“Writing fiction always left me feeling muzzled and constrained,” Jacquelyn Frohlich says on the occasion of the release of her new film, “Wayward.” Wanting more than anything to be “a real novelist” — the type who gets reviewed in the New York Times — this graduate of Fiction Writing at Sarah Lawrence College wrote three unpublished books, got married, had children, got divorced, and decided life was neither complicated nor rewarding enough. She took up film, a medium that “offered the joy and relief of collaboration.”

Locating one’s metier after having dedicated a significant chunk of life to another is an indicator of tenacity, but to actually realize as much requires a degree of good fortune. A feature film, however modest in budget, is no easy venture. “I’d been working really hard,” Ms. Frohlich avers, “… and knocking on every door and nothing ever happened for me.” Still, her script about the kidnapping of a teenage girl did manage to pique some fancies, open some checkbooks, and, before you know it, Ms. Frohlich is another overnight sensation long in the making.