In order to get out of the mailroom, he had to corner producers on the lot to ask for a job. One of the first jobs he landed was to write treatments for Leonard Stern of Get Smart fame. After a few years, Norman decided to take time off to write a feature. That script, which eventually became one of the first movies for television, landed him an agent and more assignments rewriting episodic television. What it really meant was thinking consciously about how I did my work instead of expecting it to happen in sort of a magical fashion.
Writing is a performance.
Often writers are forced to apply their skills and talents to crummy ideas. There is a certain amount of writing that can be taught. I don't think anybody can teach you how to be inspired or creative. I think people can teach you certain basic rules. Then you have to put it aside because if all you learn are those things, then you're no better than anybody else who's taken the class.