2023 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 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

“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 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: “Time is Tight” by Booker T. & The MG’s.

Today’s Dalton Trumbo Award winner: Anita Tucker!

I decided to do a deep dive into comments over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group and this one from Anita comes all the way back to Day 4 of this month’s challenge.

I write while you are all sleeping! Bit lonely (uk time) ! Today have adopted the name of an organisation as my mantra.. Run At It Shouting..(tv/film and theatre workshops and events). Really works!

Let me use this opportunity to offer a virtual tip of the hat to our U.K.-based writers. Also, I like that sentiment: Run At It Shouting. And so the recipient of today’s Dalton Trumbo Award is Anita Tucker!

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, Anita!

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

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18

Now Zeronauts, Scamperers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

RUN AT IT SHOUTING!

POUND OUT PAGES!

SCAMPER ON!