It’s halfway through March which means Script Frenzy is almost upon us again. I will once again be doing Script Frenzy this year. And I think that you should do it too. Script Frenzy, NaNoWriMo’s sister competition, is a lot easier but just as fun.
Script Frenzy runs for one month, just like NaNoWriMo. But instead of running in November, Script Frenzy runs in April. And instead of aiming for 50,000 words, you aim for 100 pages of script (any kind, including comic book, screenplay, stageplay and TV show). It comes out to 3 and a bit pages a day, which is pretty manageable if you ask me (if you over use parenthicals as much as I do). There are tricks (like NNWM’s word padding tricks) that make the whole thing a lot easier too.
The thing that makes Script Frenzy easier is the fact that you do not have to write one script, you can write many scripts, as long as their total page account is 100 pages or more. This means if you get sick of your plot halfway through, you don’t have to scrap what you’ve already written. This also means that you can write several short scripts, if you’re worried that your idea will not last for 100 pages. I did this last year, writing three different scripts instead of just one. I’ll probably end up doing that this year too, seeing as I have no solid idea yet, and probably won’t have time to plan and a full script before April 1.
I like doing Script Frenzy more than NaNoWriMo because not only is it easier, you also don’t have to stick with the same story the whole month, letting you do multiple things at once so you never burn out (which happens in NaNo quite often I find). I also prefer writing in the script format than the regular creative writing format, although I do a lot more creative writing than script writing.
And the best thing is, you don’t even need any special program to write your script if you don’t want to. Scripped.com is where I wrote my script last year, and it has the added convenience of being online so you can access your script from anywhere and work on it, as long as the place has internet access. Celtx is a free program you can download, if you prefer to use something that you can write with offline. Celtx also has a lot of features you can use to keep notes separate from your script, but still in the file for easy access.
So join me, some of the other LWP staffers (there’s always a few of us who do NNWM and SF), and 2,500 other people (so far) to write (and hopefully finish) 100 pages of script in the month of April!
