2022 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 20

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 20.

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

“Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.”

— Isabel Allende

Today’s Inspirational Video

Of course, this is an homage to Shia LaBeouf:

That little girl does an AMAZING job mimicking Shia!

Today’s Loos Award winner: Richard Leslie Lewis.

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

We all have our cliched little mantras — ‘Exposition is boring, show don’t tell, kill you darlings’. The latter I keep really close because hanging on to a great scene that does nothing except sit there shouting ‘look at me, I’m a terrific scene’ will kill you. So kill it. Cut your wonderful scene, the one you thought of before any others. The one you’ve hung onto the longest. the one that has no place in your screenplay and no-one will miss Throw it in the alley, be Scarface with your rewrite.

Let me say that when writing a zero draft, we don’t worry about killing darlings. Instead, we want to nurture our darlings as they emerge from our fingertips. Indeed, feel free to serenade them.

Remember, a zero draft is about getting it down onto the page. Period. Do no pre-edit. Don’t even edit.

BUT…

When you get to the point where you are revising your script, THEN it’s time to kill your darlings. And that includes a scene that “does nothing except sit there shouting ‘look at me, I’m a terrific scene.’” As Richard points out, if it doesn’t advance the story… go Scarface on it.

The deeper you get into your rewrites, the more brutal you must become with your darlings. And for that insight and inspiration, the recipient of today’s Ben Hecht Award is Richard Leslie Lewis!

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
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 19

Now Zeronauts, Scampers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

SPREAD THE WORD!

GO WRITE!

POUND OUT PAGES!

WELCOME YOUR DARLINGS (then Scarface them)!

TIME TO GET IT DONE!