2023 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 2
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 2.
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. 4,700+ members strong.
Today’s Writing Quote
“A word after a word after a word is power.”
— Margaret Atwood
Today’s Inspirational Video
Now that we have entered March, for us sports fans, that means March Madness! That time of year when college basketball cranks into high gear as the NCAA Tournament looms on the horizon. Since I am a proud University of Virginia graduate and the UVA men’s basketball team won the 2019 National Championship, time to get some inspiration for the accomplishment of this wonderful group of scholar-athletes.
To set the stage: In 2018, UVA became the first #1 seed in the history of the NCAA tournament to lose to a #16 seed. The players and coaches had to live with that humiliation for an entire year.
They made it to the Elite Eight and in the game with Purdue, played in an arena with 90% Boilermaker fans and with a chance to go to the Final Four, UVA found themselves down by two points with 5.9 seconds on the clock. Ty Jerome is at the free throw line. Then this happens:
The smallest player on the court Kihei Clark, all five feet eight inches of him, races into the backcourt, retrieves the ball, takes two dribbles, then throws a bullet pass to teammate Mamadi Diakite who ties the game with no time left.
Oh, yeah. Clark was a freshman.
My point for each of you participating in the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge: NEVER GIVE UP! Today is Day 2. There’s LOTS of time, right? No pressure. 30 more days. But I guarantee you…
The daily grind of pounding out a script will wear at you this month.
Voices Of Negativity will assault your confidence at each writing session.
Your story will prove elusive and confounding.
In other words, at some point this month, you will have EVERY reason to give up, to quit, to say “screw it”.
Don’t. No matter the odds against you, as long as you have 0.9 seconds on your creative clock this month…
YOU CAN DO THIS!
Or as we UVA grads say: Wahoowa, especially since that team not only went on to defeat Purdue, they won the National Championship!
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: “Knock on Wood” by Eddie Floyd
Today’s Dalton Trumbo Award winner: Kristina Paider!
Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group page, Kristina posted this:
And to top it off, Kristina included this photo:
Yep, ‘bout sums it up when it comes to the #ZD30SCRIPT Challenge. For all that inspiration — and especially for waking up at 4:37AM to start writing — today’s Dalton Trumbo Award recipient is Kristina Paider!
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.
Congratulations, Kristina!
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!
WAKE UP. KICK ASS. SLEEP. REPEAT.