Z is for Zenxara

The Script Frenzy A-Z challenge so far…

Hi everybody. For the last day of my Script Frenzy A-Z I’d like to share a spotlight interview with a fellow A-Zer and Script Frenzier, Steph, who goes by Zenxara on Script Frenzy and Twitter. Zenxara reached 100 pages of her script on April the 16th, (Wow!)

How many years have you been doing Script Frenzy?
This is actually my first year doing Script Frenzy, I entered last year but couldn’t make it because of school work, but now that I graduated I have all the time in the world.

How did you first find out about it?
I first heard of Script Frenzy when I was doing NaNoWriMo in 2010. I was looking at what else OLL did besides NaNO and found Script Frenzy.

What’s your favorite thing about the script that you’re writing this year?
My script is about a magic bond and trust. My favorite thing that I love to write about right now is the HighLands, which is where the elves are. HighLands is the most magical place there is in my story. I love to write about the Elves.

What’s the hardest thing about participating in Script Frenzy?
There isn’t anything that I find hard really, it’s much easier then NaNoWriMo, but what I find really sad is that there is no one in my region that is doing the challenge so I’m writing alone.

Why should my blog followers join the Frenzy next year?
I went to a workshop once and they say that a script version of your novel is a great outline, because you have a description of the world or characters, you know who is talking and you can get the character’s voice. You can have the action and see them act. It’s much easier to write in script form then novel form and you can use it as an outline later! That’s what I’m doing.

Thanks, Steph, and congratulations on your successes this April!

Y is for Yumesandman

The Script Frenzy A-Z challenge so far…

Today’s spotlight is on Yumesandman, who is working on a comedy stageplay called ‘Love in Books.’

How many years have you been doing Script Frenzy?
This is actually my first year doing Script Frenzy.  I did National Novel Writing Month in November, and was 5,000 words from finishing, with two days off of work at the end of the month, when a personal emergency came up.  Frustrated that I didn’t finish, I decided to do Script Frenzy to prove I could make the deadline.

How did you first find out about it?
Through Nano.  I learned of it during the middle of March, and thought I would go ahead with it.

What’s your favorite thing about the script that you’re writing this year?
The Muses.  The play I’m writing involves a young girl who’s caught in between two men- one she loves but doesn’t want her, and another that wants her but she doesn’t love.  So to spice up an otherwise boring and cliché piece, I have two Muses who overlook the stage and comment on everything the girl does.  But they’re sarcastic and cynical Muses, so their dialogue is fun to write.

What’s the hardest thing about participating in Script Frenzy?
I’ve never written a script before!  I’ve always been a prose writer, and occasionally poetry, but I’ve never tried to tackle a script before.  The extent of my stage experience was making programs for my high school drama club.  Dialogue is my weakest area though, so in some ways this is great practice for me to learn how to better develop my dialogue.

Why should my blog followers join the Frenzy next year?

Because it’s fun!  But in all honesty, it’s a great exercise for improving your writing.  Whether you only write scripts, or you’re a prose writer like me, events like Script Frenzy are wonderful.  They help you learn to write on deadlines (important for business/school!), and one of the hardest things- to just put the words to paper, instead of wasting time analyzing them.  By being forced to write so much in such little time, you can’t waste time second guessing yourself, so you learn to just write and then go back to edit later.  It’s a wonderful thing to learn, so that you don’t spend three years on page one (which I’ve done!)

Good luck with your muses, Yumesandman!

X is for Xaeromancer2008

The Script Frenzy A-Z challenge so far…

Well, surprise surprise, it’s spotlight on a Script Frenzy participant again today, and I’d like you to meet Xaeromancer2008. Xaeromancer is working on a comic script called Bedlam, which he describes on his Script Frenzy profile as Sons of Anarchy meets Black Death. “A knightly order is broken and struggles for revenge during the crusades.”

How many years have you been doing Script Frenzy?
This is actually my first year of Script Frenzy, I’ve tried NaNoWriMo before but never succeeded (so far). I’ve had the idea for this script for about a year and it’s been kept on the back burner by other projects and my day job. Script Frenzy was an ideal opportunity to dust it off and get some words down.

How did you first find out about it?

U is for Uberskittlez

The Script Frenzy A-Z challenge so far…

Well, in this last week of the A-Z challenge, I’m going to be spotlighting some Script Frenzy writers and their projects. Yes, this was my clever strategy to find topics for the letters of the alphabet that I couldn’t think of anything else to cover. Feel free to swoon with envy.

So, today, I’m happy to shine the spotlight on uberskittlez, and her script Cirque, which she describes in her profile as: Water for Elephants meets a post-apocalyptic dictatorship. (Earlier this month, the working title was ‘Utopia’ – an extra bit of U appeal, but I guess uberskittlez didn’t stay with that title for long.) “Held captive in the questioning facility of a ruthless dictator in a post-war future, Tristian Roe tells the story of his time with the legendary rebel group ‘Cirque’ in exchange for his freedom.”

How many years have you been doing Script Frenzy?
This is only my second year doing Script Frenzy. I’ve been wanting to write a script for forever, and last year I decided to do it.

Getting the Dana software ready to beta-test

So, I posted open calls today for beta-testers of my Dana Alphasmart programs on the Alphasmart flickr group and the Nanowrimo Alphasmart users thread.

I thought that both programs were as ready as I could make them, but as I tried to explain what they did, I thought of a few other features that would be nifty for the Multicounter… ‘Does it export to the onboard Memo Pad yet, or just to SD card’? ‘What if you could get a grand total word count for ALL of your scratchpads at the touch of a button?’

