There are a lot of mediocre screenplays, and some that are brilliant. But writing one is a demanding and often thankless job. Your friends and family look at you with admiration, at first. Your wife says sell a script so she can quit her job to live in Malibu.

Everybody seems to think you’re writing the Next Big Script that’ll sell for millions. You know better. A few hundred thousand would be fine, thank you. Get your foot in the door. But deep down, you have hope that you’ll see your name in Variety: “Screenwriter Sells Script For Boffo Bucks!”

Then reality hits.

You deal with the producer who asks for more rewrites, even after you’ve it re-written it 10 times. Or you work long hours with agents who promise the world, then leave you with no deals. Or your wife thinks you’re a failure. Your family and friends now begin to wonder what the hell is wrong with you. Isn’t writing a screenplay easy? Isn’t this what you went to college for? Why aren’t YOU selling your screenplay? Everybody else is!

As my daughter says, “Well duh!”

You know you can do better than the guys writing “Transformers 3: The Quick Edit,” but your stories are about humans, not dumb, noisy robots. If you do decide to write a piece of crud to get in on the Hollywood money, then you’re not even looked at.

It’s like working to get to the Big Leagues. You’ve got the film degree, writing ability, tons of writing classes under the belt, and you’ve written enough to get professionally noticed. Yet you get no further than the local baseball diamond, tossing the ball against the backstop, all by yourself. You know you can still play the game, but it doesn’t play the bills.

Writing isn’t brain surgery or rocket science, but it is a hard job. Chase has no clue and should stick to banking.