Script Frenzy Wrap-Up

If Script Frenzy were described as a metaphorical war, I know where I’d be. I wouldn’t be one of those brave soldiers that made it across the trenches to face glory in the homeland. I wouldn’t be one of those valiant ol’ boys who made it halfway, only to perish under a barrage of enemy fire.

No. I’d be the guy who, as the general cries “CHARGE!” is lighting a cigarette. Startled into activity, he blazes out ahead of his comrades. He gets to a point where he realizes the bulk of his unit is still behind him. So he sits his butt down in a hole, and finishes with that cigarette. Every so often he pops his head out, checks where everyone else is on the field, then returns to smoking. He writes some poetry. “Maybe this’ll be the next Flanders Field,” he tells himself. A few stray bullets almost hit his helmet, and this frightens him. He tells himself he wasn’t in his right mind when he enlisted, anyway. So he stays in the hole, until the battle is over.

What is this clumsy, two-legged mule of an analogy trying to say?

I did not pull through.

Looking at my beer and cappuccino tally, I’m of a mind to think that the lack of imbibing was directly responsible. Truthfully though, it was a bunch of distractions and an absence of will or desire strong enough to overcome them. If I were to do Script Frenzy again, and I think I will attempt it, I’d have to go in with a more solid plan for my script, and make sure to get more deeply entrenched in the community, to feed off of the frenzy, to use that mammalian hive-mind like a naked mole rat.

I’m trying to decide what to do with the >30 pages I did bung out. I fear to read them. I think I’ll let them stew, and then go back and see what it was I concocted.

Congrats to all those who won and lost, so long as you enjoyed it along the way!

Script Frenzy: Day 28 (omg, seriously?!) & Etc.

Allow me to remind myself (and you, dear reader), of my own foolishness. From Day 18’s update:

Morale: It was ebbing there for a while, until I realized now I only need to write about 6ish pages per day to reach the requisite 100, which shouldn’t be TOO hard since my final university exam for the year is over with tomorrow. (She said, naively, grossly underestimating the true magnetic pull of other distractions, like video games pursuing some good literature.)

To my credit(?), my optimism was couched by cynical foreshadowing. It turns out that the cynical foreshadowing has come to pass.

I should be ashamed of myself. Catavarie made the most of his time and has won the damn thing! I think it’s the old ‘people with free time get nothing accomplished’ phenomena (is there a better, more succinct name for that?). I believe it was in episode #17 of Dr. Ginger Campbell’s Books and Ideas Podcast where interviewee Mur Lafferty made some remarks on the difficulty of being a writer at home. Self-imposed deadlines are fairly deadly, and the spirit of the fair-game competition, Script Frenzy, apparently wasn’t enough of an external deadline to really, really motivate me.

I’m sure some of my zeal right out of the gate was fueled by the desperate, wild-eyed desire to just be writing anything other than essays and exams. I still like my original concept, but since I didn’t get a skeleton outline down before I began writing, I found it drifting, sometimes in directions I wasn’t pleased with. I’m not free-form enough for stuff like Script Frenzy and Nanowrimo, I think. I’m one of those anal retentive writers who has to basically write the whole damn thing before I sit down to write the whole damn thing.

I’m going to use this public shame at failing Script Frenzy to launchpad into the research stages of the SPP™.

In lieu of a triumphant page-count update, here are some things I have “accomplished” in recent memory:

All caught up in listening to You Look Nice Today.

Discovered BLDBLOG, via a link to their great interview with Daniel Dociu, a designer for Guild Wars.

My dark elf Inquisitor on EQII is now level 21. Or 22? My newly acquired secret vice has begun to grow, like a delicious and gratifying tumor.

And, today is, of course, the day that GTAIV comes out. I’m debating going to the midnight launch at my local EB Games. This is, after all, the first 10 that IGN.com has given a game in ages.

Whether you were being a productive writer, or being a productive loafer, I hope everyone had a grand weekend.

