2021 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 7

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 7.

Write an entire draft of a script in September — FADE IN. FADE OUT. Or any sort of creative goal you have in front of you.

Feature length movie screenplay. Original TV pilot. Rewrite a current project. Break a story in prep. Generate a month’s worth of story concepts.

Whatever you feel will ratchet your creative ambitions into overdrive…

DO THAT!

September 1: You type FADE IN / “Once upon a time…”
September 30: You type FADE OUT / “…They all lived happily ever after.”

It’s free! It’s fun! It’s Fade In to Fade Out!

For everything you need to know to join, click here.

To download your copy, click here.

On Twitter, use this hashtag: #ZD30SCRIPT.

Zero Draft Thirty Facebook Group: Here. 4,200+ members strong.

Today’s Writing Quote

“I think it’s always easier to revise a script, even a truly awful one, than face the tyranny of the blank page.”

— Stan Chervin

Today’s Inspirational Video

“The Journey”

By Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice — 
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
‘Mend my life!’
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations — 
though their melancholy
was terrible. It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do — 
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Friends, we are all on a journey. It’s called Life. For those of us who are called to the Creative Life, we have a unique challenge… to abide the voices of doubt as well as lean into the void of the empty page.

It may not be an easy path… but as long as it is our path, those are the steps we must take.

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 1
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 2
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 3
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 4
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 5
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 6

Each day this month, I’ll post a Zero Draft Thirty Challenge post here at Go Into The Story. And as I’ve done with every past Challenge, I will hand out an award for a notable Tweet, Facebook post, or comment here on the blog. This cycle, the winner will receive the Anita Loos Award!

Today’s Anita Loos Award winner: Faith Rivens.

On Twitter, Faith posted this:

A few things caught my eye in Faith’s tweet:

• She hit the thirty-page mark. Well done for one week into the Challenge!
• Faith has clearly embraced the zero draft spirit. Write and keep writing, even if you know you’ll “probably rewrite all of these scenes.”
• And that GIF. I recognized that scene right away. Barbara Stanwyck in the delightful 1941 screwball comedy Ball of Fire. Plot summary: A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia encounter a mouthy nightclub singer who is wanted by the police to help bring down her mob boss lover. Here’s the trailer:

Stanwyck is fantastic in this role as is Gary Cooper, her would-be lover… if only the dude can get out of his head and find his heart.

All that combined makes today’s choice for the recipient of the Anita Loos Award and easy one: Faith Rivens!

Write with the freedom that comes with knowing what you write today, you will rewrite tomorrow… well, after you get done with your zero draft this month. As Stan Chervin noted — it bears repeating: It’s always easier to revise a script, even a truly awful one, than face the tyranny of the blank page.

Defeat the blank page by pounding out words today! Good luck!