Busy December Schedule at Go Into The Story!
December is always a busy time here on the blog as we round out one year and prepare for another. This month promises to be even busier, so I thought it would be a good idea to lay out our calendar and highlight some of the special upcoming events.
Writing Goals (10 part series): I invite readers to join me in reflecting on and assessing our respective writing journeys during 2015, setting goals for 2016, and considering several practical tips to become more productive in our creative efforts. Dates: December 14-December 25.
Rewriting Your Script (10 part series): Following up on the astonishing success of the recent Zero Draft Thirty Challenge, I am inviting those participants — and any other writers — to join me in January to rewrite a draft of their original script. To that end, I will be running a series the next two weeks on rewriting strategies. I’ve got an 86 page zero draft that definitely needs rewriting. How about you? Dates: December 7-December 18.
The 11th Annual Black List: When the annual Black List goes public, you can follow the action via the official Twitter feed (@theblcklst), here on the blog, and @GoIntoTheStory with simultaneous coverage. Be the first to find out which are this year’s best unproduced Hollywood screenplays. Date: December 14.
The 3rd Annual Black List Word Cloud Logline Challenge: This is always a fun event. We take the loglines of this year’s Black List scripts, put them through a word cloud generator, then invite readers to come up with loglines using those word could words. And there are prizes!!! Dates: December 14–18.
Your Star Wars Memories: So you may have heard there’s this little movie coming out on December 18 from a galaxy far, far away. In the run-up to its roll-out, let’s hear from you. What do you most remember about the Star Wars movies? I’ve got several memories I want to share. Gather your thoughts for an intergalactic campfire session and homage to all things George Lucas as the torch gets passed to a new generation. Dates: December 17–18.
Script Read and Analysis Series: Reading scripts. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this aspect of learning the craft. To that end, we resurrected a script read and analysis series in 2015. I’d call it a success. As of today, we have 50 scripts GITS readers have analyzed and 26 scene-by-scene breakdowns. This has not only served as a great learning exercise for participants, the archives of these script analyses and breakdowns represent a significant resource for writers from here on out. With the influx of over 30 movie scripts from 2015 recently made available to the public including notable ones such as Ex Machina, Inside Out, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, and Trainwreck, I will be soliciting volunteers to read one of these stellar scripts and do a scene-by-scene breakdown to be used as a key part of our bi-weekly script read series in the new year. Dates: December 7-December 31.
Phew! A lot going on! Plus I’m pleased to announce we will be reprising the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge in March 2016. So if you have a script-in-the-waiting… if you suffer from the restrictive snare of perfectionism… if just can’t seem to summon up the will to write due to the innervating influence of procrastination… mark it! March is your month to kick your story’s ass! ‘Coz it’s Zero Draft Thirty time!
Finally there’s this: Every December, I ask GITS readers for any suggestions they have for the blog, so I ask you to take a few minutes and ponder what you might like to see here that I might not be covering.
In May, Go Into The Story will be celebrating its 8th birthday. I am thankful to have made the journey this far and look forward to what we can do together!
Onward!
UPDATE: I need to add two more events to the December calendar:
Screenwriter Roundtables: Yes, two of them this year including our first all female session. This week, I’ll be announcing the roster of writers for both and will be soliciting questions from GITS readers, so yet another thing to look forward to in December!
Comment Archive