Write a 4 to 7 page (not including the title page) properly formatted short script.

Theme: "Creature Feature"
Genre: horror, thriller, suspense, noir, or keeping with the season
Rating: PG (no cursing or excessive violence)
Challenge: Create a three page comic.  Each scene would be one panel of a comic. And there could be one to 7 panels per page.  Visit HyperEpics.com to help you visualize your action slugs.

Submit your script anonymously to SimplyScripts.com/OWC

Notes to the writer:  Be descriptive with the visual cues, but leave the artist some room for creative interpretation.  Also, be mindful of space constraints.  Avoid extended sequence of dialogue/narration so that you don't overwhelm the images.  You only have three pages at your disposal in the comic, so use page one as establishing the story, page two is where the action takes place, and the third page offers the conclusion.  Surprise or twist endings will work well in this format.

Lastly - be bold.  Don't be constrained by budget as anything you imagine can be drawn into a comic format!


One script will be selected by HyperEpics.com from the pool of top Writer's Choices to be translated into a comic.

Note: If your script is selected to be translated into a comic you agree to allow Hyper Epic and SimplyScripts to publish the visual representation of your script to their respective sites. The writer will still retain all rights to the submitted screenplay. Writer will be credited with “Story by”.

There will be a review page emailed to you for you to score the scripts you read.  Please only give scores to scripts that you have read. Please do not rate scripts in your review.

Schedule:
Friday 10/12 - Theme and Genre release
Friday 10/19 - Scripts due 11:59 pm edt
Wednesday 10/24 - Writers Choice votes due
November 10 - Writers Choice and Hyper Epic's choice revealed (

This isn't a contest - it’s a challenge.  There are no official prizes…

You may submit more than one script but it’s better to write one GREAT script than two or three mediocre ones. You may also have a writing partner.
You can revise your script as many times as you wish up until the deadline. Do not put your real name on your script – this is an anonymous challenge.  However, please use your real name when submitting your script.  After the challenge closes you can either have your script removed or resubmit your script with your name on it.

Participants are strongly encouraged to read and comment/review the other scripts submitted.

Please put © on your title page.

Best of luck and I hope everyone enjoys this challenge.

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Very cool! It’s an interesting challenge and a terrific prize. Count me in!

Sorry if I’m being dumb, but on the one hand it says write a standard formatted script. 4/7 pages etc. This I understand.

On the other hand, create a three (different page length ) page comic. So I assume this is a separate document??

I am struggling to see how these match up.

Any examples of this blend that we could see to understand?

Thanks

Nice challenge, Don!!

I'm interested in some input from Bill's query.

As one of the uninitiated I kinda get it, kinda don't, re the three page and then optional 4 to 7 page model.

I looked at the website examples and they are strong on the Narrator format i.e., running commentary.

Creature Feature horror comic, but more or less G-rated as well, like Godzilla I suppose. Interesting, but not sure it's up my alley.

Looks like I'm out as well - it's just hard to come up with anything for this theme. But good luck to everyone else. I'll read as many as I can.

PG horror?

Quoted from DustinBowcot PG horror?

Yeah, there's plenty of that. It's like horror-lite I suppose. The Blog, The Swarm, old fashioned horror features like The Day Of The Triffids, King Kong, Godzilla. Only so far a horror comic can really scare you, surely.

I don't see how anything can be scary if there hasn't been some explicit violence to indicate just how afraid one should be.

A poltergeist is just an annoying joke until it kills somebody. The more violently the victim is dispatched, the more everyone should be afraid.

I may try this... I just need to find the time with everything else I'm doing.

For anyone struggling with the format here, my advice, for what it's worth, is to write a normal script and leave the creators of the graphic novels to take what's important... much like a director does with the screenplay. Our job is mainly story, usually. That's how I'd handle it if I entered this, but I could be wrong.

We had a PG horror challenge in the past. And the writer's choice was pretty impressive.

But I'm with Libby - it's hard to factor in the comics for me. That's why I won't be able to write for it.

Here's the link to the selectee which I thought was pretty strong.
https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-oct09/m-1257215823/s-new/

People noticed a few others as well, I remember Cumbara did well in that too. Don't remember any others, that was way back in 2009.

Quoted from Reef Dreamer Sorry if I’m being dumb, but on the one hand it says write a standard formatted script. 4/7 pages etc. This I understand. On the other hand, create a three (different page length ) page comic. So I assume this is a separate document?? I am struggling to see how these match up. Any examples of this blend that we could see to understand? Thanks

Write the script - 4 to 7 pages.  If selected, the output will be a three page comic.  

