Who’s with me to pound out a script in November?

Okay, here’s where I’m at.

I am just now returning to the land of the living after a relentless two week stint on my seeming death bed with a virulent head cold slash virus slash Bubonic Plague.

I never get sick. It’s like my body knows I cannot afford any time to shut down. Seriously. I take a night off, my calendar collapses like Rick Perry’s presidential campaign.

But I got sick. Plenty sick. Phlegm City sick.

You know that thing where there’s the world out there… and you’re in here… and there’s this gauzy haze of slimy sinus shite between you and reality… and you’re two, three, four steps behind everyone else’s brain functioning… “what… uh… huh?”… and your ears are completely clogged, yet you have to fly to the Midwest and back with your cerebellum throbbing in pressurized pain… and you have a persistent low grade fever that makes you feel a mutated zombie… and you are leading a writing workshop while desperately attempting to keep from vomiting… and you are taking so many pills just to be able to extract a stray breath of air through 10% of your nostril capacity that your blood type has transmogrified into Benadryl…

You know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout, right?

That’s what I’ve been through for two solid weeks.

But wait… there’s more.

Several years ago, I stumbled upon an incredible story idea. Based on an obscure historical scenario. Yet connected to a ginormous worldwide brand.

It was — in my humble estimation — the stuff of a perfect script idea.

So I started researching this story in earnest. Found some incredible stuff. Had just begun my brainstorming and story prep process when…

The proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan.

Literally a news event in the last two weeks broke which completely blew my story out of the non-proverbial water.

I may be able to figure my way out to still write the script, but we are talking a Hail Mary kind of thing. Damaged goods. The IP tainted in a big way.

So on the one hand, my physical self is Sick City.
My psychological self is Suck City.

What to do in these troubled times? What else!

WRITE!

Because I believe in stacking projects, I have this other idea which has been percolating on a side burner. An incredibly commercial high concept low budget comedy.

I haven’t written a straight-out comedy in several years, instead crafting nuanced, character-driven indie dramas… which have gone nowhere (but I feel good having written them).

But now, I look at this comedy concept… and I keep coming back to it. Even as I’m developing my now gone to Suck City which would have been a Black List script project.

And I’m into the comedy. Even before the Suck City project goes South.

It’s high concept.
It’s a $5M and under budget.
It’s a physical comedy.
It’s a compressed time frame (story takes place in 12 hours).
It’s freaking funny.

Okay, the final piece of this puzzle.

You may be aware of NANOWRIMO. Each November, people commit to write a first draft of a novel. Start November 1st. End November 30th.

Fantastic motivator to get people off their asses, onto their keyboards, then work their way from “Once upon a time” to “And they live happily ever after.”

Did you know the NANOWRIMO folks used to sponsor a screenwriting challenge? They called it Script Frenzy and it ran from 2007 to 2012.

But no more. It’s dead. RIP.

So here’s what I’m thinking: Why the hell shouldn’t we resurrect it?

Let’s stake out November here at Go Into The Story and kick out the creative jams.

November 1: Type FADE IN.
November 30: Type FADE OUT.

30 days. A first draft of an original screenplay.

I’m gonna do it. This kick ass high concept low budget comedy.

How about you?

Here’s what I propose.

Every day during November, I will upload a blog post. It will include a quote from a writer to inspire us to pound out pages. Plus whatever meager page production each of us managed that day.

2 pages today. 1 page. I hate it. I love it. Writing sucks. Writing is awesome.

In other words, we will support each other through this process.

This is a quantity over quality approach. Just keep pounding out pages. A first draft is a journey of discovery. So shut off your inner editor and commit to creating content.

Is there anybody with me on this? If I’m doing this on my own, so be it. My high concept comedy has been gestating long enough.

Who knows? Maybe the geopolitical shitstorm which hit the news the last few weeks and blew up my other scripted project happened to free me up to leap into this outrageously commercial comedy.

I am going for it!

Who’s with me?

LET’S WRITE A GODDAMMED SCRIPT IN A MONTH!!!

If you’re ready to accept this Call To Adventure, let me know in comments.

The next order of business: What to call this thing?

The Zero Draft Project?

Suggestions?

NOVEMBER. SCRIPT. GO!

Who’s in?

UPDATE: I think we may have a winner for the name of this august challenge… even though it’s in November. He-he. See what I did there? August… November? O-kay!

[clears throat in embarrassment]

Orange Pop suggested this: Zero Draft Thirty!

Zero Draft is what some writers call the vomit draft… or muscle draft… the just-get-the-damn-thing-done draft.

And thirty is… well… the number 30 which is… oh, yeah… the number of days in November!

Zero Draft Thirty.

Love it! How about you?

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