Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Autumn Challenge: Story Prep

It all started with this blog post in October 2015: Who’s with me to pound out a script in November?

That led to this: Zero Draft Thirty: Write a Script in a Month Challenge.

Every day for 30 days in November, I did a Zero Draft Thirty post with inspirational writing quotes, videos, and handed out a daily Award to the person deemed worthy for their efforts in supporting our collective cause.

A Facebook group emerged from the process, now with over 1000 members. The Challenge was written up in Indiewire. Translated into Spanish. Got its own hashtag on Twitter: #ZD30SCRIPT.

Eventually over a thousand writers joined up for the Challenge. Via Facebook, Twitter, or email, nearly 200 writers let me know they had finished their Zero Drafts.

So we decided to make the Zero Draft Challenge a twice a year thing: Every March, like we did here, and every September. Here we are, just about a month out from the Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Autumn Challenge.

It’s simple. Pick a script-writing project. Type FADE IN on September 1. Type FADE OUT on September 30.

And you are cordially invited.

If you are plunging headfirst into the Zero Draft Thirty challenge, my advice: Spend these last 10 days prepping your story. Here are come tips:

• Character, Character, Character! Start with some basic questions: Who is my Protagonist? What do they want (Conscious Goal)? What do they need (Unconscious Goal)? Then go from there. Every character who emerges in your process, ask yourself: What do they have to do with the Protagonist’s journey? How do they impact the Protagonist’s psychological transformation? My mantra is this: Start with character. End with character. Find the story in between.
• Brainstorm! This may be the single most important aspect to story prep: Giving free reign to your right-brain. It’s not only about free association, it’s also using direct engagement exercises with your characters, things like interviews, monologues, sit-downs. Create a Master Brainstorming List and put everything down. Don’t pre-judge anything. You never know when some moment, line of dialogue, theme, stray image can become important in your story-crafting process.
• Plotting! What are the major plot points? Are there sets of scenes which tell a mini-story with their own Beginning, Middle, and End? If so, you can shape them into Sequences which you can connect one to the other to create a seamless narrative. Perhaps the most important plot point to know before typing FADE IN: What is the end of your story? And by that, I mean what I call the Final Struggle, the story’s Big Test which provides a resolution to the plot.
• Metamorphosis! Joseph Campbell said the entire point of The Hero’s Journey is this: Transformation. So as you do story prep, be sure to dig deep into the Internal World, the psychological realm of your story universe. What is the Protagonist’s beginning Psyche State? What is the Protagonist’s ending Psych State? Those define the bookends of their metamorphosis. In a very real way, the plot services that journey. Focus on that arc and how the character changes.

The main thing: Engage your characters! It’s their story. No one knows it as well as they do. The more you spend time probing into each of their individual lives and backstories, thinking about their respective narrative functions — why each one is a participant in the story — the better off you will be as you pound out pages.

Which brings us back to the Zero Draft Thirty challenge.

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

30 days. A first draft of an original screenplay. Or a rewrite of an existing script.

For background on the Zero Draft Thirty challenge, go here.

Don’t forget the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group. A terrific collection of folks who post things every day, even when we’re not in a challenge.

So calling all Zeronauts, Outlaws, Scamperers, and Writing Warriors. Who’s up for pounding out a Zero Draft in September? LET’S DO THIS THING!

Hashtag: #ZD30SCRIPT.

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