Writers Must be Flexible! NYC Midnight Contest!
Usually I do my grocery shopping on Saturday. But the second round of the NYC Midnight Short Screenwriting championships is this week-end, so I had to change my shopping schedule from Saturday to Friday. So, today’s writing schedule is going to be shorter than normal. It all evens out in the end because I’ll get more writing time on Saturday … Sometimes writers have to be really flexible. And creative. To get enough time and to get that time on the right day!
We get the assignment for the NYC contest at 11:59 p.m. (EST) tonight. So at 11:59 I’ll know what GENRE, LOCATION, and OBJECT must be in my SP. Actually I probably won’t find out until tomorrow morning, because more than likely I’ll be sleeping at 11:59! Then I have until just before midnight on Sunday to get it done. Five pages or less. Since I go to bed early on Sundays, the SP will be done way before midnight. That is, unless I get stuck.
In the first round, I was assigned: MONSTER MOVIE, HORSE STABLE, GENERATOR. It was tricky but I finally ended up writing about an out-of-work couple and monster trees. The entry has been rewritten and is uploaded on this site. If you’re interested in it, you can read “Hux Hollow” in the short screenplay section.
It is not unusual for me to look at a writing assignment and say to myself: NO WAY! But after I think about it for awhile an idea gels. Sometimes I actually open a wordprocessing file and have a conversation with myself using the keyboard. (It helps that I type over 100 wpm and don’t have to look at my fingers!) While I talk to myself, the story takes shape, characters get fleshed out, and the major plot points develop. And then I write my entry. And rewrite. And rewrite some more!
So anyway, now we all know what I’ll be doing this week-end!
