2023 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 1

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 1.

Write an entire draft of a script in September — 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!

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, 4,900+ members strong.

Today’s Writing Quote

“I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really need to be told anything except to keep at it.” — Chinua Achebe

Today’s Inspirational Video

Setup: This young fellow just rode a bicycle for the first time. Here are his words of inspiration:

I feel happy of myself. Everybody, I know you can believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself, you will know how to ride a bike. If you don’t, you just keep practicing. You will get the hang of it, I know it. If you keep practicing, you will get the hang of it, and then you can get better and better at it. Thumbs up everybody, rock and roll.

That is the spirit of the Zero Draft approach to writing. Believe in yourself and just keep at it. Let this video be your spirit guide throughout the next month!

Today’s Anita Loos Award winner: Nicki Granata Bosch.

Last night as the clock approached Midnight (ET), I posted this for the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group. Nicki was the very first to respond. She wrote:

This is my biggest hurdle. Getting past myself to put words on the page without worrying about the suckitude levels.

And THAT is precisely why the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge exists: For writers who struggle with perfectionism. In fact, the spirit of the Challenge is to embrace suckitude as a natural part of the zero draft process.

For Nicki and all you perfectionists (I’m right there with you, folks), here is a fantastic video you must watch … right now.

That’s wisdom from author Maureen Johnson. Serious zero draft insight.

So, to my fellow perfectionists, use this next month to write each day … and such each day. The zero draft is a journey of discovery. It may suck, but trust me, by reaching Fade Out, you will know so much more about your characters and your story than you do right now.

Therefore, by being the first response of the 2023 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge and inspiring this important conversation about embracing this journey of inevitable suckitude, the recipient of today’s Anita Loos award is Nicki Granata Bosch!

Congratulations, Nicki! Feel to print this award and post it at your writing desk for inspiration.

To learn more about Anita Loos and her illustrious career as a screenwriter, playwright, director, and journalist, go here.

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

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

Now Zeronauts, Scamperers, and Word Warriors…

JUMP IN!

DARE TO SUCK!

GO WRITE!