Like some of you out there, I'm planning on doing Script Frenzy this year. After the news that the Red Planet Prize should be announced in a month, it might be a good way of getting a first draft done before the official announcement. But I'd thought I'd do it a little bit differently.
So, I'm cheating.
Thing is, I've already got the first 10 pages of a script. I wrote them a few months ago but then never finished the script. Other deadlines got in the way, I was useless, blah, blah, blah. So, I thought I'd use Script Frenzy to finish it. Well, write it really. I've only got 10 pages… Also, it's only going to be 90 pages. But that's not cheating. That's my plan. So, there. Before writing the first 10, I also did my logline, treatment, breakdown, beat sheet, etc. That may be cheating too. Don’t care. I’m hoping Script Frenzy will be a good incentive to keep going and get a first draft done by the end of April.
So. 30 days. 80 pages to go. So that's... that’s… complicated.
Damn.
Why didn’t I leave it and then I’d have 90 pages to do? 3 pages a day. Easy. Right. Maybe I’ll do 100. But that's more...
Ok, ok, I’m gonna do about 3 pages a day.
Anyway, anyone else up for it? It starts tomorrow and you can register and create a profile with Script Frenzy here. As their site says, you then just need to…
"1. Tell everyone that you are in the Frenzy.
2. Clear your calendar. (US participants: Get your taxes done now!)
3. Start some wrist exercises."
Right…
They also have lots of "How To…" articles and resources here, so you can procrastinate to your heart’s content.
Question is, how you gonna make sure you stick to your goals? Once you’ve registered on the site you can join forums, get together in groups, find out who’s Script Frenzy-in your area, put bits of script up on the site as you complete it, keep a page counter on your profile there… all of which could help you keep to your aims. Or you can do none of that, and just know that you've made yourself a promise to complete a script by the end of April.
You could also do the challenge with another writer and keep tabs on each other, give feedback as you go, etc. That’s what I’m doing. With Mr Bentley. He’s cheating even more than me… God help us.
Also, just to make things harder, I hereby promise that I will keep a daily counter on here of how I’m doing, as well as an account of how things are going. There. I have to do it now.
Course, I could cheat at that too.
You’ll just have to believe me.
Posts
OK - as an effort to cheat slightly less. In April I will:
ReplyDelete- Finish the feature (20 pages)
- Write a new 60 minute piece (probably end up being 70 pages on the first draft).
- Write 2x10 page shorts
On that basis I think I am justified registering officially.
Why don't we say whoever has the most pages by the end of the month has to buy the other a newly instigated Alfonso Gallmon Challenge Award (well I have no chance of winning the full AG award this year do I?).
So what do you say Mr Fox. You up for it. Or are you chicken?
I'm chicken.
ReplyDeleteBut given that I can't be a chicken and a fox at the same time, I suppose I'd better agree. Mind you, Bentley, if you do the maths... you PLAN to do 20 + 70 + 2 x 10 = loads more than what I'm planning or even likely to do... Still...
(thrusts sword heavenwards)
"Yes, Mr Bentley, in the name of Alfonso Gallmon, I ACCEPT your challenge! Hah!"
Silence. They eyeball each other and then turn, not a word to each other.
They slink off in opposite directions.
To practice some wrist excerises.
Oh trust me, I did the maths.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have now registered.
ReplyDeleteOk. So, do we send each other pages at the end of the day, to keep us on our toes?
ReplyDeleteWell you are going to have a few days start on me because I am out pretty much every night until Tuesday. How about we take the daily figures on trust and then forward what we have completed on 1 May?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I am not going to have time to read yours on a daily basis and I don't intent to edit until I have finished a first draft.
God, no. Jesus, constant feedback while writing? can't think of anything worse... I just meant as proof. Not to be commented on.
ReplyDeleteBut we can also trust each other.
Totally alien concept to me, but I'm willing to give it a go.
John, trust is the most important thing in any relationship. Plus if we do it this way I can cheat.
ReplyDeleteAre the pages from Tupperware that you have put on Sharpshooters the ones that I have read already?
I think they may be slightly different. But not much.
ReplyDelete