2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 19

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 19.

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.

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Today’s Writing Quote

“You can dress it up, but it comes down to the fact that a movie is only as good as its script.”

— Curtis Hanson

Today’s Inspirational Poem

A Spiral Notebook

By Ted Kooser

The bright wire rolls like a porpoise
in and out of the calm blue sea
of the cover, or perhaps like a sleeper
twisting in and out of his dreams,
for it could hold a record of dreams
if you wanted to buy it for that
though it seems to be meant for
more serious work, with its
college-ruled lines and its cover
that states in emphatic white letters,
5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK. It seems
a part of growing old is no longer
to have five subjects, each
demanding an equal share of attention,
set apart by brown cardboard dividers,
but instead to stand in a drugstore
and hang on to one subject
a little too long, like this notebook
you weigh in your hands, passing
your fingers over its surfaces
as if it were some kind of wonder.

I love this poem. It’s a poem for writers. The tactile experience of writing, reflective of the magic and wonder of something emerging from nothing.

You can check out Ted Kooser reading a number of his poems here:

Today’s Daily Dialogue Inspiration

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

I’m inspired every time I watch this scene. Why? Because, like wine, “It tastes so fucking good.” That taste is the flavor of subtext. Miles talks about pinot noir. That’s the text. The subtext?

HE’S TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF!

Maya talks about wine. The subtext.

SHE’S TALKING ABOUT HERSELF!

The words in the text of the dialogue is entertaining in and of itself. The underlying subtext elevates the moment into the stratosphere of emotional meaning and entertainment.

Why is that inspirational?

Because I strive to write something as good. I may never achieve that. But I can try. And so can you.

The key, I think, is to write from a feeling place. Read Miles’ side. Then Maya’s. There is such passion in their words empowered by the underlying feelings they have for themselves, even if they don’t realize they’re really talking about who each is.

So, as you approach a scene, take a few moments … get in touch with each character … and feel what they’re feeling.

Then write from that place.

Maybe … just maybe … you’ll find both the text and subtext of the moment.

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
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 18

Now Zeronauts …

Why write today?

Because writing is like a fine wine.

“It tastes so fucking good.”

To life! To writing!