MAR
9

The Great Scriptwriting Challenge

By Brian D. Taylor, Project Editor, Pioneer Drama Service 

Brian Taylor is a former middle school drama teacher and the newest addition to the Pioneer Drama editorial staff.  Working with K-12, college and community theatre groups, he has a theatrical background with experience in directing, acting and technical theatre.  When he’s not working on a production, Brian writes children’s and young adult fiction. 

Do you remember what you did last April?  Want to have an April to remember?  Then I challenge you to join the Frenzy!

Script Frenzy is a worldwide writing challenge that takes place during the month of April every year.  The challenge?  Write a 100 page script in 30 days.  It may sound crazy...  it is.  It may sound foolish...  hardly.  If I had one word to describe Script Frenzy, I would have to go with “fun!”  The point behind Script Frenzy is simply to write.  Many of you working in theater have almost certainly entertained the idea of writing a script at some time.  Why not give it a shot?

The event begins April 1 — not a minute sooner — and runs through April 30.  You can plan, outline and develop all you want between now and 12:01 am, April 1, but until that time, don’t actually write the script.  It’s on the honor system so only you will know if you broke the rules, but...  you will know if you broke the rules.  All in all, it’s just good fun and an exciting challenge, so who would break the rules anyway?

You can write any style of script, whether it be for stage or screen, and any genre:  comedy tragedy, melodrama, sci-fi, romance, terror.  Make up your own genre if you want!  While some scripts from the event have gone on to be published or produced and win awards, the goal is to get the script on paper, and you have one month to do so.  That’s a little over three pages per day or 25 pages per week.  Completely manageable, right?  So heat up a pot of coffee, turn off that inner editor and knock out that first draft with nothing to fear.  This is the best way to start writing.  Just dive right in and meet your characters and discover their stories and surroundings.  It’s pure excitement to explore the world of your imagination with wild abandon.  Meet your childhood hero, create your own kingdom, develop new technology, fight the dark side, and make decisions you would never make in the real world.  Create.  Explore.  You are in charge!

The Script Frenzy website offers helpful articles, forums and resources to assist your writing.  If you aren’t sure how to format a play or screenplay, the website has you covered.  Need scriptwriting software?  Want to find an online or local writing community?  Or maybe you need story inspiration?  All of this support is offered on the site at scriptfrenzy.org.

If you keep at it, by the end of April you’ll have a script.  If you want to keep going and perhaps consider production or publication, May is the time for revision.  The site offers updates throughout May and June to guide you through the revision and publication process.  Speaking of publication, Pioneer Drama Service is always looking for brilliant new voices.  You can visit the Pioneer Drama website to see our submission guidelines.  Who knows?  Your play could be our next big hit!

Script Frenzy as a Classroom Project

Teachers, Script Frenzy is also a great event to introduce to your drama or language arts classroom.  Students will love the challenge, and you’ll love seeing their excitement about writing.  The best part is that the event offers endless teachable moments.  Your students will learn about plot, character, setting, dialogue, genre and so much more!  Your students will be engaged because they will want to know how to make their scripts better.  Luke Perry, a middle school teacher in Michigan, offers a great testimonial of how Script Frenzy worked in his classroom.  You can read his blog article about Script Frenzy here.

If a 100 page script seems like a big feat for young writers, you may consider scaling it down for them.  Last April, I challenged my middle school drama students to write a 20 page script.  Many of them felt that, while it was still a major challenge, this was something they could accomplish and, in fact, most of them made their page counts by the end of the month.  We even had a handful of students who went well beyond 20 pages to see how close they could get to the 100 page goal!  Having the kids meet a tough goal and realize just how much they are capable of with hard work and determination was a great experience for them...  and for me as their teacher!

The Young Writers Program

The Script Frenzy site offers many helpful resources to get your students involved and this is where our teacher friends are really going to love, love, love this event!  The Script Frenzy Young Writers Program is directly geared toward younger writers.  It offers student friendly articles on scriptwriting and allows them to set their own page count goal.  In the main event, you must reach 100 pages to be declared a winner, but students in the Young Writers Program need only reach their page count goal to become winners.  In the “Teachers Lounge,” you’ll find free lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school levels with lessons on writing for stage and screen.  There are also free workbooks you can use in your classrooms as well as boot camps to get you and your students started today.  They even provide a letter to parents so you can get that extra support at home.  In short, if you’ve been thinking about teaching your students how to write a script or encouraging their passion for writing, this event offers many great resources to support you!  You can find all this and more at ywp.scriptfrenzy.org.

When I had my students working on scripts for the event, we used the free classroom poster to track their progress.  The progress chart got them more excited about increasing their daily page count.  In fact, many students signed up for the event after they saw how well their peers were doing.  The free classroom kit also comes with buttons for your student writers to wear, proudly proclaiming that they are writing a script.

Since some students require a little extra motivation, you may also consider encouraging students to write for the event with some bonus incentives.  I offered my students extra credit and a homework pass if they reached 20 pages.  It was a lot to offer, but the benefits far outweighed the costs.  After these students got rolling on their scripts, they didn’t even care about the extra credit any more.  The external motivation quickly changed to internal motivation, simply because they began to believe in themselves and knew they could reach their page count.  Plus, they were having fun being part of the scriptwriting group.

Whether you are a seasoned playwright or just someone who has always thought you’d like to write a play, Script Frenzy is certain to make your April one to remember.