Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week Three (Prizes Announced)
by Jaden
In the past week, I forced myself to let go of perfectionism and just write, get the general idea down in words, maybe not the most clever words, but they are there.
I have written an outline, which I am following now.
A big no-no while on a time constraint is my compulsion to edit. This has proven to be my biggest challenge: being able to move forward without revising.
With 15 pages written this past week, I am up to a total of 40 pages, leaving me 11 days to write 50 more pages!
Hopefully, I will have at least 2 more days of bursting inspiration like my first writing day, so that I complete the 90 pages by August 31.
How are you folks doing?
FLASHBACK/FORWARD:
Week Zero, Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four
PS: Sorry, I forgot to include prize details, as I had promised. Here they are.
THE PRIZE
1) A post spotlighting you on Screenwriting for Hollywood. This will be a short biography, photo, and pitch about your story. You may opt out of any or all of these if you want to keep your story private or are too shy for a bio. For your security, you must copyright your script before I post your title or pitch.
2) I will give you my professional opinion of your screenplay in the standard industry coverage format. Click here to see my coverage sample form. This report will be up to 5 pages and includes a rating of the quality and marketability of your script. Additionally, in my analysis, I include valuable suggestions for improvement of your characters, story, and plot points.
3) If you receive a “RECOMMEND” rating on my coverage, I will do what I can to get your script in the right hands.
WHO IS IN THE RUNNING FOR THE PRIZE?
Muzz — You are the only person I see completing your script this month who has left a comment each week; way to go! You are eligible for the prize if you reach 90 pages and have an ending by August 31, 2008.
Ellen Wilson — Currently working on a novel, Ellen has participated each week. Ellen, if and when you choose a month within 2008, you are eligible for the prize upon completion of your 90-page script within a one month period. I will accept an adaptation of your novel or new script idea.
t.sterling — As you have also participated, but not began writing, if you choose a month in 2008, you qualify for the prize.
Adam — I know your computer crashed and that you wanted to participate, so if you want to start in a new month, I will accept you.
Ellen, Adam, & t.sterling — If you decide to write a script in one month, here are your rules:
1) Choose a month.
2) Go to Week Zero and leave a comment of the month you have selected.
3) Each week, report your progress under Week One, Week Two, and so on.
4) At the end of the month, submit your screenplay of 90 to 120 pages for the prize.
Please do not submit a script that has been worked on outside of your selected month in 2008; liars will get the curse. My time is precious to me and each prize will cost me a full day’s work; when you’re making millions… Tsk. Tsk.
Thanks for participating. Keep writing!
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20 Responses to “Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week Three (Prizes Announced)”
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Sounds good Jaden.
I haven’t been working as much as I would like on my novel. Just a few days this week. I really want it done and over with by end of October. I know I can do it.
Oh, I am so bad at this always going back and editing thing, too. It’s like an awful compulsion. I tell myself I will just get into the feel of things agains, like if I need to look something up I’ve forgotten, and that the editor kicks in.
Ellen — I know you can do it too. It takes such force! Please read my revised post that has a note for you in it.
POST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH PRIZE DETAILS.
Ellen, Here’s an unusual novel writing contest — it’s judged by a computer program!
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/wrg/797666026.html
It’s taken me more than a year to to write 160 pages of the novel I have going now. (My first attempt was abandoned at 80 pages, some years back.) I think the forms are very different and that writing a novel in a month would be even more difficult!
Jaden, I will send details later on, but just wanted to say that I reached page 100 yesterday afternoon…really…not quite sure how it happened, but I did it.
That is not to say that I feel like it’s done, although I have the final scene/images down. They are staying put, she said confidently, while the internal censor laughed. It needs to be edited, proofed, and said censor will have to be monitored. It is a first draft, right?!
And while Billie Burke did not arrive in our apartment (no pink bubbles, no good witch costumes) I must say that it is some strange force.
INT. NYC APT – DAY
Writer drinks coffee, opens Final Draft file. A 100 page screenplay appears.
I happily share this writing energy to you so that your 90 pages are there by the 8-31 deadline as well!
Muzz — Excellent!! Congratulations. I pray the wind of writing miracles blows back through my woods.
Yes, this is only a first draft, and a raw one at that, since we are rushing through it.
Letting go of perfection is my main goal in life. :)
Needless to say, I am rooting for Ellen. :)
I’m pressing myself to finish before the end up August. My personal deadline is September 5th because I’m meeting someone important on the 6th who is very interested in my idea.