That led me to opening up the source code, with more questions – I actually don’t think that the version of the source code I was looking at at the time was the most up to date, because I was sure that I’d tweaked the export to SD card routine so that the export format output looks like the UI layout. And I noticed a few places where I wasn’t correctly testing the results of my DB calls for errors – bad Chris!

Hopefully it won’t take too long to iron out these few little details – it may have to wait until after Toronto Comicon though!

Big OLL Interview with Director Grant Faulkner

Well, it’s taken a little longer than I hoped, but the time has finally come to share a very special interview. I hope you all enjoy the chance to get to know Grant Faulkner, the new Executive Director of the Office of Letters and Light. Grant is taking over for Chris Baty today, leading the organization that runs National Novel Writing Month and Script Frenzy, and I’d love to wish him a great first day!

What did you want to be when you grew up? Were you dreaming of becoming an accountant, a lawyer, a fireman?

Other than a brief dalliance with wanting to be Batman at the age of 3, I always wanted to be a writer. I think it’s somehow genetic. I remember staring at the pens and paper in my local bookstore with fetishistic delight as a boy and wanting to buy them all. I asked for a diary with a lock on it for Christmas when I was 5, and I’ve since purchased all sorts of different pens and journals and notepads.

My father is a lawyer in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where I grew up, and he always saved an office for me in case I decided to become a lawyer. I loved going to that office as a child and penning what I thought would be wildly successful novels. I was fortunate that my parents didn’t push any profession on me and have been wonderfully supportive of me as a writer despite the choice of such a precarious profession.

How did you end up on the Office of Letters and Light board? Were you asked by Chris Baty?

I’ve always looked for ways to marry my personal life as a writer to my professional life, which can be a challenging thing to do. I’ve been lucky because I’ve been able to work as a journalist, an editor, and a writing teacher, and then I landed at the National Writing Project, a non-profit dedicated to improving the teaching of writing in the nation’s schools.

Chris has always been so inspirational to me on so many levels, so I reached out to him to see if he could help me further my career and deepen my knowledge of nonprofit management by recommending nonprofit arts organizations who might consider me as a board member. He ended up asking me to consider the Office of Letters and Light, which was a dream organization for me on every level—wonderful programs and a fantastically intelligent and fun-loving board and staff. I simply can’t believe how lucky I am to work with such amazing people.

How many times have you participated in Nanowrimo or Script Frenzy? How well did you do?

The December call to relax.

I’m starting to feel like I’m in dire need of taking a bit more time to relax.

I dove head-first into new projects as soon as Nanowrimo was over this year – the Holly Lisle revision course, outlining ‘Magic Manuscript’, reading and critiquing stories, driving lessons, and so on. That’s all good stuff. But I may want to dial back my December to-do list just a little bit so that I can chill out.

What about you, have you been relaxing lately?

The writers of Hamilton

I had a great time at the Hamilton Writers meeting last night, at Chesters’ beers of the world. There was a good turnout, eight of us, with a mix of HW regulars, friends of mine from the Hamilton Nanowrimo group who were coming for the first time, and one other guy who was an occasional member of both groups.

There was some great conversation as we assembled – Laura talking about her tiny house, and I showed my Holly Lisle manuscript notes to anybody who would take a look. Many burgers and fries were eaten, and beer was brought.

Then, it was sharing time. I went first, with most of the revised Father Ismay story, and Rob gave us another chapter of his thriller. Then Gale booted up her little netbook and read from the opening of “Murder in the Parish”, her Nanowrimo mystery story from this year, and Alex read something that he was working on involving a guy who has a UFO encounter and gets spooky powers.

It was just a great time spent with nearby fellow writers. We all need some every now and then.

Stringing Words Day 1: Monthly project threads

One minor announcement first - I’m going to be posting a special interview with somebody who’s a part of the Office of Letters and Light and afiliated with Nanowrimo. Look for it in the week leading up to Christmas! And I’m taking suggestions for question ideas. Is there anything that you’d like to know about the people who make Nano and Script Frenzy happen? Leave them in the comments or email to chrisken zero at gmail dot com. If I use any of your questions, I’ll send you a digital cookie, and my heartfelt thanks.

And now, some more great stuff about the Stringing Words community! I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get to twelve days of Stringing Words in December, but I may give it a try!

Today, I’ll focus on the monthly project threads. It’s a simple idea, but I’ve found it a powerful way to motivate myself. At the start of the month, you list some goals that you want to reach, and then, through the month, you cross off whatever you’ve finished, mark incremental progress for something that you’ve done halfway, make changes if your priorities have altered, and chat with other people in the thread, talking about what’s been easy, what’s proving tougher than you thought, and cheer each other on. Overall, it’s a lot of fun, and I’ve probably got a lot done over the past few years just because I put it on my monthly to-do list.

So – is there anything on your December to-do list? Or are you just relaxing and recovering from November?

My new voyage of learning to revise…

Now that November is over, I’m going to start concentrating on revising somewhat – not revising the writing I was just doing for Nano, though. At the moment, what I’m excited about rewriting “Won’t somebody think of the Children.”

And so – I put my money where my fingers are and registered for the Holly Lisle How to Revise your Novel course this evening. It sounds like there’ll be a lot of hard work going through the Holly Lisle plan, but I’ve heard good things about it too. I’ll be sure to tell you what I think about the course as I make my way through it over the coming months.

The first lesson appears to be about figuring out what sort of story you want your book to tell, which sounds like a good place to start. There are worksheets to fill out about what you were inspired by before you started writing, (I’m glad I found an archived Nanowrimo forums thread where Hamilton people were discussing “What I’m writing this year”,) and evaluating what your novel turned into as you wrote it and what you think it could become.

The lessons are sent out one per week, and I’m hoping that I can more or less stick to that schedule. Wish me luck.

If you did Nanowrimo – what are your plans for learning and revising over the next eleven months?