Meet Brett Ellen Block | Author, Screenwriter & Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brett Ellen Block and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brett Ellen, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
Giving up isn’t failure. It’s giving yourself permission to bookmark the moment and come back to it if or when you’re ready.

I’d published five novels, which had won awards and been translated into a number of languages around the world, then my mother suffered a medical tragedy. I shelved my writing career and spent the next decade as her caregiver.

After she passed, I assumed I’d never write again. Being an author felt like a long-forgotten version of me. Then I read about a contest for unpublished novels, dusted off an idea I’d started ages ago, entered and won. Within two weeks, I signed with a new literary agent and we started preparing to shop the book.

Around the same time, I also started writing for film and television, entering contests and placing as a finalist in several competitions. It was as if the life I’d given up on had never given up on me. It was waiting until the time was right.

As I learned more about the industry, I discovered that I would need pitch decks to help promote my scripts. Rates could range from $1000 and up. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but I didn’t have a thousand dollars to spend on a dozen pilots and features. To save money, I tried Fiverr and got ripped off by an “artist” passing someone else’s work off as their own.

Frustrated, I was about to give up on pitch decks altogether when I decided to learn how to design them myself.

To my surprise, the decks I made opened doors with producers and garnered positive feedback. The power of a polished pitch deck made me want to help other screenwriters utilize them to advance their projects too, so I started an online service offering pitch deck design at affordable prices.

People say: “Don’t give up!” I say: “Give up all you want!” Because it’s just pressing a pause button. The opportunity to keep going will come back around at the perfect time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Being named after a Hemingway character and growing up with learning disabilities that made it difficult to read and write often felt like a bad joke.

I battled to catch up then keep up with my classmates. Once I finally did, I was accused of plagiarism because a teacher insisted that my essays were “too good” to be mine.

When I fell into a Creative Writing course in college – yes, I literally fell, hurt my foot and wound up in a class I could get to on crutches – the irony wasn’t lost on me.

Life has a funny way of setting you on the right path.

I went on to become an award-winning novelist, publishing books with HarperCollins and Random House. As an author who’d been told I may never learn to read properly, I’m drawn to characters seeking redemption and acceptance, and as a new screenwriter, I gravitate toward thriller, horror, and sci-fi because the notion that characters could survive against all odds if they never gave up still resonates with me today.

Stephen King said of writing: “The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

I still get scared when I sit down to face a blank page. That pressure doesn’t go away.

However, it’s taught me that courage is rarely a grand gesture. It’s consistently facing fears, doing the hard things day in and day out, and having faith in the fact that everything is going to work out just fine – maybe better than you even expected!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I was grateful to find Coverfly, Launch Pad, Stage32, and the International Screenwriters’ Association when I started writing screenplays. These sites give aspiring screenwriters a clear starting point to enter contests, track progress, connect with other writers and access industry pros as well as invaluable classes and seminars. I was floundering around trying to educate myself online when I stumbled upon these sites and realized I was approaching a career in screenwriting the wrong way. These sites helped me streamline the process of entering competitions, networking and pitching to producers and managers, so I could focus on polishing my writing portfolio.

Website: https://www.brettellenblock.com

Other: https://filmandtvpitchdecks.com/

Image Credits
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