Don

Quoted from LC I'm interested in some input from Bill's query. As one of the uninitiated I kinda get it, kinda don't, re the three page and then optional 4 to 7 page model. I looked at the website examples and they are strong on the Narrator format i.e., running commentary. Creature Feature horror comic, but more or less G-rated as well, like Godzilla I suppose. Interesting, but not sure it's up my alley.

As Dustin said write a story first and worry about translation later... but for what it’s worth my understanding is that it takes 4-7 pages of script format to tell three comic pages’ worth of story.

A panel is more or less one action sequence, of which several might fit into a traditional screenplay scene. It looks like Don is asking us to break things up so there’s just one action sequence per written scene.

I like the idea and the chance to get it made, but as expected the October subject matter is a tough one for me personally.

For writers who absoluy can’t write squeaky clean, you might be able to have a character yell “$@&#!” :)

This is a normal OWC. We write a short based on the criteria. The only difference is what happens with one selected script.

To help the adaptation to a comic, include strong visuals in your script. The wow factor, something cool and stylish. Dialogue should be sparse, your story needs to rely on visuals more. And remember, there is no sound unless it is to be written on the comic panel, far less effective than heard on screen, and the lighting isn’t dynamic.

All that means is we write with a few more restrictions, but the budget is unlimited. You can have literally anything happen, any effect, any time period, any setting. And these shorts will be well suited for animation or even getting filmed if you still keep the budget grounded.

You also don’t have to write that way. The OWC is a short script, and will be read and voted on based on its merits as a short script. If it isn’t suited for adaptation it won’t be picked, but it could still win the OWC.

Quoted from Don Write the script - 4 to 7 pages.  If selected, the output will be a three page comic.   Don

Ah ha. I get it now.

Thanks

Quoted from ReneC This is a normal OWC. We write a short based on the criteria. The only difference is what happens with one selected script. To help the adaptation to a comic, include strong visuals in your script. The wow factor, something cool and stylish. Dialogue should be sparse, your story needs to rely on visuals more. And remember, there is no sound unless it is to be written on the comic panel, far less effective than heard on screen, and the lighting isn’t dynamic. .

This helped, thanks.

I'm all in on this OWC. Very cool challenge with a great 'prize'. Not sure why a PG-13 concerns people, it just takes some self-editing. Look at the classics from the 1930's (e.g. Frankenstein, Dracula, Mummy, etc.). We just need to refrain from necrophilia and profanity.

Don - Great challenge!

Sounds like fun, but I don't like not being able to offer up hard R rating scripts.

But...I can do it!!   ;D ;D ;D ;D

Stevie should have this in the bag, as his entire life is PG rated, at best.   :P :P :P

Quoted from DustinBowcot PG horror?

One of my faves is a cult/low budget from 1980 called Tourist Trap.

In addition...
House With Clock In The walls (out now, and doing fairly decent!)
Poltergeist
The Gate
Arachnophobia
Gremlins
Critters
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Jaws

and many others that have gotten a Pg 13 rating, such as A Quiet Place or the Insidious films.

Quoted from Don Rating: PG (no cursing or excessive violence)

Side note: a little bit of blood I think we can get away with. Just read Tooth Of The Matter on their site. Sure, the gore is at the end in one and a half panels, but maybe I'm flipping but it sure looks a bit bloody to me  ;D

No excessive violence is the guideline.

Check out Mark's: The Survivor.
Bit of nasty stuff in the denouement - the rat, a little blood, and the villain.

Mark has Cyborn up there too fyi.
Great job on both, Mark.

* DJS, yes, the Tooth Of The Matter was pretty bloody at the end.

I wrote a script for this in a few hours yesterday. It's an adaptation of a short story I wrote around 25 years ago. Wow, that makes me feel old.

I'm currently doing rewrites on 2 audio drama adaptations, but will still have time for this. Rewrites are easier than the creation, in my opinion, they just feel like real work. I'm also working on a feature for myself (spec). Sometimes stories bang away at my head until I release them. They can only spend so long as captives in my mind, it seems.

So, in that respect, it will be nice to get a form of this story read by somebody other than my girlfriend. She read the short story that I originally wrote by hand on A4 paper.

