You’ll never forget it: the rush of hearing your first yes. You won the contest. They love your script. We’re offering you the job. If only you could spend the rest of your life bathing in the sound of that sweet, sweet yes. 

But then again… maybe you’d like more than one. Maybe you want decades full of yeses to turn this win into a lifelong career. In that case, you may already be asking yourself, “Now what?”

Choose a Destination

The first thing you’re going to want to do after breaking in—if you haven’t already—is choose a destination. In other words, you need to decide where you want to go in your career. Do you want to be a showrunner? Develop IP? Write Oscar-worthy dramas? The more clearly you define your goals, the more you’ll be able to funnel your energy and resources into people and projects that will move you in the right direction.

When I first started, in addition to scribbling “I am a TV writer” in my journal 50 times a day—because, you know, manifesting—I also sat down and wrote out a two-, five-, ten-, and twenty-year plan. That probably makes me sound way more Type-A than I actually was, but what surprised me about the exercise was how much it scared me. 

I didn’t realize this at the time, but I was conditioned to believe that a television career was out of reach for me. As a result, I didn’t place much faith in my own abilities or ideas. I felt uncomfortable even imagining the future I wanted because, deep down, I was afraid I wasn’t good enough to make it happen.

Luckily, I made myself do the exercise anyway. I discovered that picking a destination doesn’t guarantee you’ll have an easy journey, but it will absolutely help you get there. One of the most important ways it does that is by giving you an idea of what to write next—which, to keep the travel metaphor going, is like making a path.

Make a Path

People say there’s no clear route to success in Hollywood. And if you’ve already broken in, you probably know you’re going to have to make your own. How do you do that? By banging out badass scripts, of course. But you’ve probably already done that at least once to get where you are.

So now the question becomes, how do you decide what to work on next?

Sci-fi writer and script consultant Jenna Avery has a great in-depth guidebook on how to choose your next project. One piece of advice she offers is to make a list of concepts you love. Then assess each one with the following questions:

• Would I be thrilled to write this project?
• Does this project have a high level of clarity for me?
• Does this project fit within my brand?
• Does this project challenge me as a writer and help me grow my skillset?

 These criteria can help narrow down your options, and I recommend checking out Avery’s guidebook for more (PS, it’s free!). If you find you’ve gone through the questions and you still have too many ideas to choose from, here are some additional steps that might help:

• Make a list of loglines for the projects you’re interested in
• Share your loglines and your destination with your reps and/or readers you respect (knowing where you want to go will help them help you get there!)
• Notice which loglines spark the most interest
• Develop the sparky loglines into brief project summaries
• Repeat steps 1 through 4, expanding each idea and reducing the number of potential projects until one rises to the top

Notice I suggested sharing your ideas with “readers you respect.” That could be friends, family, peers, supervisors—whoever! Treat these people right. Keep them close. Over time, they’re going to help you get where you want to go. And that brings me to the most important way to keep the good mojo flowing: find your travel buddies.

Read More: How to Find Your Screenwriting Voice

Find Your Travel Buddies

Think fast: You’re taking a road trip. Who do you want to take with you?

Now imagine the road trip is your career. Who would you take then?

Ideally, these two answers should be identical. The people you want in your life are the same people you want in your career. But navigating Hollywood can feel very different than, you know, living. It’s confusing, challenging, and sometimes toxic, and you might feel you need a different type of travel buddy to get you where you’re going.

This feeling can become overwhelming in the wake of a big win. Suddenly you’re no longer an aspiring writer. You’re a produced writer/staff writer/fellowship winner/insert group here. People will be drawn to your glow. Some will be great connections. Others will be opportunists who want to feed off your energy. How do you tell them apart?

Journalist Justin Ray wrote a helpful article for the Los Angeles Times called “Don’t get scammed: How to set yourself up for success and avoid predators in Hollywood.” It includes such advice as:

• Don’t pay to play
• Question “unearned bravado”
• Beware of anything (and anyone) that seems too good to be true

These are great tips for avoiding Hollywood baddies. But I’d also like to suggest ways to find people you do want in your life—your travel buddies for this crazy, difficult, awesome career. These may be new friends you meet after breaking in, or they might be professional connections. In either case, consider the following:

• Do we support each other’s visions?
• Do I want them in my life long-term?
• Do we inspire each other?

This last point is perhaps the most important when it comes to building the relationships that will help you sustain your career. Ultimately, you’re looking for success, right? And as former First Lady Michelle Obama said in her 2012 commencement speech at Oregon State University:

Success isn’t about being impressive. It’s about being inspired.

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Building a career in Hollywood is a journey. You may feel along the way that you’re never going to reach your destination. Or you may choose a path, only to discover it leads to a dead end. But if you surround yourself with people who inspire you, it’s going to be amazing anyway. Before you know it, that first “yes” will become the life you always wanted.

Read More: How To Use Smaller Projects as a Writing Career Springboard