2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 28
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 28.
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 greatest rules of dramatic writing are conflict, conflict, conflict.”
— James Frey
Today’s Poem
Larson’s Holstein Bull
By Jim Harrison
Death waits inside us for a door to open.
Death is patient as a dead cat.
Death is a doorknob made of flesh.
Death is that angelic farm girl
gored by the bull on her way home
from school, crossing the pasture
for a shortcut. In the seventh grade
she couldn’t read or write. She wasn’t a virgin.
She was “simpleminded,” we all said.
It was May, a time of lilacs and shooting stars.
She’s lived in my memory for sixty years.
Death steals everything except our stories.
While I suppose a poem about death is not something one would ordinarily consider to be inspirational, this is different. First, it’s written by the great novelist (“Legends of the Fall”), essayist, and poet Jim Harrison who died in his home in Arizona. He was 78 years old. Second, it’s a powerful poem which reminds us of two things: Each of us is born with an expiration date. And “Death steals everything except our stories.”
Stories transcend death. See if that doesn’t inspire you in writing your current story.
Today’s Daily Dialogue Inspiration
I have dedicated the 2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge to memorable movie dialogue. Today: Blade Runner.
Some intriguing differences between the movie and script which I explore in my Great Scenes series. In terms of inspiration …
Write something today which will cause the reader to feel some emotion. Yes, Batty is the Nemesis in Blade Runner, but one cannot help but feel sympathy for the character as it meets its end. Plus, he saves Deckard’s life!
People want to be entertained when they watch a movie, but equally important … they want to feel something.
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
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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
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Zero Draft Thirty: Day 25
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 26
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 27
Now Zeronauts …
Feel your way through your writing today …
For when you feel something about your story …
It’s like the reader will feel it, too.