I was hired to create a show for Netflix, adapted Ugly Betty for a local network, and now have an Academy Award Winner attached to one of my feature scripts that's being shopped. My goals remain ambitious: secure an agent, break fully into Hollywood and the international industry, write big-budget features, and become a showrunner on a premier streamer like HBO. Through this journey, I've learned three crucial lessons: You never stop learning, so stay humble and teachable. The surest roadblock to learning is thinking you already know. I enter every experience as a student, and it's served me well. You must love what you do, including the hard work, challenges, and craft itself. Many people love the idea of being writers but don't really love writing. I love everything about the art and craft, and that love brings me back to storytelling repeatedly. I write because I must. Be stubborn and determined, because the people who succeed in this business never give up. Talent alone isn't enough—you need to be tough. You must take knocks and disappointments, learn from them, make adjustments, and keep moving forward. If you can't outlast the challenges, you won't make it, no matter how talented you are.

Sometimes we plan perpetually so that we have a justification as to why we never take any real action.

Introduced my kids to a classic tonight... LADYHAWKE

Wow, fantasy worldbuilding is incredibly challenging and time consuming. This is exacly why I've stayed away from this genre until now lol.

Everyone wants soul returned to our society but nobody wants to pay the ones who provide it: artists

My two boys started a Metal Music YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago, and they seem to be doing well. Proud that they had an idea and went for it. Sometimes we overthink things.

No thanks. Val Kilmer isn't "starring" in anything. It's his digital image slapped onto a skin. It's not his effort, his energy, his talent or his soul. The only acting being done here is the pretense that it's still him and he's performing.

Pretty proud of my boys. They started a metal music youtube channel a few weeks ago and it's etting pretty decent views.

“Water, soil, and oxygen should not be infinitely accessible. They are assets that should be included in global economic balance sheets.” This is not satire. The World Economic Forum wants to monetise breathing.

Have you ever noticed that the people who are trying to push something on you as a consumer, never really consume that thing personally? Makes you wonder what they know about what they're trying to convince you to consume.

In the interests of staying grounded, from now on, I'm writing "THE BEGINNING" on the last page of my screenplays, because let's face it, who am I fooling with "THE END" when 276 rewrites await. Managers & execs are probably reading "THE END" and secretly laughing at my naivety.

Interpretation: Excrement will vastly exceed excellence. A person like this who is committed to disempowering and replacing the individuals who speak directly to the human experience through art and creativity, is exactly what is wrong with the world. He's basically saying, you shouldn't be creating, we will create for you and give you content to consume. This man isn't a futurist or a visionary, he is Trojan horse.

Learn to recognize when you've graduated from aspiring to perspiring.

Sometimes, if you're too good at your job, you may not get hired, because you make people feel threatened.

If I could channel the clarity and lexical power I experience during my editing, into my writing, I'd be unstoppable. Where's that guy when I need him.

As writers we need to approach writing for ourselves with the same level of seriousness and attention as we employ when writing for other people. We deserve to take ourselves seriously.

You'll begin to really appreciate the power of story when you realise that politics is literally WWE. It's ALL scripted content. #TheTrumanShow

RT @Obieoberholster: # Farmmurders

#WritingCommunity What's your take on character POV? Do you think it's okay to head hop or must stories be told from just one perspective? If so, why? Should we treat novels and screenplays differently in this regard?

I feel like writing Twitter has writing advice fatigue. Everyone is tired of experts telling them how to write. Maybe it's just me.

Anyone who tells you there is a quick or easy way to gain anything worthwhile is either a liar or a thief.