2014 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 16

As noted in this recent post:

In May, it was 90s movies. In June, it has been 30 Days of Screenplays. What is that but the first two of three from that essential screenwriting mantra: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages.

Can you see where I’m going for July? That’s right: Write pages!

July is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a prompt for writing a script scene. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. If you really want to get in the spirit of things, upload your scene here in the comments section of the original post. That way you can critique others’ pages and receive feedback on your scene as well.

Why scene-writing? Think about it: If the average scene is 1 1/2 to 2 pages long and a script is 100–120 pages, then a screenwriter writes between 50–80 scenes per screenplay. Thus in a very real way, screenwriting is scene-writing. The better we get at writing scenes, it stands to reason the better we get as a screenwriter.

Plus there’s this: To provide extra motivation for this series — to get people to WRITE PAGES — I am giving away some of my Core classes to Scene-Writing Challenge participants. That’s right: For free!

The Core curriculum provides a comprehensive, coherent, character-based approach to screenwriting theory, eight 1-week online classes. I only teach them once per year. Here is the schedule:

July 7 — Core I: Plot
July 21 — Core II: Concept
August 4 — Core III: Character
September 1 — Core IV: Style
September 15 — Core V: Dialogue
October 27 — Core VI: Scene
November 10 — Core VII: Theme
December 2 — Core VIII: Time

To qualify to take one Core class for free, write and submit ten [10] Scene-Writing Challenge posts. If you complete all twenty [20] Scene-Writing Challenge exercises, you get two Core classes for free.

You can choose any of the Core classes as your free gift.

That’s what I’m prepared to do to encourage you to write pages.

[Note: If you want to take Core I or Core II, which are scheduled for this month, I will hold those course sites open into August to allow you access to all of that content.]

A couple of logistical notes:

* Limit your scenes to 2 pages. First, most scenes are 2 pages or less in length. Second, out of fairness to everyone participating in the public scene-writing workshop, let’s not abuse anyone’s patience or time with really long scenes.

* Don’t be concerned about proper script format when you copy/paste your scene, rather the content and execution are the important thing. So as a default mode, do this: (1) Don’t worry about right-hand margins on scene description or dialogue, just keep typing until it manually shifts each line. (2) Don’t worry about character name position, rather do this:

SCARLETT: Rhett, Rhett... Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?RHETT: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

Today’s prompt: A scene where no words are spoken… but something important gets communicated.

Yes, I know: Another exercise in visual storytelling. I do it out of love, friends. By now, you’ve seen me say this a dozen or more times: Movies are primarily a visual medium. But there’s more to it than the experience of the movie viewer.

Think about the actors. They are not called talkers. No, they are actors. They act. So the more you can create moments and scenes where the characters convey things of importance through their physical actions, the more you give actors a chance to use their biggest visual tool — their bodies — to communicate with.

For this exercise, a unique challenge: You not only have to convey something significant through action, but also set up the scenario so that we understand what’s going on so what’s being communicated makes sense.

And no, you cannot have characters writing dialogue back and forth on a pad of paper or typing on a computer, etc. Your characters must communicate through their physical actions.

Write a 1–2 page scene, then copy/paste in comments.

Remember: If you are interested in qualifying for 1 or 2 free Core classes with me, please note the number of scenes you have written. If today is your first effort, note that it is Scene 1. The next one, Scene 2. If today is Scene 15, please note that. And so forth.

You are on an honor system, as I don’t have time to check every post, so do the right thing!

NOTE: If you have completed and posted 10 scenes, just email me to let me know which of the eight Core classes you’d like to take as my gift to you for your hard work!

NOTE: The Challenge ends on July 31st, meaning that is the last day I will accept scenes for credit toward free Core classes.

Finally, if you have what you think is a good suggestion for a scene-writing prompt, please post that as well.

It’s the 2014 Scene-Writing Challenge! Give a jolt to your creative and writing muscles… and win 1 or 2 free online classes with yours truly.

GOOD NEWS: To date, 9 writers have qualified for a free Core course and I have enrolled each of them. In fact, a few of them are enrolled in Core II: Concept which starts today. How about you? 10 scenes = 1 Core course. 20 scenes = 2 Core courses.

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