I was debating since I'm concentrating on the other challenge, but after some thought, I'm in on this one anyway. I have just the story. I have my title.

The other one is a bunch of shorts tied together by a common underlining story.
What if we submit one of those shorts here. Would that be allowed?

Quoted from JEStaats We just need to refrain from necrophilia and profanity.

Well I'm out then.

-Jordan

Quoted from khamanna The other one is a bunch of shorts tied together by a common underlining story. What if we submit one of those shorts here. Would that be allowed?

So long as it is 4-7 pages and suits the requirement, I don't see why not. A story adapted to a graphic novel is a different beast to the same story adapted to film.

Quoted from khamanna The other one is a bunch of shorts tied together by a common underlining story. What if we submit one of those shorts here. Would that be allowed?

;)

Just completed my script.  Looking forward to this one.

Wow, that was fast, Xavier! Good luck. I might submit something to this. To this one and the other one!!
But keeping my fingers crossed.

I really want to play, but I've got nothing. I think I’ve got some serious writers block at the moment. I will read them all at the very least.

Good luck.

What a great idea for a challenge! As I've already got two up there I'll pass on this so others can have a go at getting their work translated to a comic format.  Good luck to everyone and I'll try to read/comment on the scripts.

I don't get how so many peeps get their scripts done so quickly and over the weekend.

Don't you peeps watch football, make gourmet meals, and get shitfaced all weekend?

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Quoted from Dreamscale I don't get how so many peeps get their scripts done so quickly and over the weekend. Don't you peeps watch football, make gourmet meals, and get shitfaced all weekend? ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Yes, yes and yes. Done.

Now to start all over. Sigh.

Definitely one of the better OWCs I've seen in quite some time. I don't mind the PG rating. I go by the Gremlins 2 standard of PG. Plus there's been a children's horror OWC before, which I thought was a success as far as I can remember.

Tempted to join. I haven't written anything in two years. I can take the beating in context, but I have to admit: taking it silently for weeks on end for my first effort getting back on the horse doesn't appeal to me. Plus my October has been/will continue to be a merciless tempest of work.

Anyway. Good stuff.

Quoted from Warren I really want to play, but I've got nothing. I think I’ve got some serious writers block at the moment. I will read them all at the very least. Good luck.

I took a shortcut and just rewrote an old story from memory.  And since my memory isn’t the greatest (who can recall all their stories in great detail?), the story has turned out to be almost completely different.

Quoted from jayrex I took a shortcut and just rewrote an old story from memory.  And since my memory isn’t the greatest (who can recall all their stories in great detail?), the story has turned out to be almost completely different.

I do have some ideas; the problem is that none of them are creature features.

I want to play as well, but haven't even spent 5 seconds thinking about it.

Schlammied all weekend and today was busy as shit, and we have MNF on this evening.

But, at only 4-7 pages, this should be very simple, especially with basically no parameters to worry about.  I'll get something in.

Quoted from Warren I do have some ideas; the problem is that none of them are creature features.

Same here...

My bigger problem is I have a screenwriting event on Thursday and I’m leaving town Friday afternoon. I have to bang something out in the next three days.

Quoted from Dreamscale I don't get how so many peeps get their scripts done so quickly and over the weekend. Don't you peeps watch football, make gourmet meals, and get shitfaced all weekend? ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I don't watch as much football as i used to.
the taco salad i fixed up the day before last is a gourmet meal to me.
I'm always shitfaced.

hahaha

anyway, if some of the posts in this thread are true, it's highly possible that some of these early subs may be, in whole or in part, thought up or considered by the writer to be part of the 7wk anthology challenge.


My entry I didn't really consider for the 7wk, because it's under 10 pages. But I still might include it anyway.

So, would rewriting an old 20 page creature script down to a 7 pager or less be ok?
Working too many hours lately. :-/

Quoted from Warren I do have some ideas; the problem is that none of them are creature features.

This is my problem as well. None of the shorts in my 7WC attempt would qualify as "creature features" either.

Quoted from CindyLKeller So, would rewriting an old 20 page creature script down to a 7 pager or less be ok?

I don't see why not, Cindy. As long as it fits the parameters of this challenge. I have a feature I wrote maybe seven or so years ago that I was considering using as an idea. Obviously too long to cut down to less than seven pages, but I like the idea of it.  :)

I got my story!

Now to write the darn thing.

