2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 10

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!

As for me, I will spend the month rewriting a feature film comedy spec script. I’m spending most of the month working out my revision plan, then heading off for an extended writer’s retreat to knock out this draft.

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!

Use this hashtag: #ZD30SCRIPT.

Join the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook Group: Here. 5,000+ members strong.

Today’s Writing Quote

“Great writing gets you meetings, great concept gets you a sale, great characters get you jobs. All three get you a career.”

— F. Scott Frazier

Today’s Inspirational Video

Morgan Freeman reciting the poem “Invictus.”

Here is the poem written by William Ernest Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,
 Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be
 For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
 I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance
 My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
 Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years
 Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
 How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,
 I am the captain of my soul.

Today’s Daily Dialogue Inspiration

I have dedicated the 2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge to memorable movie dialogue. Today: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

That’s the thing about being a Zeronaut. When you say “yes” to the challenge of doing the Challenge … you take a leap of faith. And here are some adapted words of encouragement:

I see this spark in you. It’s amazing. Whatever you choose to do with it will be great. You don’t run from things. You’re on your way. Just keep going.

You’re not a stranger to danger. You’re a screenwriter. Fade In?

That’s all it is … a leap of faith.

Today’s Dalton Trumbo Award winner: Isabelle Dornic.

Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group, Isabelle posted this:

Here’s my response:

First off, kudos to Isabelle for opening up about the struggles she’s having with her story. That takes courage even amidst a supportive community such as the Zero Draft Thirty cohort.

Look, we’re all going to hit rough patches … times where we’re stuck … fear that the woeful writer’s block may be descending upon us.

But we have an out … a way through the psychological morass.

Just write.

For that reminder, the recipient of today’s Dalton Trumbo award is Isabelle Dornic.

Congratulations, Isabelle.

To learn more about Dalton Trumbo and his fascinating career as a screenwriter, go here.

For your chance to win the Dalton Trumbo Award, post something inspiring, here on the blog or the Facebook group.

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

Now Zeronauts …

Sit down.

Open your computer.

Take the leap of faith…

And begin writing.