Screenwriting Challenge Contest: Day 3
Screenwriter Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, Final Destination 5) and now writer-director (Hours) has been a longtime friend of the blog and fellow Twitter denizen (@HIGHzurrer). You may remember the interview I did with him earlier this year (Eric also made the 2012 Black List with his screenplay adaptation of the Ted Chiang short story “Story of Your Life”).
A couple of years ago, Eric ran a series of “screenwriting challenges” via Twitter and they proved to be quite popular. So much so that Eric has put them out as a book:
Seeing as we had so much fun with the Scene-Writing Series we ran in September, Eric kindly agreed to do a similar week-long contest here on the blog. Each day this week, I will post one of the challenges from Eric’s book. I encourage you to take up the challenge and post your scene to Comments. There will be one winner for each challenge, so 7 winners in all. Prizes:
Monday-Friday: A free copy of Eric’s ebook “150 Screenwriting Challenges”.
Saturday-Sunday: The Black List is offering your choice of either 2 free months of hosting your script on their site or a free script evaluation ($50 value).
How cool is that?
Here is today’s screenwriting challenge via Eric’s book:
Challenge
Write a scene where your hero enters with a clear objective, tries three times, and fails every time. If you aren’t working on a project right now, borrow a hero from a TV series you’re currently watching. Otherwise use the hero you have.
The objective can be a physical object (i.e. a jewel, a phone number, a key) or it can be abstract, like an apology or sleep.
The purpose is to remind us that success isn’t what endears us to our protagonists, but rather their struggle to succeed.
In terms of posting in Comments, don’t worry about script format, focus on the content of the exercise.
Who will determine the winner? Why, none other than Max Millimeter: Hollywood Movie Producer Extraordinaire, whose unique perspective on movies you can get a taste of here.
Take up the screenwriting challenge for a chance to win some prizes and enhance your writing chops.
Thanks, Eric, for your generosity and congratulations on your book.
“150 Screenwriting Challenges” is available for Kindle on Amazon here.
Tomorrow: Another screenwriting challenge!
For the Day 3 challenge, let’s set a deadline of Thursday, November 21 at Midnight Pacific Standard Time (U.S.). Max will need a day or two to catch up with each challenge, but generally you can expect an announcement of the winner with 48 hours of deadlines.
Finally here’s a Tweet from Eric aimed at everyone who has participated in the Screenwriting Challenge Contest so far:
UPDATE: We have a winner from the Day 1 challenge as I just got done talking with Max Millimeter. Here is a transcript of what he told me:
Awright, so let’s see. Four characters. No description. No name. Just know ’em by their dialogue. And oh yeah, there’s a corpse. Hey, sounds like a typical Hollywood pitch meeting!
Overall some decent writing what I read. Lots of “we gotta call the cops.” A couple of bodies that were either a guy or a gal or you don’t know what. Some farting. A death boner which personally I found inspirational ‘coz that’s how I wanna go. But mainly what I got in these pages… lots of conflict. I love conflict! Get characters screamin’ at each other? That’s entertainment. Besides actors eat that shit up.
Now here’s the thing. I actually found a dead body once. In Paris of all places back in… geeze, musta been late 70s. Was out with this hot little number. We’d been carousing, headin’ back to her joint to play a lil’ game of hide the baguette when we stop in the alley to do some heavy petting, and holy shit, I stumble over this dead guy. Seriously! A slab of cold meat, just lyin’ there. And know what? He’s got this big fat grin on his big dead face. I still think about that guy, after all these years. What was he so happy about when he croaked?
Anyways, lemme tell ya’, when you cross paths with a dead body like that, it shakes you the fuck up.
So as I’m reading these things, that’s where I’m coming from: Which characters were all shook up? ‘Coz the writer’s gotta totally sell me on the whole holy guacamole freaked as shit we’re all gonna die dynamic or I ain’t buyin’ it.
There there’s this: When I read a scene, I’m always lookin’ for a moment, something to jolt me, surprise me. Look, I’ve been doin’ this a long goddammed time, feels like I’ve seen everything. So I know what I’m saying… do something that kicks me in the balls… it ain’t easy. No matter. That’s what I’m lookin’ for when I read a script. Do something to get my attention.
So given those two things, I’m gonna go with Jonathon and that whole golf club deal. Character 2, she strikes me as this high toned gal who gets upset when she breaks a fingernail. So when she and the others find this poor dead slob, she’s all “Eww” this and “gross” that. I mean I’m buyin’ that stumbling on this stiff has messed with her pretty little head.
And then the scene builds to The Moment: Whack! Little Miss Un-Sunshine just piledrives the putter into somebody’s skull. Then whack! Crowns another one. I mean, who saw that coming?!?! But it makes sense, there’s some bad backstory between her and the others, but mostly she is just freaked the hell out, so anything can happen. Like sinkin’ a birdie putt in some dude’s dome.
Anyways, like I say, lots of good writing by everyone. But I’m pickin’ Jonathan… although I ain’t planning on going golfing with him any time soon, if ya’ know what I mean.
Congratulations, Jonathan! Send me your email address and I’ll pass that along to Eric Heisserer so you can receive your free copy of “150 Screenwriting Challenges.”
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