Writing challenge, again!

Okay, with the One Page Challenge 2006 (which in a burst of overachieving frenzy I did twice, first page and interior page) came some followups from other screenwriters.

In the comments on her One Page Challenge, Deborah upped the ante.

“Maybe the better challenge would be to put up the first page of the first draft of the first screenplay we wrote.”

I notice she hasn’t done it yet. Ahem.

However, Cynthia posted her virgin effort.

Who else has the noive?

I would do it — I swear I would. I wish I still had it. And if I run across it, I’ll post it still. Because as awful as it may have been, I think it might not have been as awful as I was told it was….

It started off pitch black. All you can hear is gentle splashing, water against skin, against the side of a tin washtub. Through a small window, a red line of sunrise glows over the mountains on the horizon, and the very soft glow starts to fill the room, and a slender woman rises from the washtub, dripping water, and begins drying herself off. Mostly in dark shadow, her curves and angles softly dusted with light… and then she slowly dresses. I did the research but don’t remember the details now — the under garments, the chemise, the knickers, the iron-clamp of a corset, the stockings, the petticoat, the dress, buttoned up to her chin, sleeves down to her wrists, and by the time she’s dressed perspiration dots her upper lip, the sun is up, and the kitchen is filled with light. Her husband comes in, and you realize her pre-dawn bath and dressing routine is to avoid him when she’s naked. He’s not a nice guy.

And that’s the end of page one.

I still think it could be a dynamite opening under credits. A repressed Victorian woman at her barest and most vulnerable and most free, shackling herself into the layers of clothes required of a Victorian woman, no matter how hot the summer — layers of protection from the bad guy she’s married to. (There was a bookend scene later in the script where the garments come off, one by one, at sunset. I like bookending scenes that way.)

I wish I had that page.

I do have the first page I ever wrote of a novel. Now THAT is embarrassing.

So come on, post your first page of your first script or novel.

And let us know you did.

P.S. Another challenge is out there. I’m taking it on next.