OK, a little background. Over on the Script Frenzy site, some of us NaNoWriMo alumni were talking about Screnzy and what it’s like being a veteran of both. nature-elf aka Melinda Chen mentioned that she was originally reluctant to try Script Frenzy because it seemed so different from National Novel Writing Month but, once she tried it, she ended up discovering that she liked it better than NaNoWriMo! Since so many Wrimos express reluctance to try Screnzy for this very reason, I asked if she’d be willing to elaborate her story for this blog and she was kind enough to do so. I’ll let her take it from here…

All right. Let’s start with the basic sentence: I used to be deprived of script writing.

There, I said it. Until two years ago, I just thought script writing was the same as novel writing. You know, the usual “he said, she said” type thing. Don’t mind me—I was only writing descriptions upon descriptions at night, waiting for the next action to take place. And you know novels. You can go on and on about even a mundane object like a pen. That’s how all great writers start out, anyway. Like Charles Dickens or Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both authors write with seemingly endless words on a page. For a while, it was great. The greatest part of my short life so far.

But then, I received an email once NaNo was finished. It read “Script Frenzy”, and there was some tiny segment at the bottom stating it was a month long race for script writing. At first, I thought the idea was ridiculous. I didn’t even know how to read a script, let alone write one. Trust me when I say, I immediately clicked “delete”.

A second email appeared. This time, I took a look into the Screnzy website, hoping for at least some familiarity. I found it, in the little section called “pep talks”. I took a quick look at the video and following message.

I was instantly hooked. Who knew script writing could be made easy? There were websites on how to write scripts (where I finally settled on screenwriting as a personal favorite) and even more piles of books that could help me with my thirst for script knowledge. I ended up spending a good winter break researching. And no, not the “I’m studying for chemistry and I need to know about the tetrahedral shape of this molecule” research. The fun kind, where you could laze around and apply things to your writing.

By the time April came around, I knew how to write a screenplay, at least the basics. I wasn’t a professional then, and I’m still not a professional now. It’s not that I have serious ambitions to become a screenwriter, but the fact that I was continually interested in this eternal cycle called the film industry. So yes, I was prepared to participate in Screnzy.

As for the idea? Though I knew how to write then, I still didn’t have an idea. No worries there. I clicked on the random plot machine on the front page of Screnzy. I can’t quite remember what it says now, but I know one of the three little boxes gave me an idea. I ended up spending an hour on an outline (I know, I’m OCD about organization) and later, I sat down for an entire day (well, sixteen hours) writing the first act. Screnzy was already a full week in, and I was behind. But in those sixteen hours, I had been caught up in a frenzy myself and finally begun my first script.

Later that same week I would finish my first script. It wasn’t perfect. But it was a start. I was excited—all the times I wrote for NaNoWriMo I had only written halfway through my novel and stopped. This was my first completed work. I spent the rest of that day drinking cocoa and smiling like an idiot at myself. Screnzy had definitely proven to be an exciting experience for me.

So all the people who’re afraid of script writing, I say go for it. It’s probably not my place to say that, but I’ll go for it anyway. Script writing is easy once you take that first step. Be like me and try Screnzy anyway. Who knows? Maybe you’ll end up loving it more than NaNo like me (though I’m still saying write for NaNo, it’s still awesome). From NaNoWriMo land, it seems like Screnzy is so far away. But if anything, don’t be intimidated. Fuel the creative aspects to a new style called script writing.

First off, thank you to Melinda for taking the time to write up this fantastic post. Have you found yourself preferring NaNoWriMo over Script Frenzy or the other way around? Has this convinced you to try the Screnzy this year?