How many act ones do you have?

I have a few. You know how it goes; you think of a great idea, perhaps even plan it out, but when you dive into the script it comes grinding to a halt a the end of act one. You sit there for hours looking at the screen with bloodshot eyes, wondering how on earth you are going to move the script on. After a while you give up and add it to your act one pile.

This is where the act one project may help you out. Join your fellow scribes by throwing an act one into the mix and taking another away. Your task is to take that act one and create a feature screenplay. But there must be rules!

For the submitted act one:

1. It must be at least 20 pages and no more than 30 pages long.
2. It must end with a major plot hook.
3. It must be submitted in electronic format (we'll worry about importing it into your software later).
4. It must be correctly formatted.

For the completed screenplay:

1. It must be between 90 and 120 pages long.
2. It must contain the original act one with (a) the scenes as they were submitted (minor tweaks allowed), (b) no more than three scenes cut, (c) no more than three scenes added, and (d) no more than one major character cut.
3. It must stay within the original genre.
4. From the word "Go", you will have three months (let's be realistic).

The submitter must not pester the writer to "see how things are going". At the end both writers have an equal writing credit and can choose to either (a) pursue the project further as a writing team, or (b) walk away, no questions asked, no hurt feelings if the decision to walk away isn't mutual.

With luck you will learn something about writing and maybe even gain a writing partner.

The deadline to submit your act one will be announced soon once the project has enough members. If you are interested then leave a comment here, my main blog, or drop me an email with "Act One Project" in the subject and I'll be in touch (don't forget to leave contact details).

Regards

Chris