2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 18

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 18.

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 spec script. It’s based on a story concept I came up with late last year and it may be the strongest comedy idea I’ve ever worked on. Now to take it to the next level.

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. 5,100+ members strong.

Today’s Writing Quote

“The secret to screenwriting is short sentences, small words, and BIG pictures.”

— William Kelley

Today’s Inspirational Video

Out of the mouths of babes and infants…

Today’s Daily Dialogue Inspiration

I have dedicated the 2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge to memorable movie dialogue. Today: Little Big Man.

There is no PDF of the script online. Of course, I could purchase an original hard copy of the script for $1,250, but … maybe not. Instead, here is the key dialogue courtesy of IMDb.

Old Lodge Skins: Come out and fight! It is a good day to die! Thank You for making me a Human Being! Thank You for helpin' me to become a warrior! Thank You for my victories, and for my defeats! Thank You for my vision, and the blindness in which I saw further! You make all things and direct them in their ways, O Grandfather. And now You have decided the Human Beings will soon walk a road that leads nowhere. I am gonna die now, unless death wants to fight. And I ask You for the last time to grant me my old power to make things happen.

[Lies down to die. After a moment, props himself up on his elbows to add:]

Old Lodge Skins: Take care of my son here. See that he doesn't go crazy.

It begins to rain. Heavily.

[Grandfather, who has laid himself down to die, wakes up]

Old Lodge Skins: Am I still in this world?

Jack Crabb: Yes, Grandfather.

Old Lodge Skins: [groans] I was afraid of that. Well, sometimes the magic works. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

I doubt many of you have Little Big Man. For years, it was unavailable anywhere. Now it’s on streaming. I saw it in 1970 when it was released. It’s always been a personal favorite.

Logline: Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.

It’s like Forrest Gump, an ordinary guy who somehow keeps intersecting with important historical figures and events. Wonderful film.

As far inspiration goes, two things.

First, the Chief’s expression of thankfulness, especially this: Thank You for my victories and for my defeats.

As writers, we experience the latter way more than the former. Even that is a net positive. For we learn about our craft and our creative self with every defeat. And when we do have a victory, the success is that much sweeter.

Second, this: Well, sometimes the magic works. Sometimes, it doesn’t. Writers know about this, too. Some days, we are in the flow. We sit down. We type. The words tumble out of us. We look up. Somehow, it’s three hours later.

More often, the magic eludes us. It’s a slog, a grind, a painful effort to generate even one page of total crap.

Here, too, it’s a net positive. For if tomorrow, we are back in the flow, chances are we wouldn’t have achieved that magical state had we not struggled the day before.

So let Old Lodge Skins, this wonderful Indian Chief be your spirit guide today …

… and maybe even tomorrow.

Today’s Dalton Trumbo Award winner: Karen Dantas.

Over at the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group, Karen wrote this:

This is so much the Zero Draft spirit. It’s acknowledging the personal grind it takes to pound out this draft, to “vomit” it out.

But it’s also this: Let’s GOOOOOOOOO!

Encouragement for others.

Those who embrace the Zero Draft philosophy do not believe screenwriting is a zero sum game. That is someone else succeeds, someone else loses.

No. The only competition is the writer … and their pages.

We are freed from a fear of others’ success and subscribe to a belief that what we give in support of our fellow writers can not only empower them … but us.

So Karen, I am pleased to empower you as today’s recipient of the Dalton Trumbo Award!

Congratulations, Karen!

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
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

Now Zeronauts …

Be thankful for your victories … and defeats.

Be thankful for the magic when it happens … and doesn’t happen.

Be thankful you have a story which has moved you to write.

Go now. For it’s a good day … to write.