Realistically the odds of succeeding in becoming a screenwriter are steep. I probably don’t have to remind you of that. But since it all too easy to fall into a ‘negative’ mindset — “I’ll never make it… What’s the point… Why keep trying” – what I do have to remind you (and me) about from time to time is this simple fact: No matter how long the odds, people do break in as new screenwriters. Like this story:

Austin director Richard Linklater’s new movie, “Me & Orson Welles,” deals with a genius whose light burns bright early. But as most people know, this particular light dimmed dramatically with age.

It’s been quite the opposite for the people behind the screenplay, Austinites Vince and Holly Gent Palmo, who started near the bottom in the film industry and made several attempts at writing screenplays before finally seeing one turned into a major motion picture. The bittersweet “Me & Orson Welles,” which stars Christian McKay as the famed director and teen heartthrob Zac Efron as a young man being mentored by him, opened to favorable reviews Friday.

Vince and Holly Gent Palmo. What lessons can we learn from their story?

Holly Gent studied at the University of Texas and then worked in advertising sales at the American-Statesman in the 1980s.

After learning that Austin’s Bill Wittliff was adapting the Larry McMurtry novel “Lonesome Dove” for what would become a hit 1989 TV miniseries, she wrote Wittliff asking if there was any way she could work on the project.

To her surprise, Wittliff said yes. She quit her job and ended up as an art department coordinator for the series, “which means you order everything, answer phones, deal with props.”

Vince, meanwhile, studied journalism at California State University in Northridge in the 1980s. After he graduated and then was laid off from an office job, a family connection helped him find work as a stand-in for Charlie Sheen in the 1987 crime drama “No Man’s Land.”

Vince came to Austin in 1992 to work as an assistant director on Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” after another crew member backed out at the last minute.

“I got here about a week before it started shooting,” Vince said. “It was kind of a fluke.”

Several things here. First, they physically put themselves in a position where they would be in an area where filmmakers made movies – in their case Austin. Given the fact that some 40 states have movie production tax incentives, several with very strong track records (including New Mexico, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, and of course, California and New York), you may well live near or in a state with significant movie production. Second, they pushed to see if they could get a gig. They wrote letters. They talked to people they met. Sometimes it’s the simple fact that you show up in the right place at the right time (e.g., another crew member blacks out) that opens doors for you. Finally, they were willing to do some proactive to pursue their dream. But how about the writing?

“Once we were married, we realized that both of us liked to write,” Vince said. “And in between movies, we’ve been doing these adaptations if it is a book that interests us.”

“There’s so much down time in the movies,” Holly said. “You work 14-hour days, and then you’re done and have all this time on your hands between projects. So this is how we spend our spare time.”

You can always write. The only thing stopping you from writing is you.

In the summer of 2005, the Palmos were looking for a new writing project when they saw a copy of “Me & Orson Welles” at BookPeople.

“It was about a period in Welles’ life that I knew nothing about,” Holly said. “I had never read much about the Mercury Theater years.

“And I really loved the story. It’s a nice coming-of-age tale.”

“They were looking for a new writing project.” Or if you tend to be somewhat of a spiritual person like myself, they put out their intention to God / the Universe / Creative Whatever. And like it so often happens, they saw a copy of a book that changed their lives.

One last big lesson: “And I really loved the story.” They had a passion for the project. Perhaps that more than anything else will push a screenplay into existence, into the hands of people who can make it happen, and into a movie.

So every time someone says to you – or you say it to yourself — “Come on, get real, you / I will never sell a script” — while you have to admit that this is true, you also have to acknowledge that every year, people like Vince and Holly Palmo do succeed. And as long as that continues to happen, it could happen to you.

BTW, it’s interesting to note that 3 out of the top 4 2009 Black List scripts are by first-timers: 1. The Muppet Man by Christopher Weekes, 3. The Voices by Michael R. Perry, and 4. Prisoners by Aaron Guzikowski.