Anyway, I read this post around 9pm and dropped what I was doing and began writing. Just as you said, just write and get it down. I know the story in my head, how I want things to go. And the hardest part is behind me… which was getting it started. However at this point, I don’t know if this particular script is going to make it to 90 pages. A good chunk of it, like I said, would be lyrics. That might possibly make it 90 pages or more, I don’t know. But I have 12 pages right now, and I introduced all the characters. So we’ll see how far I get before I really need to crash for the night. I’m tired of my Final Draft program crashing on me every 20 mins or so though. I don’t know why it does that, but it encourages me to save every time I write a piece of dialogue.
I don’t want to break until I get to the first song. So I’ll consider this a mini break.
t.sterling — If your Final Draft keeps crashing, I suggest saving your file in 2 different places, removing all FD software, and reloading it anew. It sounds like you have an error.
Also, you can set your FD to automatically save every 5 minutes, or however long you want, as you write.
Furthermore, you should close all other programs to optimize your processing while using Final Draft.
Clean out your cache files, Internet downloads, etc. anything that could be unnecessarily bogging your system.
You may have a virus or something else. I would do a major clean up on your computer right now before it is too late. Do a virus scan. I have had virus that killed my whole computer but started out like that, just crashing here and there.
I’m glad you are still giving this a go! You are strong.
Keep up the hard work Jaden and the others! I hope to get something started sometime soon.
@Jaden – I think Muzz has the prize all wrapped up.
@Muzz – I don’t think I want a computer judging my novel, but thanks for sharing that link. But then again, maybe a computer would be more objective!
I only have a 100 pages to do in 2 months. That’s not to bad. Something like 1.5 pages a day. But you know, the funny thing is, I did that 2 pages a day with my first novel and I wound up squeezing little two page scenes in throughout the book. Then I had to go back and substantially revise for flow. Well, at least I know better now. I hope. I will just have to be more conscious of this quirk.
@Vered – Thanks for that.
jaden– as of 6pm, I “finished” my script at 25 pages. It’s not completely done because I need to type out the singing that goes on during the concert. So it will be longer than 25 pages. Maybe 50, 60. But thank you for the support and the challenge to pressure and push me.
Hi Ellen,
I sent that link along more as a novelty item than anything — “what will they think of next?” type of thing! Wondering if the day will come that computers actually write the novels, screenplays, etc. How 1984 would that be? :-)
My late father always said “a page a day” — but somehow I could never get that together. It was either a bunch of pages, followed by extensive revision, or no pages. Ah, wasted youth…that was me, then! Actually not so different this time, just more pages at once — record was 12 in one day.
But I have to say that for some things, the novel I’m working on in particular, I have to go slowly because it is just that difficult to address the subject, characters, etc. (Maybe they speak more slowly. They are more cautious about sharing? Hmmm…)
Congratulations to t.sterling — was thinking of you yesterday actually, remembering that singing would take longer than talking. Why is that? ;-?
Muzz– I’m going to take a guess and say that there is a lot of harmonizing, humming, moans, oooooh’s, aaaah’s and other vocals that aren’t words but are stressed for a few seconds every minute. I’m glad I’m not writing a James Brown script. My spell check woud crash.
Anyway, I think songs tend to repeat themselves, ya know with the chorus and refrains and such. Then there’s the “holding the note” which makes me want to type ooooooh!, but once hearing the song, it’s clear what I mean when I just type oh…! …unless there’s a trick to writing that in scripts I’m unaware of. If so, please tell me.
Jaden,
Just read the revised note. That sounds like quite a prize! And well worth all of the effort. It sounds even better than the brownie I’m contemplating eating.
@Muzz – I guess we have to work as fast as we can to honor the story. And our sanity.
@t.sterling – Good luck with your script and your contact. That sounds very exciting.
When I get the ‘edit bug’ I change my font to white so I can’t see what I’ve written. Those stupid MS Word red squiggles do drive me nuts, though.
Prizes. Dang! I shoulda done this instead of my novel. ;-)
Jaden, I wanted to pop in and say that although I did not participate what you are doing is phenomenal. Inspiring, motivating and coaching writers to finish a screenplay. Sometimes all we need is someone to believe and push us gently to get it done. What an awesome gift to give in addition to sharing your own wonderful talent.
Karen and the rest of you crazy kids –
Thanks so much for the kind words, extra advice, and support; it means so much to me. Helping just one single person means I have done at least one good thing on this planet, which is my aim.
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