2022 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 19

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 19.

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!

As for me, I will spend the month co-writing a feature film spec script. It’s based on a story concept I came up with late last year and it may be the strongest comedy idea I’ve ever worked on. My writing partner and I have spent the first two months of the year on character development and breaking story. Now it’s time to jam out a first draft!

If you join the Challenge, I will be right there with you writing each and every day in March! Let’s do this together!

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

“You can dress it up, but it comes down to the fact that a movie is only as good as its script.”

— Curtis Hanson

Today’s Inspirational Poem

A Spiral Notebook

By Ted Kooser

The bright wire rolls like a porpoise
in and out of the calm blue sea
of the cover, or perhaps like a sleeper
twisting in and out of his dreams,
for it could hold a record of dreams
if you wanted to buy it for that
though it seems to be meant for
more serious work, with its
college-ruled lines and its cover
that states in emphatic white letters,
5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK. It seems
a part of growing old is no longer
to have five subjects, each
demanding an equal share of attention,
set apart by brown cardboard dividers,
but instead to stand in a drugstore
and hang on to one subject
a little too long, like this notebook
you weigh in your hands, passing
your fingers over its surfaces
as if it were some kind of wonder.

I love this poem. It’s a poem for writers. The tactile experience of writing, reflective of the magic and wonder of something emerging from nothing.

You can check out Ted Kooser reading a number of his poems here:

Today’s Loos Award winner: Lindsay McRae.

Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group, Lindsay posted this poem.

I resonate with this. One of the primary reasons I turned my back on pursuing a Ph.D. to pursue my musical aspirations was I did not want to look back at my life at some point in the future (e.g., 20 years) and regret not pursuing something I was passionate about.

This is the spirit of the zero draft. Better to get it down than not… and live with the disappointment of never having seen what your story could become.

For that inspiration, today’s recipient of the Ben Hecht Award is Lindsay McRae!

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
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 18

Now Zeronauts, Scampers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

SPREAD THE WORD!

GO WRITE!

POUND OUT PAGES!

THROW OFF THE BOWLINES!

TIME TO GET IT DONE!