2012 Screenwriting Challenge

Begin Your New Year WRITE! With my 4th Annual

2012 SCREENWRITING CHALLENGE

Why The Challenge?

Let’s face it, the holidays are a brutal time for writers.

We all do our best writing when we get into a rhythm. But during the holiday season that rhythm can be impossible to maintain. Schedules get jammed with Christmas parties, gifts to buy, family visits and a little too much vacation time and the next thing you know you haven’t written for a month.

But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is starting up again.

Ideally, writing would be part of your daily routine. As natural as brushing your teeth, getting dressed for work, or drinking your morning coffee.

But for most writers this is rarely the case. Many of us write in fits and starts, waiting desperately for moments of inspiration, and spending most of our time beating ourselves up when that inspiration doesn’t come. And then, just when we get started on a rhythm, something happens to interrupt it.

I’m always amused when I participate in writing panels. Invariably, an eager young student asks a question about building a life as a writer. “What real writers do is write” insists one panel member after another, striving to out do each other as they speak of their unceasing dedication to their craft.

Having worked with writers for most of my professional life, I know the truth. It doesn’t matter if you’re an Academy Award Winner or a first time writer. Most of what writers do is NOT writing.

What writers really do is PROCRASTINATE.

Writers are brilliant at finding “important” tasks to interfere with their writing. Set aside a couple hours to write, and suddenly those dirty dishes start to call to you. The next thing you know you’ve cleaned your whole kitchen, scrubbed your shower tiles to a sparkling shine, reorganized your closet, updated your facebook photos, and still not written a single word.

You’re furious at yourself. But at the same time, a part of you feels like you didn’t have a choice. Time just got away from you. “I’ll write for twice as long tomorrow,” you reassure yourself. But tomorrow comes and four hours seems like an impossible amount of time. Even if you do manage to bang out a few pages, it’s impossible to derive any joy from them. And the next thing you know, you’ve gone a whole week, month, or even year without writing.

Under these circumstances it’s easy to doubt if you’re really a writer at all. You may even be tempted to give up on writing entirely. You feel so blocked that you don’t see any way out. But at the same time you know that giving up on writing would be giving up on the best part of yourself. So what are you supposed to do?

The difference between successful and unsuccessful writers is not that one group never gets blocked. The difference is that successful writers know how to maintain their creative rhythm even when inspiration is not flowing.

Start the New Year right by getting back into the rhythm of writing with this simple challenge:

Jacob Krueger’s
2012 SCREENWRITING CHALLENGE

On January 1st, go out and buy yourself a nice journal. Find something that speaks to your personality, and makes you feel like a writer. It’s okay to spend too much. Think of it as an investment in something you’re going to use every day.

On January 2nd, set your clock to wake you up 15 minutes early, and as soon as you open your eyes, grab your journal and start writing. You have 15 minutes to write three pages. You have no time to edit or even to think. Just go ahead and write whatever comes out as quickly as you possibly can. It may be a scene or parts of a scene. It may be a line of dialogue, or a monologue, or just thoughts about your character. It may flow together, or it may not flow together at all. Don’t even try to make it good. Just allow your first instincts to find their way onto the page.

You’re going to repeat this process every day until January 30th, writing three pages every morning until writing is such a natural part of your daily routine that it occurs without even thinking about it. Don’t read the pages you’ve written in the past. Just wake up, and start writing. You may find yourself continuing one storyline, or writing a new one every morning. If you get stuck, rewrite the scene from the day before from memory. It’s not important what you write. It’s important THAT you write.

It’s this rhythm that is going to make you a writer. So, if you sleep through one day, find 15 minutes to catch up later. Take your journal with you on the subway. Lock yourself in the bathroom at work. Stay up 15 minutes later that night.

On Sunday the 29th we’ll have a party to celebrate the work of everyone who is participating in the challenge, to share our experiences, and to make some new friends. (There will also be a raffle for some super screenwriting prizes!)

Finally, on January 30th, you’ll complete the challenge, and read your pages for the first time. You’ll be amazed at what you see.

Register now by submitting your name and email address below, and you’ll also be entered into a special drawing to win 2 free tickets to our next Seven Act Structure Seminar.

Also make sure to LIKE our new FACEBOOK PAGE where you can connect with our community of writers and share your experiences.

Create The Steady Stream of Writing that Changes Your Life

If you wrote three pages a day for a year, at the end of the year, you’d have written (gasp!) three screenplays.

Even writing only one page a day, you’d finish three screenplays a year!

But getting that page written, day after day, can be a real challenge.

Our lives are filled with so many “urgent” demands from so many people, that sometimes the things that are really important end up falling to the wayside, simply because there is no one but ourselves to demand it from us.

If you’re going to succeed as a writer, you need to find a way to make whatever writing time you do have as urgent and non-negotiable as showing up for work in the morning.

You need someone to hold you responsible for hitting your goals, to let you know when you’ve done well, and to demand more out of you when you’ve fallen short.

If you’ve ever gone to the gym with a personal trainer, you know that even 45 minutes working out with a trained professional can do more for your body than 3 hours working out on your own.

That’s why I’m introducing a new service to help you keep your focus on what really matters to you.   It’s called Personal Training for Writers.   And it’s just like working out with a trainer in the gym:

Here’s how it works: 

• Subscribe for 3 months, 6 months, or a full year of weekly training sessions.

• Create Your Gameplan:  Discuss your writing goals with your personal trainer, and create a personalized writing schedule and regimen of exercises, to maximize the time you have, and integrate your creative goals with your daily life.

• Stick To Your Goals:  Halfway through your writing week, your Personal Trainer will call to check in on how you’re proceeding, answer urgent questions, and give you the guidance (or tough love) you need to meet your deadlines.

• Turn in Your Pages: Each week, you’ll submit up to ten pages of writing to your personal trainer, hitting your deadlines, on time, just like professional writers do.

• Get Personalized Feedback:  With weekly one-on-one sessions, during which you and your Personal Trainer will discuss the writing you’ve done, and set new goals to motivate you for the next week.

• Meet with your Trainer: from anywhere in the world: in-person in NYC, or online via video chat.

Students Save 50% or More on Personal Training!

Take any of our NYC Write Your Screenplay classes and save 50% off your first month of Personal Training for Screenwriters.

Don’t live in NYC?  Take a Write Your Screenplay class online, and receive up to a month of Personal Training for FREE.

Happy New Year! And Happy Writing!

Jacob Krueger