Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week Four
by Jaden
photo credit: Bob Jagendorf
If we writers were hot air balloons, the above image would be a perfect representation of us, unique in style and at different stages of flight, but all with the same goal: to get off the ground!
Each week, I dread coming back here to report on my writing status, postponing to the last minute, and even wanting to fudge the truth because I didn’t do as well as I would have liked.
In four more days, we shall be at the end of the month.
Between work and my personal life, it has been a difficult month for me to find the time and spirit to write.
Time is always short and our personal lives are always full; these are elements with which we must always contend, therefore we cannot use them to excuse us from not finishing our tasks.
You must expect the unexpected, and as Lynda Barry writes in her twisted illustrated novel Cruddy, when possible, be the unexpected.
In the past week, I have written 11 more pages, bringing me to 51 pages, leaving 39 pages left to be written. Falling behind on my writing schedule has been upsetting for me and I am embarrassed to have to admit it.
Inversely, I may not have reached 90 pages yet, but I am getting close. Had I not challenged myself at all, I would not have anything. Keeping at the same pace I am now, I will have a complete first draft of a script within a month and a half! Now, that’s not so bad, is it?
Per the comments section, Muzz appears to be the Champion du Mois who powered through August, took off in flight, and wrote a script in one month — congratulations Muzz! To make it official and win your prize Muzz, please register your script with WGA or Copyright before sending it to me by August 31st, midnight in Hollywood, Pacific Standard Time. You may continue to work on your script and edit through September and resubmit a polished version by October 1st for your free script coverage.
How long it takes us to get off the ground is less important than the view once we are up in the sky. May you all soar to great heights.
Thanks for your participation and support.
FLASHBACK: Week Zero, Week One, Week Two, Week Three
For some gooey inspirational stuff, check out my article posted today at FreelanceSwitch:
7 Ways to Turn Miss(ter) Modesty into a World-Class Freelancer
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14 Responses to “Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week Four”
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Don’t be so hard on yourself.
The important thing is that you kept writing. You continue to make progress.
Thanks for the blog and inspiration. Keep up the good work.
Congrats to Muzz!
Well, I must say you all are really keeping me in check for getting my novel done. I am motoring along now, and am really pleased with myself. I really think I can get it done by the end of October.
Thanks to all.
Congrats to Muzz!
Jaden, I can uderstand with life and all it’s craziness keeping you from a personal deadline. I think maybe it’s just one of those months where at first it seems clear of obstacles, but it’s anything but. Or maybe the focus just isn’t as strong but it comes on strong the next month.
I haven’t a clue why it happens to me, but for past 2 or even 3 years, February has been my most productive month. Usually with poetry, but it doesn’t really matter. My pen can’t seem to stay off the paper around that time. I don’t ask why, I just go with the flow until I run out of ink or ideas.
So maybe next month will be that super progressive month, and this month was a warm up. Maybe. Either way, I thank you for the push and inspiration. It couldn’t have come at a better time, and sometime tomorrow I hope to be complete with the majority of what I want to have accomplished.
Don’t be hard on yourself. Your putting yourself out there, and publicly at that. Good on you.
Hey Jaden! At least it’s 51 pages more than me!
Congrats Muzz for completing it! Maybe one day I will be critiquing your film?
Thanks Jaden for the great article at Freelance Jobs! I like how the whole article is about not giving up and believing that you’ll make it through. I also like how you say you should have a destination in place and work towards that. You did that this month with your screenwriting challenge. Even if you don’t finish it by the end of the month, keep it going! You’ll finish it eventually!
Some of the stuff you talked about, I’ve been doing already and I’ve seen major progress. Almost each month that Sizzlingpopcorn.com has been on the web, I’ve always beaten the previous month’s visits record. It’s only by finding and putting time into it and really getting the hype going with people I meet that it begins to flourish. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the congratulations. SP, you never know, do you? Maybe one day?!
I still can’t quite believe I wrote this script so fast. (Unlike the six years it took me to complete the first one…or the novel in progress this year that was started — well, so long ago I can’t quite remember without digging through notes.)
When I look at the incredible output of great writers and screenwriters, I realize that writing is one of those processes that stays with you all of your life– if you just let it! :-)
Keep writing all!
I think 51 pages is quite an achievement in just one month! Don’t be so hard on yourself sister. Imagine how you’d feel if you had no pages, or gave up after that first page. If you think blogging about your goal and your deadline helped to keep you going and get those 51 pages written, then just extend the challenge into next month! It’s your blog, after all. And it’s better to write 90 pages in two months than not to write at all.
Thanks everyone so much for your encouragement!!!
I definitely will continue into September and finish my script.
In the meantime, I want to get back to the regular programming here on the website and offer new fun topics to read.
Jaden – it makes me sad that you dread coming here to report! Don’t be so hard on yourself, as Writer Dad, said! Writing is such difficult work, and it’s not all of us who can write a mile a minute and reem off 50 pages in one day. In fact, there are few, I imagine, who can consistently do that.
I too have lamented my lack of writing for whatever reason. I guess the best advice everyone gave me was to stop feeling so bad about it, stop obsessing about my lack of progress, and just write. Just let it happen. Keeping up the practice is certainly good, but you will write better if you let go of the anxiety.
And certainly no one here is feeling the way you do about your writing. I too thought your progress was actually commendable, and that’s not based on my own lack of pages but rather a recognition that writing is challenging altogether.
Wishing you all the best as you work to reach your goal!
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