2022 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 28

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

Scott Myers

28 Mar 2022 • 4 min read

http://www.kylecease.com/

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 28.

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

“The greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict.”

— James Frey

Today’s Poem

Larson’s Holstein Bull

By Jim Harrison

Death waits inside us for a door to open.
Death is patient as a dead cat.
Death is a doorknob made of flesh.
Death is that angelic farm girl
gored by the bull on her way home
from school, crossing the pasture
for a shortcut. In the seventh grade
she couldn’t read or write. She wasn’t a virgin.
She was “simpleminded,” we all said.
It was May, a time of lilacs and shooting stars.
She’s lived in my memory for sixty years.
Death steals everything except our stories.

While I suppose a poem about death is not something one would ordinarily consider to be inspirational, this is different. First, it’s written by the great novelist (“Legends of the Fall”), essayist, and poet Jim Harrison who died in his home in Arizona. He was 78 years old. Second, it’s a powerful poem which reminds us of two things: Each of us is born with an expiration date. And “Death steals everything except our stories.”

Stories transcend death. See if that doesn’t inspire you in writing your current story.

Today’s Loos Award winner: Scott MacGregor.

A few weeks back during our most recent Twenty-Four Hour Writing Scamper-A-Thon, Scott hosted an hour and posted this:

That’s good use of a meme. Reminds me of a post I wrote some years ago: Why Creativity Thrives in the Dark. When I was writing The Protagonist’s Journey, I completely shifted my writing pattern to accommodate my work schedule. Instead of a night writer, I wrote in the morning. Perhaps that worked because it was a different type of writing, more academic in nature.

Now that I’m working on a feature script, I’m back to being a night owl. Something about the dark which engenders my creative soul.

There’s no right time to write. Each of us has our own circadian rhythm. The key is, once we’ve determined that, stick to it… and write!

For that inspiration, the recipient of today’s Ben Hecht Award is Scott MacGregor!

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.

Now Zeronauts, Scampers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

SPREAD THE WORD!

GO WRITE!

POUND OUT PAGES!

NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME FOR WRITING!

TIME TO GET IT DONE!

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