A friend of mine gave me this book when he heard I was doing Script Frenzy. It looks pretty interesting but I'm worried about the 'just do it' attitude... I won Nanowrimo by the skin of my teeth and realised I needed to do a lot more planning because I ran out of steam.

This book suggests you can write the first 'random draft' in just 7 days. Is that really possible?

Anything's possible.

I don't know the book, but I have written two first drafts in less than a week each, the first with some prep work, the second with a strong idea and no prep at all.

The first was crap, the second total crap. However, that's fair enough for a first draft. The point of a first draft is to have a document that you can improve on the second draft.

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SF08: Gethsemane (working title) - Thriller
SF08: Shooting - Comedy

Good luck to you all.

Read it recently. While not exactly burgeoning with technical and 'craft' information, I actually did find it useful. While your point is a valid one, I think, in an endeavour like this, its 'just do it' attitude is just what's called for.

What it's great for, is the motivational end of things. It made me want to put all of the usual distractions and time-taking stuff to one side in order to get on with things.

I plan on reading it again before Fade in.

I read it a while back and liked it. It's full of encouragement and helps a movie plot materialise out of the fog of ideas.

As already mentioned in the post above it's not claiming to be a technical book. It says on the back cover ..."the 'Inner Movie Method' is a step by step process designed to get the story in the writer's heart on to the page."

Blake Snyder recommends it in his intro to 'Save the Cat' (page xi ) and says he sold the screenplay he wrote whilst using it.

Kateboo,

Yes, it is totally possible to write a random draft in just seven days using Viki King's method. The thing is, it will probably look pretty "random" -- my friend calls this his "trash draft". If you can tolerate a certain level of barely-controlled chaos (like you did when you won Nanowrimo), you just might surprise yourself. Some parts may turn out even better than you ever could have planned.

I've used that book to help me write a few scripts (I even used it for my first NaNoNovel) and I think it's great for new screenwriters because her method squelches the whole "but I can't do this!" voice that keeps us from trying something new/scary.

Have fun!

~SistaMoonKitty
Los Angeles ML
"Work hard and be scary" -Robert Rodriguez

Yes, I've read it. Yes, it's possible.

And, the book was written when typewriters were still the norm and it assumes you're using one as you write. So, really, with current technology, you can have a full draft in less than 21 days.

The author's approach simply forces you out of your critical mind and into your creative mind.

-

karynbensinger.com

Kateboo, I see from your bar that you're a winner! [well, ok the bar says 99 pages and that means you have one more to write, big deal]

I'm curious, did you use Viki King's book?

I did, years ago, when I was on a deadline to take a movie idea from a mere 1-sentence pitch to a full script in less than a month. And it worked! I followed the 9-minute movie method and developed a story, characters, outlined the script, and wrote the whole thing in 3 weeks [20- 1/2 days, to be precise] :-)

Hey DMac,

Actually, I was planning to post my experience of using the book when I finished the script. I'm pleased to say I've tipped over into the mythical 100 pages now and just have a few scenes to go.

I started SF with three well-rounded characters and an inciting incedent that brings them all together. My first couple of days I wrote 10 pages up to the incident and then hit a brick wall. I got some great advice from the forum crowd and I took my precious pages to my writing group (Off the Page in London, UK if anyone's interested) so that they could be read out by actors. I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome and got some good feedback.

All of this umming and ahhing lost me about a week!

Since then, I have been working through the book doing what is suggested in a day but not necessarily consecutively. So I'd do 15 pages on Monday and then 20 pages on Thursday etc.

I realised that I couldn't just write off-the-cuff from the heart as Viki King suggests so as a compromise, I would compile a list of scenes every morning just for the portion of work I was going to do that day. I would recommend this technique to others as it kept the story fresh but I still had an idea of where I was going with it.

I already know there's lots to be done in the rewrite but (hopefully) tomorrow will be my rest day and I'll get started on that on Tuesday...

Good luck everyone!
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All the world's a stage so I'm writing as fast as I can.