Script Frenzy: Day 18

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter
Today I learned: Giving your supporting characters (I almost just called them NPCs, ha!) funky names is a way to ensure you’ll give them a moment of sparkling goodness on the ’screen,’ rather than a drab functionality. For instance, today Sam & Uriel was infused with these winners: WHITE HAIRED GIRL, CRAB-EATER TWO, and TIGHTEST PANTS BOY. There are, admittedly, a few ‘GIRL’s and ‘GUY’s in there, and I think at least one ‘MAN’ by now (what’s the difference between a GUY and a MAN?), but I know better now.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 2
Pages: 28
Morale: It was ebbing there for a while, until I realized now I only need to write about 6ish pages per day to reach the requisite 100, which shouldn’t be TOO hard since my final university exam for the year is over with tomorrow. (She said, naively, grossly underestimating the true magnetic pull of other distractions, like video games pursuing some good literature.)

Script Frenzy: Day 14(ish)

I wrote three pages yesterday, but got too busy to update. Since it looks like I have schoolwork cut out for me today, I think it’s safe to share my progress now.

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter
Today I learned: Going back to the “root” of a project (in my case, the Cragislist post which inspired me to begin with) is a good way to re-infuse yourself with enthusiasm. Also, I haven’t been taking advantage of the community support Script Frenzy offers, which is silly. The forums are an unknown ground to me. But I did check out a post on minor characters, written by Daniel Heath. He asks the important question: “Should you give every minor character a bionic leg and a crack habit?” See his article here.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1*
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1*
Pages: 21
Morale: Decent. I feel like I’m coasting. Waiting for this week to be over so I’m finally free from school, to write without that guilty feeling that comes from neglecting another, more important, project.

*I’m frankly surprised neither of these numbers are higher. I might have to start skewing the data if I don’t want to be seen as a prude – and everyone knows prudes don’t make for good writers.

Script Frenzy: Day 12

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter
Today I learned: Scrivener has two awesome features: a word frequency charter, and a ‘project targets’ feature. I can write faster than I think I can, when I need to. I need to keep better track of plot hooks even when writing on the fly; I’m sure I’ve set myself up for some interesting conclusions, but I’m worried by the time the end draws near I won’t remember them. Scriptwriting is a good way to improve fiction – by focusing on dialogue and action, the “backbone” of a story, I know I’ll make better, neater use of the extra stuff prose allows, when I go back to that format for my next project.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Pages: 18 (when I need 18 more)
Morale: Still good. A little distracted by tantalizing, other things (note: getting a new PC in the midst of a writerly competition is not a good idea), but confident I can still pull it off, by putting in immense effort at the last second, like I always do.

[Music] Grace – Apocalyptica (When Worlds Collide)

Script Frenzy: Day 4

Day 3 was an undeserved rest day. Why did I take it? Because it’s the end of the semester, of course! I’m back on track with day four, just by the skin of my teeth. I’m no longer ahead of the per-day required page count, but just on it. With a day of Eberron (D&D) ahead of me tomorrow, and a Sunday full of studying for exams on Monday and Tuesday, I’m starting to get a little worried. But I think the script’s in a good place, a place where it’ll be easy for me to pick up again and run with it.

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy-drama
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter (with a dash of Ally McBeal, or perhaps Scrubs)
Today I learned: Any extreme emotion – glee or frustration and disappointment (both of which I got a dose of today) is dangerous to the creative urges. Coffee counteracts the braindead sleepiness beer provokes. Stifling the urge to use ample camera directions is about as useful as trying to hold in your pee
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1
Pages: 12
Morale: Still good. Happy to get Uriel introduced. I’ve started to give more camera directions, which is good for my page count. Before starting, I recalled reading somewhere that some directors like camera directions, and some really don’t, and I think that caused me to hesitate at first. Now I realize that if they’re necessary, they’re necessary – no use worrying about the opinions of some yet-unnamed director. The script’s inconsistent in terms of tone and level of direction, but I repeat the mantra “It’s a first draft” and carry on contentedly.

I ate three doughnuts today, and I regret nothing.

