36-Inspiration Finds Us Working: Forget the Rules, Write the Next Book, interviewing Jim Shomos

Show notes
Jim Shomos spent twenty years breaking format as a screenwriter and producer—his 2005 series Forget the Rules was the world's first to broadcast every episode across TV, web and mobile at once—before pivoting to indie fiction. He and Amra trace that reinvention: how a screenplay that couldn't get financed became his debut novel Up Here, why he chose indie publishing after COVID lockdown made the decision for him, and what changed when he swapped studio notes and gatekeepers for total creative control. They dig into the discipline behind the craft—Jim's answer to "what's your greatest talent" isn't story or voice, it's showing up—along with the pull of romance versus thrillers, where AI actually earns its keep for an indie author (and where it doesn't), and how grief and upheaval reshaped both their writing lives. A candid look at what it costs, and what it's worth, to keep chipping away at the work.


Takeaways

• Creative Freedom
• Collaboration in Creative Projects Discipline
• Continuous learning

Chapters

• 00:00 Meet Jim Shomos
• 01:28 The Birth of Forget the Rules
• 04:31 Total Creative Control vs. Studio Notes
• 08:53 From Copywriter to Screenwriter: Craft, Mentors, and Emotional Truth
• 15:54 Gatekeepers and a Subjective Industry
• 18:27 Streaming Economics and Vanishing Residuals
• 20:36 When Editors Pull You in Different Directions
• 23:41 Can AI Write an Original Story?
• 27:37 Canva, AI Narration, and Indie Marketing Tools
• 29:45 Grief, Sabbatical, and Stepping Back
• 31:02 Becoming a Romance Writer, and a Lifelong Thriller Reader
• 33:11 The Idea Behind Up Here
• 34:32 25 Years of Pitching One Script
• 36:18 Craft, Discipline, and the Myth of Inspiration
• 39:13 "Real Writing Is Rewriting"
• 41:45 Parenthood, Upheaval, and Getting the Work Done
• 44:06 Why Reading Makes You a Better Writer
• 45:21 Deciding on the Next Project: Kidnap
• 47:33 COVID and the Decision to Go Indie
• 48:13 Finding a Publishing Community: BusyBird and Romance Writers of Australia
• 51:23 Hybrid vs. Traditional Publishing, and Spotting the Scams
• 55:04 Staying Current on Marketing
• 56:10 Choosing to Write the Next Book
• 57:02 Protecting Your IP as an Indie Author
• 58:15 Walking Away from Producing
• 59:11 Legacy, Mortality, and What Matters Now
• 1:00:13 Where to Find Jim

Connect with Jim Shomos
​Jim Shomos spent over twenty years as a screenwriter and producer before reinventing himself as an indie novelist. Jim Shomos created ‘forget the rules’—the world's first comedy-drama series to broadcast every episode on TV, web and mobile at once—picked up wins and nominations at Cannes and the Australian Writers' Guild, and was once ranked in Australia's Film & TV Power-50. A few years ago, he turned that screenwriting instinct toward the page. Today he's the indie-published author of three contemporary romance novels, and  Up Here, Three Women in November, and More Text Than Sex.

Website: https://jimshomos.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jim_shomos/