June #3: A Feature Script in 28 Days
A short interview with Emmalisa Horlacher on the project she wrote during the May writing challenge
We’re halfway through June - day 16 of the June challenge for those participating.
Today I want to highlight a member of our community who accomplished a massive feat last month during our first ever writing challenge. Emmalisa Horlacher not only wrote for all 31 days of the May challenge (sharing the top prize), but she also finished a rough draft of a feature by day 28!
I found this incredibly inspiring, and asked her for more details on what her month of writing looked like.
Emmalisa: I started the month with an outline, a beat sheet and a wall full of index cards listing out my scenes. (Did I stick to that wall... No. I did not. In the writing process I found that a lot of things needed to change as I got to know the characters and the world better.)
I did not know how long writing this screenplay would take me, but I saw the writing challenge as the perfect motivation to work on this project. While I didn't post my progress often, I was inspired by the people who did. It was like little reminders that I'm not alone, little pushes of encouragement.
While life still happened, I MADE time because that's what is important to me. Sometimes, I was only able to give 15 minutes. And not a good 15 minutes either. But I gave. I had no idea that giving would lead to finishing. That's something I marvel at.
One of the hardest parts was trying to overcome my need for the script to be perfect. Right now, it's messy. A big jumbled pile of events, dialogue and action. Not a ton of it makes sense. A lot of it is extremely vague. When I got to a certain point, I began to cringe at everything I wrote down. Obviously, there will be some MASSIVE revisions. But when I got to that last page, cringe and all, it was awesome. The journey was over, the characters got their happy ending, and I am able to justify taking a little break so I can revise it with fresh eyes. (I'm in too deep man!)
I can now say that I finished the story (but the story is not finished with me.)
Chris: If you’ve written a feature in the past, how long has the rough draft phase usually taken?
Emmalisa: This is technically my second feature. My first feature I did not intend to write as a feature but that's what it turned out being. I'm not sure how long the rough draft phase took since I took lots of breaks. Around 2 years total. I think. I had a good sprint between 3-5 months when I was really pushing hard at it. But that might have been when I was revising it.
Chris: What was your writing schedule before this challenge?
Emmalisa: Before this challenge I wrote weekly, about 2-5 times a week, maybe around 30 min to 3 hours. Hard to say. I think there were some weeks I didn't write at all because life just got crazy busy... But I don't think that happened often. Although, I think that's why I liked this challenge so much. I was getting lazy and this challenge made me up my game.
I should mention that I do write in my journal everyday but I don't count that as script writing or story writing time. That's a separate thing all together.
Chris: Did you find certain times of the day that worked better for your schedule, or was it more about making the time each day when you had a chance?
Emmalisa: So I had to both schedule time and make time depending on the day. I knew the only time I could work on it was after work and before any activities I had planned. Depending on the day, I would schedule it in, but more often I did it right before I went to bed. I also had to give up some other activities too. I like to go to the Planetarium but I knew that with this challenge I wouldn't have time to write AND go drive that distance to see the exhibits. So this month, I didn't get to go as much as I would have liked.
Chris: Will you continue the challenge into June?
Emmalisa: I don't think I will carry it into June because I want to spend my time working on editing a documentary interview with my dad about his time deployed in the military during hurricane Katrina. I might do a new goal, twice a week, or something. I love writing so I'll have to find some way to incorporate it into my life when I switch over to my new goal of finishing the doc.
Emmalisa Horlacher is an alumni from BYU with a BA in Theaters Arts Studies, emphasis in Theatre for Young Audiences. Living in Provo, she loves animation and film for family Audiences.
Congratulations to Emmalisa and everyone else who hit milestones or pushed themselves to prioritize themselves and their own creative projects. I’m excited to see what kinds of stories come out of this month’s challenge.
If you’re new to Residuals, you can get your copy of the writing tracker here (each month has a tab at the bottom), and you can check in daily in the Writing Challenges thread on the discord server.
Chris Amick is a Film and TV Writer/Producer in Los Angeles with credits including Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Die Hart 2, Kung Fu Panda: the Dragon Knight, Final Space, and more. He’s currently developing a series with Adult Swim, and his latest project is as Executive Producer on the existential thriller IT ENDS, which premiered at SXSW 2025. He teaches writing classes here.