Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week One
by Jaden
Week Zero was the time to prepare.
Between work, errands, and familial duties, on July 30th, in the afternoon, I started writing.
Rarely do I follow the rules, even when I draw them. I wanted to write a treatment or an outline, but when I sat down, the script spilled out, so I let it flow.
In 3.5 hours, I wrote 14 script pages, record-breaking for me and far surpassing my goal of 5 pages per 4 hours, my usual speed.
Instead of a straight comedy, my script turned into a dark comedy on the plate of a spiritual journey.
My script would be like what you might get if Charles Bukowski adapted a scene from Hamlet, something in the vein of Stephen King, but not that scary, or Stanley Kubrick, but not that twisted, and in the spirit of Tim Burton, but more orbital.
My story is sort of old school Disney-ish, I guess: dark and weird, with a moral and a fantastic tale.
Live action or animation or using computer graphic imaging would all work well with my story. It could also be performed on stage as a theater piece with a touch of Cirque de Soleil and talented actors to play on the audiences imagination.
And oh yes, we could sell talking dolls!
The tag line I would give my movie is:
You have to go to the dark side to see the light.
Still PG! Fweh. Am trying to appeal to the masses with this one because as fun as dumping piggy banks of change into big green machines at the grocery store is, I would like to go to the ol’ ATM and pull out some twenties for a big splurge at the local thrift store.
Finding a few more hours spotted over the week, I am up to 20 pages and filled the trash with snotty wet teary tissues; I get into my writing.
How are you doing, Muzz, Adam, Reel Ninja, Brunette Bombshell, and Karen Swim? Are you with me? Anyone start writing? Anything with which I can help? What tag line would you use for your movie?
Whoever makes it to the end with me, I will have a prize for you. Am still thinking about what it will be and need to see if I can pull any favors. Will announce the prizes by Week Three. You have to give a status update each week, write at least 90 pages by August 31, 2008, and have an ending to your story, to win the prize.
You may participate no matter when you started your script, but to win a prize, please do not submit a script that was written prior to July, 2008. Cheaters will suffer a terrible curse: 13 years worth of bad hair days, zits, thrush, and foot fungal.
Ellen Wilson, R.J. Keller, and Sizzling Popcorn, I look forward to reading about your script adventures when you get around to it. When you decide to start, just go back to Week Zero, then go to Week One, and so on, to note your progress.
Reminder: Don’t get it right, get it written!
Perfectionism is dragging me down into its dirty diamond coals. Uhrrrg! I’ve already started criticizing what I’ve written, gone back to change things, and thought of a million other ways to tell the story. Delays! Delays! Naughty me. Still, I press forth.
See ya at Week Two!
FLASHBACK/FORWARD:
Week Zero, Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four
Comments
19 Responses to “Write a Screenplay in One Month: Week One”
Got something to say?
Subscribe
-
-
Content RSS
Well, I’ve written four more pages, so am on page 24. (Started July 2008)
Tentative tag line: HP Confidential (no, not the computer company!)
Had a hectic week w/ writing and editing for the clients as well as a lovely letter informing me that script #1 did not make it into the quarter finals of Nicholl Foundation fellowship…but since it was the first time I’d submitted it anywhere (and it is Ye Olde Script) I was of the mind that “you’ve got to play to win.”
So…will try to put down 12-15 pp this week. Trying to stay in the pool!
Muzz — Rejection letters bring me great joy, especially from major institutions, it means YOU DID SOMETHING, you put yourself out there, and you were acknowledged for it! You tried your best. My favorite rejection letter is from the Cannes Film Festival. Nicholl’s is the best screenwriting competition there is. Firstly, that anyone took the time to acknowledge us is nice, considering how many people and companies rudely ignore — means they have class and were worth your time because they gave you some of their time. Secondly, you wrote an entire script, which deserves commendation, and you had the balls to put it out in the world for people to judge, which is emotionally not an easy thing to do. That is a big step ahead of the masses.
From an insider perspective, a rejection doesn’t even mean you wrote a bad script; maybe it was not read all the way through, maybe the reader was not a good visionary of the possibilities of the script, maybe it fell in the wrong hands, maybe the reader was too stupid to grasp your concepts… There are endless possibilities other than that your script was not good enough.
Let’s pound out this new one and see what happens. Got to just keep coming up with new ideas and keep writing… then one day… Who knows?! I think the death of a writer is to write only one story and to put all one’s hope in that one piece. My general attitude is to keep writing new things, and one day, when one takes off, I will have a fat collection of other work for them to browse, in addition to new material.
The more we write, the better we become as writers.
Writing a script in one month is about letting go of everything and pounding something out — it is a way to let genius and inspiration escape our critical controlling brains.
P.S. ‘HP Confidential’ would be more of a title than a tag line because it is mysterious and short. A tag line (which would be up to the marketing team anyway, I just threw it in for fun) is something to hook a person into coming to see the movie, something that tells a little bit about the movie in a quick, catchy way.
This is such an awesome idea. I’m already gearing up for NaNoWriMo and am still a little behind on some projects I have going, so I’m not going to attempt the 30-day script this time around (I hope this becomes an annual event ;). I’ll be watching and reading along though and cheerleading everyone!
I agree totally — as a survivor of one of the toughest MFA programs in the country, you have to keep writing. Getting a degree is just the beginning (to their credit, they did tell us that at the time. ha ha) I wrote a novella and short story collection as my thesis despite criticism from the group.
