21 March 2011

Stage or screen awaits your story!

Back in November, writers all over the world sat down at their computers and took on the adventure of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Next month, writers all over the world will once again get creative and undertake a new challenge: ScriptFrenzy.

ScriptFrenzy is the sister event to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). As its name suggests, ScriptFrenzy is a script-writing event. The goal is to write 100 pages of script in 30 days. Just as NaNoWriMo is more inclusive than exclusive about what constitutes a novel, ScriptFrenzy is welcoming toward different kinds of scripts. According to their website, "Screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, and graphic novels are all welcome."

Like NaNoWriMo, the prize for "winning" ScriptFrenzy is the sense of accomplishment that comes from having written 100 pages in 30 days.

For those who have never written a script, it's a good opportunity to try it. The resources available on ScriptFrenzy's website give information on laying out scripts and advice for writing. The homepage even has a "plot machine" to help get your writing ideas started. For example, "On a snowy day in Hawaii, a typewriter-shop owner befriends a young runaway with a secret." For those who have always wanted to try script-writing but never had the time, this is the chance to make the time and write that script you've always wanted to, with the support of writers from all over the world.

There's still plenty of time to get ready for ScriptFrenzy! Register on the website, think about what you're going to write, and then when April 1 gets here, start writing!

Happy scribbling!


20 March 2011

Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as spring--
   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
   Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
   A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden.--Have, get, before it cloy,
   Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
   Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

18 March 2011

Hi, there.

Has it really been more than a month since I've updated this blog?

I apologize.

I could spend time giving explanations and excuses, promise to be better and even offer some new posts this weekend as a show of good faith. But all I can say is that life got in the way. I am a writer, but I'm a mom first, and that's been coming first lately.

I'll try to be better, especially with ScriptFrenzy and National Poetry Month less than two weeks away. But how can I say no to this face?


Bean on St. Patrick's Day, 2011