Yesterday was April the first, and if you read my posts or know me in any way, you would realise that that's what my mind works like on a daily basis. Since I was unable to post my final comment in the last post I shall say it here: Happy National Trolls Day.
That's right. I did it on purpose, not because I was going temporarily insane due to the Hunger Games script (by the way, Editor, it's going to be for a Graphic Novel I may or may not do, not the movie), which I am actually doing quite well with so far. Anyway, my (fake) brief moment of madness was all for 'National Trolls Day'. That, and I was getting dizzy from the odd smell my injury is giving off. I think I should go to the doctor's like Skald said, but it's probably just those leaves Mum stuck on it. Anyway, to the main point of this post (that's right, it has a purpose): I shall now change my title from 'I'm Another Title' to 'How to Survive the First Days of Script Frenzy'.
N.B. Because I'm being made to edit this post (thanks a lot, Ed), I must say the following: This is, by no means, either an official nor a proper guide to Script Frenzy. Therefore, don't rely on this to save your bacon if you happen to be in a spot of trouble. Just saying.
1. Prepare!
We've all gone under the assumption that we are fully prepared for a month of non-stop scriptwriting. Let me put it bluntly: You're never prepared. But there is always a way you can make sure that there is nothing to stop you from suffering due to your not being prepared. The best thing to do is to get rid of all that work you've been delaying, thinking 'I'll do it tomorrow'. Make sure you complete things that need to be done BEFORE you start Script Frenzy.
N.B. Bit late for that, Rinrei... we're already halfway into the second day.
2. Get Rid of Distractions
The day before I started, I realised that during my writing time, I would probably get distracted by ridiculous things like the window sill being dusty or my desk not being neat. That was why I spent the entire day cleaning up my room and getting rid of all possible things that may distract me, including the Internet. This meant that I had no reason not to stop writing. I had no ridiculous reasons not to work like: You know what you don't learn to do enough? Play the guitar without your fingers. Get rid of distractions before you start Script Frenzy.
3. Write a Draft
Now, this doesn't count for the first day, but it's best that the day before (i.e. you've finished writing for the day and have nothing to do) that you write a draft of what you want to happen. In this, you can include random notes of things you may want to include later or things that might be important. I usually write up about a chapter a day, so I draft a chapter every evening to make sure I keep up with deadlines. This means that if you are doing what I am doing (ie. adaption from a book) then you don't have to struggle with holding the book open and typing with the other hand while looking for things that aren't important, which loses valuable time.
N.B. You realise that this is all on the Screnzy website? You're simply compiling tips...
4. Relax
You shouldn't spend the entire day writing the script, no matter how little you do. When you work on something non-stop, your brain doesn't work so well and you may fail to notice some problems with your work, meaning that you haven't written to the best of your ability. What I usually do is I write for about twenty five minutes before I take a brief break to stretch, maybe wander a bit, and do other things. This means that when I come back I feel regenerated and I can see what I've done wrong better. This may leave me feeling disappointed and even ashamed, but this means that I can fix the errors and make my work even better.
5. Don't Lose Sleep
Now this is coming from someone that suffers from sleep problems, so trust me when I say lack of sleep really slows down your work progress. This means that you get less work done with less skill. Also, there is the problem with school. You still need to sleep in order to do well at work and stuff. In my case, it's exams. Your exams are far more important that Script Frenzy. Trust me. If you really feel that you aren't typing up enough, then during lunch or break time at work, continue writing up your drafts. This will make typing far more easy for you and may even reduce the stress that comes with not writing enough.
6. Don't be Afraid of Using Loopholes
I know I should be influencing honest writing, but I'm not an honest person. What I do to add more pages is I make the text about fourteen in size and always add a line after something is being done. I also add lots of detail to description to add more words to make it longer. This makes work far easier.
N.B. That's cheating. It specifically says on the site that you should use size twelve text and the Courier font style. Also, if you had a lot of dialogue, this would be much easier.
7. Time to Work
What I usually do is I pick a specific time to work on my script (I work from about 10 until 11 where I write four pages a day) so that I get my daily needs out of the way such as taking a shower, having breakfast, getting lunch. All sorts of things. This means that after I have finished my working time, I can really take a break and catch up on things that I've missed for a while.
8. It Isn't the End of the World
If you haven't got enough pages done in the first few days then don't worry, it isn't the end of the world. Remember, you have a full weekend of doing nothing to work on the script and catch up with deadlines. If you don't finish your script by the end of the month then don't worry. You didn't quit and that's the important thing. You also have a script that you can use in the future if you ever planned to use it and it also means that you can return to your normal life of sleeping and doing nothing. (Unless you're some sort of weird business man that happened to come along my useless advice and you are laughing at the fact that I am repeating something over and over again. If that's the case then bugger off and stop laughing. We have a recession going on here, fix it.)
Anyway, that's all I have to say right now.
Signing off!
Rinrei (or Magical-Box-of-Tomatoes Fairy)
Note from Pisces: I must say, I don't agree with all this. I shall simply have to write a counter-post to deal with this... Heheheh.
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