[Music] Kenny vs. Spenny on TV – it’s the “who’s the better stripper?” episode

Script Frenzy: Day 2 (& hints of the SPP™)

Sunny weather. The glorious release from post-secondary responsibilities (until the tidal wave of exams hits on Monday, at least.) I am so ready to wash my hands of this semester and embrace the self-directed learning and slacking that the summer offers. There is, of course, the looming necessity of finding a job that meets three criteria: a) does not crush my soul b) provides me with the funds I will need for various irresponsible purchases c) allows me enough free time and energy to get a Secret Podiobook Project™ written. In the spirit of enjoying the moment, I’m overlooking that stressful job-hunting process for now.

If I don’t get the SPP™ at least completed in a text draft this summer, I don’t want it to be because a job drained me and stole away my time – I want it to be because I was a lazy ass. (If I’m going to be angry, I’d rather be just angry at myself rather than angry and helpless in the face of things bigger than I am.)

Ideally though, I’ll get the thing recorded and out there. Since I don’t know what I’m doing, though, that may be a bit much to expect. We’ll see.

As I was trying to say (before the unavoidable segue into blabbing about my life), the weather and today’s schedule were fairly conducive to writing. So was the Anchor Steam I drank, though it made me sleepy and unmotivated afterwards, when I might have otherwise written even more. Further experiments to reveal the beer – writing output relationship will have to be done.

Working Title: Living With Uriel Sam & Uriel
Genre: Comedy-drama
My screenplay is: Juno meets Dexter… yeah.
Today I learned: Writing outside is nice, except for cool breezes, insects, and being unable to see your screen because of glare. Montages are irresistible. Voice-overs are irresistible. I am more wont to toss in predictable, two-dimensional supporting characters than I would have thought. I am as wont to write off drinking a beer brewed in San Francisco (where the script is set) as “research” as I would have thought.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 1 Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 0
Pages: 9
Morale: Good. Ahead of necessary daily page count, the plot still seems salvageable, even if it’s already not what I imagined.

[Music] Damn Those Turks! (Turks’ Theme) – Voices of the Lifestream

Script Frenzy: Day 1

Any plotting I would have liked to get done last night was ruined by a headache. A lack of food and four shots of espresso will do that to a delicate flower like me. I self-medicated with an extra strenth Motrin and some ingested meats (pork, to be specific), and took to bed early.

I woke up feeling like a million bucks. That little nuisance called school stood between me and tackling Script Frenzy’s first day, but I didn’t let it get me down. I only need to average 3 pages a day to make this thing work. From here, anything is possible.

Here’s the first installment in the maelstrom:

Working Title: Living With Uriel
Genre: Comedy-drama
Today I learned: The word “limnology,” that my main character’s major is marine biology, how to format a screenplay.
Beers consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 0
Coffees consumed in direct support of the scriptwriting process: 0
Pages: 4

The project is already turning out different than I anticipated. It’s more comedic, much more Juno than the semi-serious mainstream drama I conceived it as. That’s all right – the good thing about throwing yourself into a project very shortly after conceiving it is that you don’t have your preconceived notions set in stone, and you’re not emotionally attached to it yet. I’m willing to go with the flow. The risk, of course, is that I’ll end up with gibberish. But that’s okay. Surely I can allow myself but one toss-out script in life.

For the curious, my Script Frenzy username is Marzo.

[Music] The movie “Bugsy” (1991) on TV

Script Frenzy: Prologue

Somewhere along the way, I got it drilled into my head that there’s no motivation like accountability. For the next 30-odd days, this blog will be publicly documenting (to my shame or glory) my first attempt at Script Frenzy.

100 pages. 30 days.

I’ve never attempted to write a screenplay before. It’s a format entirely alien to me, making this endeavor somewhat like a blind man jumping into the Tour de France.

I doubt my stamina. I doubt my capability. But hot damn, maybe if I grip the bars and pedal hard I’ll get to the finish line. The helpful shouts of spectators and fellow participants will, I hope, prevent me from pedaling myself off of a cliff.

Besides inexperience and ignorance, I have a few items in my Inventory to aid me during this quest.

My armaments:

A 2-year-old iBook G4 named Farinelli

A program called Scrivener

A vague premise, sparked by this Craigslist post

A hefty dose of raw enthusiasm

It begins.

[Music]: Premonition of Pain – 3 Inches of Blood