An interest in screenwriting slowly emerged, and in his forties Simsion made a low budget film from his wife's unpublished novel. (Simsion's wife is a psychiatrist and a published author of psychological thrillers and erotica fiction.) After Simsion sold his consulting business (age 50), he officially enrolled in a screenwriting program. The screenplay produced his creation "The Rosie Project." "The Rosie Project" screenplay won the 2010 Australian Writers Guild/Inscription Award for Best Romantic Comedy Script. Afterwards, Simsion turned his screenplay into a novel. (Simsion was guided by author Elmore Leonard's advice to leave out the bits (descriptions) that people skip.)
Simsion entered The Rosie Project manuscript into an Australian competition and won the $15,000 first prize. Three months later, the book was sold to a publisher and he received more than $1 million in advances.
In a January 2014 interview, Simsion stated:
"I gave it to people with Asperger's to read, and have had tremendously
positive feedback. Don struggles with certain things, but he's a hero,
and we're inside his head."
One of Simsion's screenwriting teachers disliked the Don Tillman character; feeling that people would find him annoying and not likable. Another teacher recommended killing off
Gene, feeling that "a film can always use a death." As we know, Gene is alive and
well in "The Rosie Project."
Graeme Simsion recommends:
- "Relativity " by Antonia Hayes (2016): "Original, compassionate, cleverly plotted, and genuinely difficult to put down."
- "The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko" by Scott Stambach (2016): "Compelling, intelligent, moving. The love story is executed with unflinching honesty and dark humor. A masterful novel."