2023 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!

As for me, I will spend the month rewriting a feature film spec script.

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

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. 4,800+ 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 Stax Music Video

I have dedicated the 2023 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge as Stax Music Month. Part of that decision is to honor one of the greatest record companies of all time (check out their history here). But mostly, it’s an excuse to feature awesome R&B and soul music to get you out of your chair, dance around the room for 5 minutes, churn up your creative juices, then sit right back down and write your ass off.

Today’s featured song: “The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)” by Otis Redding.

Today’s Dalton Trumbo Award winner: Lauren Taylor Bishop.

Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group page, Lauren and I had this exchange:

Lauren: I just want to send good vibes to everyone participating! I had to sit this year out (despite momentum) to focus on finding a new place to live and we finally got a flat today! Hoping I can keep a few people company for writing sprints in some breakout rooms or discord this month if that’s a thing- rooting for all of y’all in the meantime!

Scott: Lauren, you’re a generous soul to visit the site and wish folks good luck even when you’re not doing the challenge. You had important matters to deal — where to live! Congrats on finding a place. May you find a comfy corner which inspires your writing!

Lauren: Sometimes you have to focus on your hierarchy of needs, and thankfully this place has desk space by a window & plenty of room for the cat! ZD30 is very close to my heart- I completed its parent/cousin (?) Scriptfrenzy in 2010 when it was still an offshoot of Nanowrimo’s forums and it sealed my love of screenwriting when I was at a crossroads. I was thrilled to learn you’d rekindled the spirit of the challenge in ZD30 when I saw you at LSF 2019 and I’m glad this community is still thriving! Can’t wait to join you all for a scamper in my new space.

Sometimes life gets in the way of our creative aspirations. That’s okay. Each of us has got to do what we gotta do to keep on keeping on. But here’s Lauren, in the midst of moving, dropping by to support folks who are doing this month’s Challenge. That’s what it’s all about: Writers supporting other writers. By demonstrating such thoughtfulness, today’s recipient of the Dalton Trumbo Award is Lauren Taylor Bishop!

To learn more about Dalton Trumbo and his fascinating career as a screenwriter, go here.

For your chance to win the Dalton Trumbo Award, one given away each day during the Challenge, post something inspiring, here on the blog, via Twitter, or the Facebook group.

Congratulation, Lauren!

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

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Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17

Now Zeronauts, Scamperers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

WRITERS SUPPORTING WRITERS!

POUND OUT PAGES!

SCAMPER ON!