2020 Zero Draft Thirty September Challenge: Day 15

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

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 15.

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!

September 1: You type FADE IN / “Once upon a time…”
September 30: You type FADE OUT / “…They all lived happily ever after.”

It’s free! It’s fun! It’s Fade In to Fade Out!

For everything you need to know to join, click here.

Today’s Writing Quote

“The term ‘narrative drive’ means writing so the reader/audience senses
something is about to happen — and it matters.”

— John Hill

Today’s Inspirational Video

There has never been a late night talk show host who could match the comic timing and sensibilities of Johnny Carson. Witness this classic exchange with Burt Reynolds. This is only a snippet. It went on for several more minutes. But notice how Carson tops the gag at the end of the clip. It’s also a good object lesson about the power of visual storytelling. No dialogue between the pair, yet tons of laughs. I find that inspiring!

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

Each day this month, I’ll post a Zero Draft Thirty Challenge post here at Go Into The Story. And as I’ve done with every past Challenge, I will hand out an award for a notable Tweet, Facebook post, or comment here on the blog. This cycle, the winner will receive the Frances Marion Award!

Today’s Frances Marion Award winner: Lucas Tavernier.

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

Things that will keep you from writing: paperwork in general, familyrelated issues (including staying on a regular time schedule for meals to be shared with others in the house, dogs begging for a walk and kids breaking their arm), a sudden desire to go for a swim, trying to keep your business up & running in Covid-times and a severe, paralysing, attack of procrastination. Any suggestions (that do not include, violence, not even selfinflicted, robbing banks or jeopardising precious relationships) on how to tackle these matters? Would alcohol help? I tried coffee before… And the weekend has only just begun! I have to get my act together.

I think we can all relate to this, especially how challenging it is to write during the pandemic. Here are some of the excellent suggestions by Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group members:

Jenny Rave
My salvation has been google notes lately. Just writing a sentence here and there whenever the smallest thought crosses my mind, and then when things calm down I try to combine it all.

Carolanne Frome
You have a lot on an enormous plate, and I’m sure your plate comes with a big helping of anxiety dribbling all over everything else.

My heart goes out to you.

Procrastination — or just being frozen on the couch wondering why you don’t get up and do something, is, in my experience, a product of well-deserved anxiety. Yes! You deserve your anxiety! In your circumstances, any sane person would be feeling anxious. Or depressed. Or whatever you want to call it. Only sociopaths and psychopaths are without anxiety.

When you feel like you’re frozen and can’t get anything done, you might try to do just one thing a day. Even a tiny thing. Write a few lines, vacuum one room. Pay a bill. Make a necessary phone call. Surprisingly, it helps. Quite a bit, actually.

In that way you may have to baby-step through all the crap life is throwing at you until you can re-enter the world of productivity, And, just a heads up, it can take a lot of little steps. And anti-anxiety meds.

Meanwhile, like Jenny, save up every little idea and line in a note app. Good luck!

Michael Randazzese
Take all that aggression, anxiety, worry and hostility out on a new character. Abuse the fuck out of them!!

But yeah, I have writer duet on my phone. Sometimes when I think of a random scene or something I want to add for notes, but I’m out and about, I can just pull that up and do it real quick. You can do things little by little that way.

As far as procrastination goes, I really hear you on that one lol. That’s a tough one. if you can figure out a solution to that, let me know lol. In all seriousness, best of luck to you

For starting off this meritorious discussion, today’s recipient of the Frances Marion Award recipient: Lucas Tavernier.

You, too, can be a recipient of an award. Just offer some insight, humor, or something which catches my eye, either here, the Facebook group, or on Twitter (#ZD30SCRIPT).

For more information on Frances Marion, one of the earliest and most influential screenwriters in Hollywood, go here.

For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into being and what it is, go here, here, and here.

Now Zeronauts, Scampers, Word Warriors, and Outlaws…

Write a sentence. Then another sentence. Then one more. See how far that can take you today in your writing.