Go Into The Story: 2016 Schedule
2015 was another year in which GITS mixed old and new. We continued some series which have become familiar companions through our journeys together since 2008: On Writing, Screenwriting 101, Reader Questions, and of course Daily Dialogue.
We featured some recurring contests such as a Scene-Writing Challenge and a new Dialogue-Writing Challenge, both of which featured my Core and Craft online classes as prizes. A variety of Black List contests such as the recent Word Cloud Challenge, plus I gave away dozens of free tickets to Writers Guild Foundation events and a free scholarship to a writers workshop in Spain.
We continued our decade by decade analysis of classic movies covering the 40s-60s. We also revived the script reading series including a new scene-by-scene breakdown initiative. And we added a bi-weekly movie analysis series.
And for those who may have been lying unconscious under a rock the last couple of months, there was the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge which exploded onto the scene in November.
So I’m sitting here looking at the calendar for 2016 and I’d like your suggestions. I prefer to have one signature series per month as an anchor, generally going live at Noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific. I’ve got 10 of the 12 months for next year pretty much locked down:
January: Re-Write-O-Rama: Winter 2016. I invite anyone and everyone to join me as we rewrite our scripts. 31 days. FADE IN to FADE OUT.
February: Dialogue Writing Challenge. 20 prompts, 20 opportunities to hone your dialogue-writing chops for which I give away a free Craft class (writing practice) to participants.
March: Zero Draft Thirty Challenge: Spring 2016. I’ve got another spec I’m going to pound out. You’re invited to hop aboard.
April: For the 7th consecutive year, April is A Story Idea Each Day for a Month month. 30 days, 30 story ideas which I’m giving away for free.
May: Classic 30s Movies. I’ll be seeking writers to provide a brief, but informative analysis of a favorite 30s film. This will give us coverage of movies from the 30s-90s.
June: Scene Writing Challenge. 20 prompts, 20 opportunities to hone your scene-writing chops for which I give away a free Core class (writing theory) to participants.
July: Movies You Made. The blog’s month-long celebration of your cinematic creativity as we feature movies, long and short, a virtual film festival.
August: ???
September: Zero Draft Thirty Challenge: Fall 2016. Yes, another spec awaits a zero draft. Come along if you dare!
October: Classic International Movies. I’ve wanted to do this for years, create a library of 30 foreign flicks which we all should watch.
November: Re-Write-O-Rama: Fall 2016. Writing is rewriting and we’re taking that to heart next year.
December: ???
I have some ideas for August and December, but I thought, Why not let the GITS community weigh in. And by the way, for the 7th consecutive year there were over 1,000,000 unique visits to the blog and over 2,000,000 page views. So we’re talking a pretty damn big community for an admittedly niche area of interest.
I will continue with other initiatives including more interviews with screenwriters, TV writers, and industry people, as well as other series including Business of Screenwriting and Writing and the Creative Life.
But if you have any suggestions for something new for August and December, I’m all virtual ears.
Onward!
Comment Archive