Script Frenzy!

In November I participated in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) young writers event.  There, I heard about Script Frenzy (which happens in April) and thought, "Oh, that sounds fun!". I then pushed it into the back of my mind - because April seemed like a long way off - and tried to focus on reaching my word-count goal for NaNoWriMo.  
I'm glad that NaNoWriMo sent me a reminder email last week about Script Frenzy, because it sounds like a lot of fun!

I am planning on writing a script for a one-volume comic book.  At first, I had no idea what I was going to write about!  Usually my head is swirling with story ideas, but whenever I thought about what to do for a comic book, my mind went totally blank!  Another Frenzy-er suggested that I forget about writing a comic and just focus on channeling my creativity to see what I came up with.  S/he also suggested that I could take a story idea that was collecting dust and resurrect it as my comic book script.  Both good ideas!

I've decided to go with the latter.  I picked a short story I started several months ago called "Set Me Free". (I got the idea when I had a strange dream which mixed Disney's "The Little Mermaid" with that animated movie "Treasure Planet".) It's basically about a boy named Jim, and the merchant ship he works on ends up acquiring an enslaved mermaid to guide them between some islands that actually move around.  He ends up having to decide between setting her loose or doing nothing... for reasons I won't go into now - I don't want to spoil anything for you in case I get my finished comic published!

I have a few weeks until April 1st, when the Frenzy begins and I am allowed to start my script.  During this time, I am going to plot out the story and do some meticulous planning, to ensure I don't end up writing a 1,000 page script that I will never, ever find the willpower to draw. (Because not only am I writing the script for my comic, I've decided I'm also going to draw all the art!)  I've done a lot of sketching throughout my life, but never any comic-type stuff, so it should be interesting/fun/hysteria-inducing to try. 

A page on the SF site recommends finding a publishing-on-demand company and seeing if local privately-owned bookstores will carry my comic, because that's how a lot of comic book writers get their work out.

I'll make another post about all that sometime this week... Adios!