Every aspiring film and TV writer possesses an über weapon with the power to obliterate any and all obstacles standing between themselves and the goal of making a living with their words. Think Arthur's Excalibur. James Bonds' Golden Gun. Thor's mighty hammer, Mjolnir (okay, I Wikipedia'd that one to appease the Comic-Con crowd).

Upon hearing such promising news, you may have literally sharted yourself, Nexus/Kindle/iPhone quaking anxiously in your hands.

What in God's name is it?

The blank page, dummy.

An empty piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. A legal tablet. That vacant Final Draft 8 or 9 Doc crowding your Retina screen or the Writers App on your fanboy tablet. Ain't gotta be fancy. Truth be told, some of my best scenes are written in Sharpie on Hal's and Peet's and Cafe Brazil cocktail napkins. But wherever you find space enough for words, there's a winning Lotto ticket waiting to be inked in.

Ah yes, the timeless, democratic beauty of the blank page -- that "white elephant" I mentioned earlier -- is what levels your playing field in a hopelessly canted and cockeyed world. This is the one truly amazing thing about screenwriting -- anyone can work hard and succeed at it. Anyone and everyone -- regardless of class, creed, color, what school they went to, how much money they have, how good looking they are -- has a fighting chance to plant their feet, square their shoulders and take their best shot going for the proverbial gold.

How fucking awesome is that? To know every living soul reading this has an opportunity -- hell, an open invitation -- to roll the dice, say what they want to say, tell the story they have to tell, and perhaps even get (GASP!) paid to share that story -- your story -- with the entire world?

Fat chance? Far-fetched? Impossible? Absurd?

Not so much, I'm delighted to say, as my own twenty-year journey will provide proof positive of in the coming pages.

So while becoming a working writer may seem like a drug-addled pipe-dream today, some surrealist Cinemax "After Dark" ("Small town boy/girl hitches to Tinseltown, fights off freaks, dodges shady agents, makes good and gets paid/laid at last"), believe me, homeboys and girls, it's not.

People pay real money for writing in this business.

It's an industry in constant need of product to fill theaters, cable channels, networks, VOD outlets, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Redbox and a million other coming delivery systems which haven't been invented yet. For chris'sake, folks are paying to watch The Godfather on their phones now. So know there's an insatiable, built-in hunger for content to fill this growing myriad of Net-era pipelines, which means constantly having to restock all those cybershelves with fresh entertainment and something brand new.

That's where you come in. Cue the heads-up aspiring writer. This same supply and demand dynamic is what provides you with an evergreen opportunity, one that ain't going away anytime soon -- the need for self-generated material. For writers looking to build careers, this new media landscape is steadily evolving into the gift that keeps on giving. Regardless of where tech ultimately goes or what gadget we end up consuming our media with, the hunger for fresh stories and those able to put them down on in black and white will always remain a constant.

Will most of it pay get-rich-quick Late '90's/Early 2000's money? No. The day of the one-punch knockout is long over. After the economic meltdown of 2008, that model of film biz development was permanently mothballed. Except for a brandable, contemporary short list, writer deals now pay less across the board, and long-established quotes have taken big haircuts, if they haven't been discarded altogether. But hey, work is still work, deals are still deals, and they still pay real money a writer can live on. Best of all, you're being paid to do what you love most -- write.

Being paid to write. Wow. Sick job, right? And like I just said, it's guaranteed somebody's gotta do it. Someone's gotta keep those pipelines filled year-in and year-out with cool new stuff.

Which begs the same question you probably brought to this book in the first place --

"Why shouldn't that somebody be me?"

Honest answer? There's absolutely no good reason it shouldn't -- and couldn't -- be you.

Of course, to ignite this wondrous alternative future for yourself and start grabbing up all that opportunity, you'll need to accomplish one tiny thing first.

You'll need to write a great script.

Not "pretty good". Not "kinda cool". Not "just as good as that big dumb spec which sold last week". And certainly not "put Brad Pitt in the lead, you can totally see the movie" (Put Mr. Pitt in anything, even a Restoration Hardware catalog, you can totally see the movie).

Great, fellas. G-R-E-A-T. World-class. Brass ring. Top of the heap. An undeniably fresh and entertaining story that stands above and beyond the Industry's latest lame-o copycat epic-fail blockbuster release last weekend. Miles beyond that VOD video game genre flick you illegally DL'd from iptorrents. No sir, you'll need a fantastic screenplay which is made or broken, stands or falls, entirely on its own merits.

I know, I know. WTF? If Hollywood doesn't hold itself to that lofty ideal, why in the hell should I? Check out BoxOfficeMojo, bro. Aiming low seems totally the way to go.

But you couldn't be more wrong.

AIM HIGH!!!