And there is quite a bit of newer material here, I send out here and there. Once this current script is done, I intend to go back to a novel (160 pp) and essay collection (130 pp) in progress and finish both.
The first script may actually head out to a producer who I met recently. Just have to get ready for that step…
I have a title and a tag line for this new project, but maybe feeling a little shy about sharing them yet, came up with HP Confidential as an alternate tag, but you are right, it’s really a title!
Am happy to have a group of people to write with — completed 5 pages today just knowing you folks are out there. :-)
Muzz — Great! Sounds like you are on a similar path as mine. I also write novels, wrote two last summer that I need to polish. I wrote 3 pages so far today for this script and will be writing through the night. Yes, please keep any information private as you feel necessary to your rights and safety. Writers and industry people read this site. I will not be posting my title until I am done with the script and have it registered. Even at that point, I leave it up to your discretion, as idea theft on the Internet is a real concern. Free advertising is also a good though, so whichever seems like the best choice for you, you decide when the time comes.
Melissa — Thanks so much for your support. Means a lot to me and probably the rest of the gang here.
I have yet to get any script down yet, my hard drive was damaged after a slight spill. I am missing my computer, but I live on a college campus so work can still be done until I pay to fix my baby :( !
Tag line: The price of mating just went up.
I’ll leak parts of my story as the month goes by. The first will probably be the opener I always take a lot of pride in my openings.
Adam
Adam — Clapping and laughing here — great tag line!
You have the ultimate challenge then, having had your computer accident. Pretend this script is a paid writing job (like we pray it will be in the end, *wink*) and do what you have to do to get it written! You can’t fail Warner Brothers, nor should you fail yourself. I commend you for heeding the extra challenge of a downed computer, and I root for you.
You are now the underdog, and everyone loves the underdog!
Use a notebook and handwrite it if you must. Hard copy is acceptable. There are lots of writers who make a living handwriting their stories and have someone else type them.
Keep going.
@Adam – Sorry to hear it. That happened to me with my first novel. I finished it by hand. Never let the machine deter you!
@Jaden – I’m at page 277 in the novel, I expect around 70-100 pages more. It’s set back in the Renaissance. I’ve been doing a lot of research into theatre of the period and history surrounding the events of my novel. I spend around 3-4 hours in the morning working on it. Believe me, I’d like to spend the entire day just thinking and writing, but you know how it goes.
I guess I shouldn’t say anymore because now I’m afraid of someone stealing my ideas!
Good luck to everyone! This is quite fun and I enjoy the support. Thanks Jaden, for doing this.
I’m glad your making good progress. Your work sounds intriguing. Dolls?!
I’m really interested in taking part in this screenplay in a month. I would much rather jump straight into a script, but this is a story that needs to be thought out. I’m trying something I haven’t seen before and writing a script based on a live album, with characters that may have been at that particular concert while the album was being recorded. The artist performing is none other than my idol, Sam Cooke. I have a few working titles going, but I don’t want to choose a tagline until I choose a title. I did, however, think of a pretty good teaser trailer. If I had to have a working tagline…
Before the legendary greats, there was the legend.
That works more for a biopic than the “retro-concert film” I’m doing.
I only have the weekends, my 10 hour job drains a lot out of me so by the time I get home, typing isn’t something I’m interested in. But the stories forever develop no matter where I am, so I’m always jotting down ideas and fleshing them out when my mind isn’t busy.
Uh-oh.
There’s one of those CLOWNS again.
(You know how I feel about THEM…!) :-)
Friar,
That in the hell are you talking about?!
Friar,
Sorry. There’s a clown in the picture. I thought you were alluding to something deep and hidden within the comments or post.
This clown doesn’t look very intimidating.
Ellen — On one of Friar’s posts, he talked about disliking clowns. I added a historical theory about clown origin in his comment section and also added that I love clowns because they are so strange. That’s the insider on his comment here.
t.sterling — That sounds like an interesting idea. Good luck with it. Yes, time is an issue for us all; it pains me to watch it drain away each day.
[...] Week One [...]
[...] Week One [...]
[...] Week One [...]
[...] Week Zero, Week One, Week Two, Week [...]
dear jayden i am interested in writing a script i have written 13 pages how do u manage to write 5 pages in 4 hours i wirte one page a day maybe i need to try harder how much pages is a feature film.
Jamie — Hi. Feature films are 90 to 120 pages, that is 1 page per 1 minute, 1 1/2 hour to 2 hour movie.
Everyone writes at their own pace.
If you only write one page a day and you wrote that one page every day, then you would have a 1st draft script in 3 months with 90 pages, and that is absolutely ok. You should then expect to reread and rewrite it for the next 9 months. Working 1 year on a script would be normal.
Speed of writing depends on lots of things. Me, I am an extremely fast typist and my thoughts go even faster than my fingers, hence the 5 to 10 pages I write a day. Everyday I go back and reread and rewrite those same pages at least 10 more times. So although it may come out of me quickly, it takes me forever before I actually like what I have written and am willing to let someone read it.
I like to challenge myself with speed writing: creating deadlines is good practice in case you have to work for other people with time constraints.
Anyone who wants to be a professional writer should take a typing class at a nearby school or use some kind of software in the computer to help increase speed. Being able to physically write quickly is important because writing is such a slow process.
Our brains work much faster than our physical ability to pull ideas out of our head and put those ideas into the material world.
Good luck!