Sorry for the blatant self-promotion but I am glad to say I have done exactly what I set out to do and wrote a complete script in 30 days (technically I only spent about half of them writing). My new horror screenplay Mr Mr is now done and ready to enter into contests!! First up the Screencraft Horror Screenplay Contest then possibly another couple. Now time to fix up my pitch so I can get the ball rolling on the Happy Writers Pitchfests!! As an aside, what is the quickest time people have written a screenplay in?
Screenwriting : Screenplay in 30 days!! by Ross Somerville
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Well, I had been brewing the idea for a little while. But yeah, on the 26th of May I wrote a comprehensive synopsis of all my ideas for the film (minus the ending) and the first page. It evolved a bit as I was writing but today I finished page 97. Just need to re-proofread a couple more times.
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Lol! A couple of years ago I wrote a complete first draft in about four days (may have been five).
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3, 30, 300... it's quality that counts, good luck in Screencraft!
Ooft! I think I'd be a wreck bashing out a screenplay in four days lol. I'm constantly editing as I go so what I write doesn't change much once I've moved on from a scene. I agree with you, Anthony, quality is key!!
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Hehe! Never said it was ideal, but I had a crazy deadline and I met it. My most recent screenplay was closer to eight months. I'm all for quality, and sometimes that's what second and third drafts are for. First drafts are never an end product.
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Ross: Congrats on finishing your script and good luck with the contest circuit. My fastest work was 85 pages in five days. And here's the story. I answered an add for a biopic script and wrote a logline and one page synopsis for my story concept. The producer liked what I pitched, got right back to me and said "please send me the script." Since I didn't have a script, I decided to buy some time. I told the interested party I just needed to do some polishing and kindly requested a week to accomplish that. I sent him the first draft, he liked it, made editorial and story suggestions and I added another 20 pages. One week later, he optioned the script. The moral of my story. Doing a quick job like that is not for the faint of heart.
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That's pretty good. I wrote a pretty decent first draft in 8 days (not counting the outline). The record might belong to Adam Rifkin, though, who wrote "Mouse Hunt" in a weekend, if I recall correctly. That's some serious speed writing.
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@Ross, I don't have any stories of quickly written screenplays, but for what it's worth, there's a well-known story of how quickly Bob Harling wrote the first draft of the Steel Magnolia stage play - 10 days! Written about his sister who passed away like Julia Roberts' character in the movie.
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It is said that 'Rocky' was written also within a few days (by S. Stallone who never wrote before). Don't know if that's a rumor or not.
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Elizabeth: No, you are correct. Stallone did write "Rocky" over a marathon weekend. Though Stallone was a novice writer, before he wrote the screenplay he acted in in feature films like "The Lords of Flatbush", "Klute" and "Death Race 2000". So, I'm sure he had a pretty good idea on how the process worked. Stallone was inspired to write it after watching an obscure bartender named Chuck Wepner fight Muhammed Ali for the heavyweight title.