Scriptwriting in the Emerald City

Dawn is the Script Frenzy Municipal Liaison for Seattle. She's participated in NaNoWriMo since 2009 and Script Frenzy since 2010. A self proclaimed vagabond writer, she also enjoys swing sets, s'mores, writing six-word memoirs, and dancing on the streets. Her goal is to complete both challenges every year until 2014… or until the rapture.

How do you get participants writing?

Well for my weekly write-in participants, I hold space for a little problem-solving in the breaks. At our very first meeting, I taught people about lowliness and encouraged everyone to write on it for five minutes. Then we introduced ourselves and our projects. Each week I ask about issues any writer wants to discuss with the group. This is to encourage writers to discuss the parts they are stuck on and get some perspective on the block.

Writers love helping other writers as it's another great way to avoid writing your own script. Except I am there and encourage them after the allotted break time to get back to writing. We usually do two dedicated blocks of 40 minutes with socializing during the breaks. I have come to love the sheepish look I get as I herd people back to their computers. We are a pretty consistent group of four to seven writers each week, and hearing all about their projects inspires me—from graphic novels, to TV spec scripts, to stage, our group is very diverse. I feel honored to be able to write with and see the growth of such fascinating writers.

What's the most exciting thing you've planned for this April?

My passion is emerging marketing and social media so I am trying out tweet-ups! We have lots of writers in a spread-out area, I thought this would be a good way for people to socialize if they can't make real life write-ins. We have a tweet-up every Monday night from 8-9 PM PST (but we like out-of-town visitors!). You can follow our tweet-up without a Twitter account here, or participate using the hashtag #seafrenzy.

Finally, what kind of script are you writing? What's it about?

I am writing about one woman's adventure after the Rapture, discovering how to grieve the "chosen" while grappling with dating demons and angels now on earth.