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.

So after my little pity party the other day, I decided to get back into my story with a little thinking outside the box.

See, part of the process of getting an agent is having a summary of your book and while I am nowhere near ready to start querying, I realized writing up a draft of my summary could only help at this point. So I took 2 nights and wrote up a very detailed summary of the entire book, much longer than what an agent would ever need, but it forced me to go through all of my notes and re-read the entire story with a purpose so it did the trick and actually got me back into what I was writing and back into the mindset I lost over vacation.

The only real problem is this one monologue my main character has which, in the story, about one thing and, in the scheme of the book as a whole, is instead a metaphor for the entire theme of the book and this section is a total mess. It’s a hard section, so I’m not going to obsess over it but right now its the only part that I took one look at and said, god this is going to be a ton of work. But, if nothing else, this exercise forced me to get the story back into my head and that makes me hopeful for future work.

But man, is Script Frenzy breathing down my neck. And we are already halfway through this month.

I know I said I was doing NaNoEdMo and, in some ways, I am because I am editing a novel in a month and, well, there we are. But that contest is 50 hours and I would need to do 3 hours plus a day to hit that, something that may not be possible. But my goal is more to finish editing the book rather than hit the 50 hours and I am hoping against hope that I have far less than 50 hours of editing left on this draft.

I haven’t told you anything about my Script Frenzy project because I am trying really hard not to think about it while I work on this book but I am really excited about it. It’s been a real balancing act to try to work on this without starting to outline the new project but I think that is why it is so important that I finish this before April starts. I don’t want to have to work this hard to regain the thread of my own story again! Not to mention I want to be able to rent 100% of my mind to the Screnzy story.

Anyway, between the editing and summary writing, I actually added to my writing goals for the year for the first time in ages.

Obviously, still very far behind where I should be but since I have Script Frenzy and many hours of editing ahead of me, I think I will be close to catching up soon.

I was going to push through and keep writing since tomorrow is non-early start day but my knees are killing me and I suspect it is from sitting, as little sense as that makes, so I’m going to call it a night because they hurt to much for me to concentrate over them.

Have I become one of those old people whose knees react to weather? God I hope not.

(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