The thing that's interesting about storytelling is people will say, "How do I write a movie I can get sold in this category?" For God's sake, the first movie that you can get made will be your personal story, because nobody's heard it before.
Sometimes the most important word is no. It takes the pressure off.
As a dancer I had worked with really hard choreographers, Jerome Robbins being the toughest. And you learned what it is to hit against a brick wall. And you learned pretty quickly to go around the wall or say, "I can't take this job."
Maybe sometimes things come to you that you never, in a thousand years, would have included. But they strike a chord, so grab it. Trust your ability to know what's true to it and what would carry you off into outer space.