Quoted from Grandma Bear I don't see why not, Cindy. As long as it fits the parameters of this challenge. I have a feature I wrote maybe seven or so years ago that I was considering using as an idea. Obviously too long to cut down to less than seven pages, but I like the idea of it.  :)

Great! I may be able to enter this one then.
:-)

Quoted from CindyLKeller Great! I may be able to enter this one then.

Well, this is Don's show. He sets the rules, but since he has not chimed in, I would assume what I said is okay.  :)

Quoted from CindyLKeller So, would rewriting an old 20 page creature script down to a 7 pager or less be ok? Working too many hours lately. :-/

What Pia said.  Particularly, if you hadn't told us, we wouldn't have known... ;)

Don

Quoted from Don What Pia said.  Particularly, if you hadn't told us, we wouldn't have known... ;) Don

It's something that didn't cross my mind, I got more that enough of those, but I wouldn't dare gut half of it. When I think of OWCs I think of something new on the fly. There's also some shorts I have that would fit the parameters...but what would be the point of being anonymous, And what would be the point of a challenge?

I could have used one of my werewolf stories, the giant bees, the gargoyle in the cemetery, etc. But I chose to write a new story. One I actually kind of like. (which means nothing because most of us...y'know...like what we cook up)

I'm out after all as I want to concentrate all my efforts on the other one.
One other reason - I thought I'd submit a part of my gurza story here but it would not even be anonymous. So, it's a pass for me this time.
But I'm submitting something to the other one. 43 pages in and have more of a story to tell. Hope to see some of you there!)

Oh super Wow. I am in Spain but this is awesome! I would LOVE to have something like this to pitch a feature I am working on. I was thinking of hiring an illustrator to put together a graphic pitch that sounds similar to this format.

Can we format it like a graphic novel? I see in Final Draft there is a template for such.

Quoted from Pale Yellow Can we format it like a graphic novel? I see in Final Draft there is a template for such.

I think it would be a good exercise to have the option try the comic format.

What's the format for a comic book?

Quoted from Pale Yellow Oh super Wow. I am in Spain but this is awesome! I would LOVE to have something like this to pitch a feature I am working on. I was thinking of hiring an illustrator to put together a graphic pitch that sounds similar to this format. Can we format it like a graphic novel? I see in Final Draft there is a template for such.

Yes, you can format it like a graphic novel, but it is not required.

Don

Dangit. Just saw this. I need to get back to checking this site every day or so.

Busy day tomorrow, but if an idea comes to me in the middle of the night, I'll write it up.

Shoot. Would've loved to give this several days of work.

I haven't looked at mine since writing it. No time today. Hopefully, I will get a couple of hours to polish it tomorrow before the deadline.

Nothing has come to me, and it's sadly looking like I'm out.

For me, this was just too open...and too few pages to really build a story and characters.

You never know...maybe something will come to me and I'll whip it out.   ;D ;D

Quoted from Dreamscale Nothing has come to me, and it's sadly looking like I'm out. For me, this was just too open...and too few pages to really build a story and characters. You never know...maybe something will come to me and I'll whip it out.   ;D ;D

Sounds like a classic bluff.

Alrighty, got an idea and words on paper.

So, I got that going for me.

I wrote my first draft yesterday. I figure it's 26 panels, too much. Cutting time.

I'll be in it for sure.

Sadly, it's not gonna happen for me.  Been on the phone all morning and just don't have anything in mind to throw out here.

I'll read and comment, though, but won't be entering.

Best of luck to all who do.

Quoted from DA_S1lva What's the format for a comic book?

Just use regular screenplay format.  You don't need to use comic book format.  

- Don

Done and submitted. Let the games begin!

I'm really looking forward to reading all the entries - Good luck!

Submitted. There are still too many comic panels, but I'm out of time to work on it.

Thought I might be able to write something, but I'm at Disney World and well, what can I say...  Had a few too many beers.  ;D

Cheers to those of you who got one in.  8)

Quoted from Grandma Bear Thought I might be able to write something, but I'm at Disney World and well, what can I say...  Had a few too many beers.  ;D Cheers to those of you who got one in.  8)

As of 10:58 pm edt, you have been notified of receipt of your OWC.

Keep 'em coming.

- Don

Folks,

Submissions are closed.  I'll have them up by 10:00 pm edt on 10/20 if not sooner.

Don

Looking forward to some great reads

The conversation has moved to: https://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1540049730/s-0/

- Don