2024 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 30
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 30.
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, 5,100+ members strong.
Today’s Writing Quote
“At the top of my computer in big, bold letters, it says, ‘What is the simple emotional journey?’ I look at that all the time.”
— Billy Ray
Today’s Inspirational Video
Hey, if two hobbits can save Middle Earth, we can damn well get to FADE OUT!
Today’s Anita Loos Award winner: Katie White.
Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group page, Katie posted this.
The song to which Katie refers is Wake Me Up When September Ends by Gree Day.
Great song and entirely relevant song title for this, the last day of the 2024 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge. For that welcome bit of inspiration, Katie is today’s Anita Loos Award recipient.
A few more words to add. Katie didn’t reach Fade Out, but due to the work she did in the Challenge, she got through a “massive hump” in her writing. That’s in the spirit of the zero draft approach to writing. The expectations for our commitment is near zero. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to make progress, rather that with those expectations set aside, we can fight back against the voices of Perfectionism and just have some fun along the way while being productive.
Is it great and glorious day when a writer gets to The End during the Challenge? Absolutely! But ANY progress is progress. Sometimes the most important ones are not tied to page count, but psychological or story breakthroughs, like Katie’s experience this September.
So today, September 30th, is the final day of this month’s Challenge. Another lies on the horizon in March 2025. But writers, make the most of today. Even if you haven’t participated in this event, why not bust open your current writing project and scamper through a page or two or more.
For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came to be and what it is, go here, here, and here.
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 1
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 2
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 3
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 4
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 5
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 6
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 7
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 8
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 9
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 10
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 11
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 12
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 13
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 14
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 15
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 16
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 17
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 18
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 19
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 20
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 21
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 22
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 23
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 24
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 25
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 26
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 27
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 28
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 29
Now Zeronauts…
SCAMPER ON!
Onward!