2023 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 28
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
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 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 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 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 Sweeter He Is” by The Soul Children.
Today’s Dalton Trumbo Award winner: Mahendra Waghela!
Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group, Mahendra posted this:
Written fade out, middle full of doubt, fade in plenty of clout.
And this:
Good stuff! Plus, Mahendra is my tag team Scamper-A-Thon buddy from Hour 23 to Hour 24. As a result, today’s recipient of the Dalton Trumbo Award is Mahendra Waghela!
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, Mahendra!
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
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Now Zeronauts, Scamperers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…
FOUR DAYS AND COUNTING!
POUND OUT PAGES!
SCAMPER ON!