So as we discussed, Script Frenzy is a month long challenge to write a 100 page script from the people that bring you NaNoWriMo.

I will still, of course, be blogging about my own personal journey in taking on this challenge here at Unpublishable Pennings but I wanted to do a whole bunch of how-to type articles about the challenge and I didn’t want to have Script Frenzy totally take over this blog.

So I set up a whole little section of my website called Script Frenzy tips and resources that is going to be a seasonal blog devoted only to Script Frenzy.

Here’s the problem. I guess I started it too late to have it be indexed in time for the start of Script Frenzy so it isn’t really showing in search.

So I have to ask a favor. If you have a blog about writing and you are either doing Screnzy or just plan to write about it, if you could please link to http://hillarydepiano.com/scriptfrenzy/ or an article from that section to help me out in the SEO department and also to help get the word out about my posts over there, I would greatly appreciate it.

(I’ve posted this before but it bears repeating.)

On good days, everything goes right and I have the whole script executed from start to finish within four or five hours. On bad days I write the whole script in four or five hours, realise that it’s useless, tear it up and start again. I repeat this process four or five times until I’m reduced to a blubbering wreck that just slumps in the armchair and whimpers about how it has no talent whatsoever and will never write again. Next day I’ll get up, get the whole thing right the first time and spend the rest of the day walking round reading my favourite bits to my wife, children, or visiting tradesmen. (This is why you should never marry an artist or writer. They’re bad news to have around the house, believe me.) -Alan Moore

I wanted to take a moment to highlight this fantastic tweet from Anita Doreen Diggs. You can follow her on Twitter here @AnitaDiggs

Finish your proposal (nonfiction) or manuscript (fiction) before worrying about agents, Kindles, e-books, the book tour, etc.

There is this fantastic Garfield comic strip (you know, the big fat lasagna eating cat) that some day I will remember to scan in and post here but, in the meantime, I’m going to just have to describe it for you.

In the first panel, Garfield is saying something to the effect of “Lots of people talk about writing a book someday but only some people actually do something about it.” Then, in the last panel, he is there is a little cat sized smoking jacket with a pipe, looking in the mirror saying to himself, “Yes, this is how I want to be photographed for the book jacket.”

I love this comic. Especially in this information age, no sooner do you get an idea for a book than you want to start researching publishing options, agents, queries, how you want the cover to look, who will play the characters in the movies, etc all before you have actually finished the book in the first place. Most of the people at the #askagent chat last night were people who had an idea for a book and were stressing about markets and query letter before they’d actually finished their texts!

It’s easy to make this leap. We come up with an idea for a book and immediately our minds jump ahead to how we will be photographed on the book jacket and how witty we’ll be at the booksigning, etc, making us forget that we actually haven’t finished the book yet.

Finish the book. Tune out all the distractions, the info, and finish the book.

Let me tell you from personal experience, I started my first book in 2002 and did everything you are doing. I researched the industry, the agents, the formats and now, 7 years later, when I actually have a finished book to shop, all that info I researched changed anyway. Don’t worry about what the publishing industry is like now. By the time you finish your book it will be a whole different world.

Wasting time stressing about eBook, agents, trends or whatever is capturing your interest right now is just keeping you from writing.