2022 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 18

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 18.

Write an entire draft of a script in March — 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!

To download your very own Zero Draft Thirty calendar — designed and created by Steven Dudley — and track your daily progress:

On Twitter, use this hashtag: #ZD30SCRIPT.

Join the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook Group: Here. 4,500+ members strong.

Today’s Writing Quote

“The secret to screenwriting is short sentences, small words, and BIG pictures.”

— William Kelley

Today’s Inspirational Video

Out of the mouths of babes and infants…

Today’s Loos Award winner: Wendy Propps Casto.

Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group page, Wendy posted this:

“By being vulnerable with yourself, you are being vulnerable with your audience. … Someone out there is going through the very same thing that you are, hoping they are not alone. Show them that they aren’t. Be true to yourself. Be fearless. Be real.”

— Kevin Nelson

In Hollywood development circles, we talk about something called audience identification. That is, something in our story needs to elicit an emotional connection on the part of the script reader, moviegoer, TV watcher, etc.

How to do that?

Through the characters … and most notably, the Protagonist.

And how do we imbue a Protagonist with something that will resonate with others?

Imbue them with something that arises from our own life experience.

Just this evening, I interviewed Kryzz Gautier (@KryzzGautier). Her script “Wheels Come Off” made the 2021 Black List. Although set in a post-apocalyptic environment, the story arises from Kryzz’s own life experience. As it say on the title page of the script:

Inspired by this writer and her disabled mother making their way through an inaccessible world. (Some apocalypse added for seasoning.)

The Protagonist in the script is a teenage girl who mother is disabled. That inspiration comes directly from Kryzz’s own life experience. The story is deeply human and evocative.

The old saying goes, “Write what you know.” I prefer this: “Write what you know emotionally.” That’s where audience identification in a script happens.

For this inspiration, the recipient of the today’s Ben Hecht Award is Wendy Propps Casto!

For your chance to win the Ben Hecht Award, one given away each day during the Challenge, post something inspiring, here on the blog, via Twitter (#ZD30SCRIPT), or the Facebook group.

For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into being and what it is, go here, here, and here.

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
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 7
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 8
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 9
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 10
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 11
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 12
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 13
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 14
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 15
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 16
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 17

Now Zeronauts, Scampers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

SPREAD THE WORD!

GO WRITE!

POUND OUT PAGES!

BE FEARLESS!

TIME TO GET IT DONE!