It was a dark and stormy night…
The frantic writers behind National Novel Writing Month are at it again. This June, they’re launching Script Frenzy, a month-long writing marathon in which the finish line is a 20,000-word stage or screen play. It’s free to enter and, although there are no judges or large monetary prizes, every writer who manages the crazy 20,000-word goal will undoubtedly feel exhilarated when he/she receives a Script Frenzy Winner’s Certificate and a web icon proclaiming victory. And for the young writers looking to be the next Nikki Reed, NaNoWriMo offers a separate Young Writers Program, full of helpful tips and resources for both teacher-lead student groups and solo scribes.
Think writing 20,000 words in 30 days is an impossible feat? Consider the Script Frenzy folks’ mantra: “This is a draft, this is only a draft.” Participants are encouraged to forget about “good” writing and not to worry about whether they know what they’re doing. For those who can’t just sit down and get started, the group has taken a cue from No Plot? No Problem! and created an addictive online plot machine (you’ll find it on the homepage). A recent spin generated this bound-to-be-a-blockbuster: “After reading a coworker’s e-mail, Zorro joins Bill Clinton’s reggae band.” Sounds about as plausible as the plot of my last movie-rental mistake, Déjà Vu.
The site offers plenty of other script-writing hints and how-tos to get you started, but the main point is to just sit down and write by the seat of your pants. According to the Script Frenzies, it doesn’t take “talent, strong language skills, academic training, and years of dedication” to write a script. “All it really takes is a deadline—a very, very tight deadline—and a whole lot of coffee.”
That said, there are only seven days left until fade-in, which means you’d better start limbering up your fingers and cleaning the crumbs out of your keyboard tray, because June is shaping up to be an action- (or mystery- or romance- or comedy- or drama- or some clever cross-genre combination-) packed month.
