After thinking it over for the past couple of weeks, I have decided to not pursue a podcast in the near future. The polling was just above 50/50 in favor, which tells me that there is not a massive amount of you clamoring to hear me yimyam.
A few readers took the time to write to me about whether I should do a podcast or not. Some wrote with encouragement and tips on how to get one going—I will definitely use that information for later.
But more wrote to me concerned that I already have a huge amount of stuff to do in my challenge, and that adding a podcast was probably just a way of procrastinating on some of the challenges that scare me.
So, I have decided to jump right into one of the challenges that scares me the most, Challenge number 3:
Write three feature-length screenplays.
This one has been sitting there kind of taunting me since I first started the blog, and today I face it head on.
Maybe I am, a little.
At the beginning of November, since 1999, there has been the National Novel Writing Month event or NaNoWriMo where people challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. I, like millions, have started the challenge a couple of times. I dutifully click ‘mark as read’ when their emails show up in my inbox from time to time. I did not really think about it this year—I have enough challenges to do—writing a novel will have to wait until next year. Sorry, NaNoWriMo!
But then my friend, Thacher E. Cleveland, graphic novelist, comic writer, actor, and novelist started posted pictures on Facebook of the whiteboard that he is keeping his NaNoWriMo progress on. The first few days just made me feel guilty that I wasn’t writing.
But then I took a closer look at what he was doing. Instead of shooting for the pace of grueling pace of 1,666 words a day that a 50,000 word novel requires, he has chosen to write 30,000 words, putting his still-challenging 1,000 words a day on seven different projects. He is using the accountability and focusing tool of NaNoWriMo to move forward with all of his writing. How’s that for a slice of fried gold?
Thacher’s board from a couple of days ago:
Thacher is a full-time author who tours the country selling his books at conventions and writer meetups all over the country. He has many lovely books and graphic novels to purchase on his website and Amazon. Links below to all of his stuff.
He doesn’t just talk writing. He actually writes. A lot. He is talented. He is diligent. He’s written a few novels by now, so the novelty of writing one won’t spur him to the writing life—he lives it already. Some days he crushes it, and some days he has to write in a bar in Vegas after the convention is over for the night and he is glad to get 300 words in. He’s doing it though. He’s getting the words down.
To take that excitement and goal orientation of a thirty day challenge to help inspire a boost in productivity in his current work is just genius. That’s Thacher.
How does this all relate to me?
Having missed the boat on NaNoWriMo this year, I kept thinking of how I could do something similar for my screenplays challenge. And then I kept thinking about this screenwriting book that has been sitting on my shelf for years: How to Write a Movie in 21 Days by Viki King. Ms. King was a sitcom writer (Three’s Company) and script consultant in the seventies and eighties. She has added life coach and psychic to her c.v. since the book was first written in 1988. She looks exactly like you picture her.
There is a lot of stuff in the book that I probably won’t need, like how to format my typewriter tabs to write in screenplay format. Final Draft does all of that for me, thank god. That said, just because a book is old, it does not mean that it is worthless. Great movies are still being written today with the help of Syd Field’s Screenplay, first published in 1979. I am of the opinion that a woman who wrote for one of the top tv shows on a tight deadline on a damned IBM Selectric in the seventies and eighties has plenty of wisdom to share with me.
I said earlier in this blog that I wasn’t going to read any more books on screenwriting, but I am a notoriously unreliable narrator, and I am also a strong believer in listening when your intuition keeps coming back to the same thing over and over again. And this book kept popping up in my head until I finally got it off of the shelf and started reading it. Today I did the preliminary work that the book asks for, and I will begin the actual writing tomorrow. I have about 20,000 words to write in 21 days. One thousand words a day is way out of my comfort zone, but doable. No problem, but this book does not want me to write a 1,000 words a day.
I’m supposed to have a complete first draft in seven days! That is just over 2857 words a day.
I am at just about 750 words on this post right now. I am supposed to write almost four times that for seven days straight. Just vomiting it out, and then I will spend the fourteen days of the twenty-one making it into a first draft.
I have no idea if it will work, but I’m willing to give it three weeks. What’s the worst case scenario? I have more words on the page than I do now. The best case scenario is that I succeed. I write a first draft of a screenplay in 21 days. That would be a phenomenal pace for my challenge.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
Here’s how to read and follow Thacher:
Website: demonweasel.com
Twitter: @demonweasel
Instagram: @demonweasel
His works for purchase: Thacher E. Cleveland on Amazon
Thank you, as always, for reading.
Drop me a line at: jeremydnichols@gmail.com
Follow me on twitter: @jeremydnichols
Instagram: @germynickels