Going to America

Many aspiring screenwriters have dreamed of doing it, but Lisa Marks has actually taken the plunge, sold her house and moved to LA. She's blogging about the experience for The Guardian.

I want to crack Hollywood as a scriptwriter - and I have given myself a year to do it. I have sold my flat in North London and left behind the security of my job, family, friends and a life I know inside out to see if I have what it takes to make it in this town.

Even writing it down looks cheesy. I haven't written the film script yet - well, I'm 12 pages in - but the idea's been buzzing around in my head for a year or so.

I'm not a complete novice. Nine years ago I sold my first film script, written with my then writing partner, to Ginger Productions. It was a romantic comedy and we were told by everyone within touching distance of Soho that we were the "next big thing". (As it turned out Guy Ritchie was). We were snapped up by William Morris, landed a couple of development deals and signed with Sky Pictures to write a book adaptation. Everything looked rosy. Then Chris Evans fell out with his producer, who left the company with our film tucked under his arm, the Sky deal went into turnaround and the development deals stalled. We quit William Morris and, totally skint, my writing partner and I went our separate ways.