Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Spring Challenge: Day 28
Zero Draft Thirty: Day 28.
March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning.
March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End.
30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever.
I’m doing it. You’re invited.
For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into being and what it is, go here, here, and here.
To download your very own Zero Draft Thirty calendar — created by Bretton Zinger — and track your daily progress, you can download a copy here.
On Twitter, use this hashtag: #ZD30SCRIPT.
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Join the conversation for a chance to win The Trumbo Award!
Today’s Writing Quote
“Script gurus sell you their structure rules as dogma.
Watching and liking movies tells you dogmatic rules are stupid.”
— Amos Posner
Today’s Poem
Larson’s Holstein Bull
By Jim Harrison
Death waits inside us for a door to open.
Death is patient as a dead cat.
Death is a doorknob made of flesh.
Death is that angelic farm girl
gored by the bull on her way home
from school, crossing the pasture
for a shortcut. In the seventh grade
she couldn’t read or write. She wasn’t a virgin.
She was “simpleminded,” we all said.
It was May, a time of lilacs and shooting stars.
She’s lived in my memory for sixty years.
Death steals everything except our stories.
While I suppose a poem about death is not something one would ordinarily consider to be inspirational, this is different. First, it’s written by the great novelist (“Legends of the Fall”), essayist, and poet Jim Harrison who died Saturday in his home in Arizona. He was 78 years old. Second, it’s a powerful poem which reminds us of two things: Each of us is born with an expiration date. And “Death steals everything except our stories.”
Stories transcend death. See if that doesn’t inspire you in writing your current story.
Check back later for the winner of today’s Trumbo Award!
Onward!
UPDATE: This Facebook post speaks to the very essence of the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge:
Amen! And for that piece of wisdom, today’s Trumbo Award goes to T M Salas Terry.
Remember what Hemingway said: “The first draft of anything is shit.” It may be crappy, but with each rewrite, we clean it up, bit by bit until it shines!