2024 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 13

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

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.

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Today’s Writing Quote

“A great script creates an irresistible narrative flow that propels a reader to an inevitable dramatic conclusion.”

— Javier Grillo-Marxuach

Today’s Inspirational Video

What a compelling story. God bless both Dad and the heart recipient. And godspeed to you, Abbey.

Today’s Anita Loos Award winner: Joe Thornton.

Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group page, Joe posted this.

Joe, I hear you. Sometimes, it’s a real slog. Wind in your face. Slopping through mud. No way you can summon up a sprint in that situation.

Which is why, Zeronauts do this.

We don’t do writing sprints.

WE DO WRITING SCAMPERS!

Some folks may not know the origin of the Zero Draft Thirty spirit animal: Scamper the Hamster. If we peer back through the mists of time — in all modesty — I do believe it was yours truly who came up with the concept of a writing scamper in lieu of a writing sprint.

If the point of the Challenge is to embrace the spirit of the Zero Draft … and the spirit of the Zero Draft is have some fun while writing …

Wouldn’t you rather scamper than sprint?

So, I’ll lay claim to that idea. But the hamster thing? That is a mystery. But Scamper the hamster skittered into our consciousness and the little fellah and other members of the furry hamster cohort have been around this site since its inception in 2015. Here are some other examples:

Therefore, Joe, a humble suggestion. Set aside the whole sprint angle. Instead, look at this journey as a scamper.

To spur you forward in your own personal Scamper-A-Thon, here is your very own Anita Loos Award!

Congratulations, Joe! 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.

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

Now Zeronauts…

SCAMPER ON!

Onward!