which is the one that took the longest to write and how long did it take?

My very first screenplay took about a year to write, mainly because I was going through that precarious adolescent stage and because I was in the middle of moving house. I've speeded up a lot since then LOL!

Including all revisions, rewrites, change of formats, etc. etc., The Burnout took the longest.  I started writing the series of stories that it's based on in 1977 and finished the script in 2004.  The script itself ended up being the last of about ten stories involving the characters.


Phil

Mine was Halloween Games. I'm still not done with it. I've started ripping it apart. I'm going to keep the good stuff, but I'm cutting locations, and trying to make it decent.

What Is "Normal"? took me a year and a half of actual writing. Mostly cuz it was my first, and I just kept writing and writing, and it was on paper, 106 pages front and back, which translated into 203 pages in correct format, cuz I was clueless.

But from the very first incarnation, HAPPY endings. took about the same amount of time. But I wrote the first twenty five pages, and then put my attention into writing 2 other scripts first, and then went back to it and finished it up. So, I don't know if that counts. But after the first the rest kinda fell like dominoes pretty quickly. Now, it only takes about a month or two.

My longest was the first part of The Fempiror Chronicles. I started it in 1996 with a wisp of an idea. Through the years between then and the completion of the *first* draft in April 2004, I revised the plot a million times, changed the concept behind it, rewrote the backstory, revised the characters, rewrote the backstory again, conceived of a language and worked it out, revised the plot again, etc. Even after it was completed, during the writing of the subsquent parts, I went back and tweaked the first part to fit what I was doing in later parts. Characters' names changed; professions changed; even had a gender change. It was a work in progress in the purest sense of the word until now, I think I'm happy enough with the story. Now I just need to revise the dialogue since that is its weakest point; second is some pacing, so it's still not really done, but I'm happy. It measured at 145 pages on draft one and it is most recently is down to 135.

During the writing of that one, I wrote other scripts in less time. That one was just a lot of work to pin down exactly what I wanted that didn't suck. Strangely, the second part had a draft done in only a month. I also continue writing new episodes for the series part in a few days. Likely because I'd already done all the back work required for it. But now I'm on part 4 of the movie parts and it's kicking my butt. So far, it sucks, and I'm trying to work around that.

Its been four months so far and I've only just reached the halfway mark with my first feature script.

I wrote a crappy little action movie called "Hitmen" about two years ago. It was more of an excercise to see if I was capable of writing a feature script, but it took me about six or eight months from the beginning of the idea to the finished product.

I also came up with The Valentine Chronicles in mid-2003 and I didn't finish writing the first one till September or October of 2006.


Cheers, Chismeister.

Quoted from George Willson My longest was the first part of The Fempiror Chronicles. I started it in 1996 with a wisp of an idea. Through the years between then and the completion of the *first* draft in April 2004, I revised the plot a million times, changed the concept behind it, rewrote the backstory, revised the characters, rewrote the backstory again, conceived of a language and worked it out, revised the plot again, etc. Even after it was completed, during the writing of the subsquent parts, I went back and tweaked the first part to fit what I was doing in later parts. Characters' names changed; professions changed; even had a gender change. It was a work in progress in the purest sense of the word until now, I think I'm happy enough with the story. Now I just need to revise the dialogue since that is its weakest point; second is some pacing, so it's still not really done, but I'm happy. It measured at 145 pages on draft one and it is most recently is down to 135. During the writing of that one, I wrote other scripts in less time. That one was just a lot of work to pin down exactly what I wanted that didn't suck. Strangely, the second part had a draft done in only a month. I also continue writing new episodes for the series part in a few days. Likely because I'd already done all the back work required for it. But now I'm on part 4 of the movie parts and it's kicking my butt. So far, it sucks, and I'm trying to work around that.

The chronicles sound interesting, cool name. I'm going to read what you have up so far over the weekend, alright? Let you know what I think soon!

Quoted from DOM Well, the only series I really stuck with was "Student Body". The episodes are like 70 pages. Let's see, I did the first drafts when I was 11, then I got rid of them. Then I started working on them again about 3 years later and I've been doing that ever since. So, I guess you could say I've been working on the show since I was 11.

How old are you now?

Quoted from Steve-Dave What Is "Normal"? took me a year and a half of actual writing. Mostly cuz it was my first, and I just kept writing and writing, and it was on paper, 106 pages front and back, which translated into 203 pages in correct format, cuz I was clueless. But from the very first incarnation, HAPPY endings. took about the same amount of time. But I wrote the first twenty five pages, and then put my attention into writing 2 other scripts first, and then went back to it and finished it up. So, I don't know if that counts. But after the first the rest kinda fell like dominoes pretty quickly. Now, it only takes about a month or two.

What is Normal was your first? Whoa. I'm impressed.

Quoted from DDP What is Normal was your first? Whoa. I'm impressed.

Thanks DDP.   It's definitely my favorite one. It's changed a little bit since the first 203 page draft, mostly just cutting though, and a little tid bit here and there and I'm gonna do another re-write soon, so I'll probably end up cutting a little more.

Of all the scripts I've written, I'd say Kiss Of The Locust took the longest to write as it was my first and I had only a basic idea of what I was doing. It's also had the most revisions. I think I rewrote it at least four times before submitting it, the first revision being completely from scratch. So in terms of actual writing, that script took me the longest to churn out. In terms of the entire scriptwriting process (outlining, writing, rewriting, etc.), Black Market took me the longest to write. I spent a little more than half a year writing the treatment for it and am currently in the process of rewriting it with an entirely different third act to be written from scratch.

Definately the one I am writing right now.  My completed scripts took about the same amount of time, which averaged to around 3 weeks.  I got my current idea last August.  I just broke ground on the screenplay about two days ago.  I'm guessing I will spend at least another six weeks with the writing of the first draft, then at least another six in revisions.  I blamed it on writer's block, but I think I just was not happy with anything I was coming up with.  The script I am writing now though I am hoping to submit to competitions and to talent agencies, so that could also be putting a lot more pressure on myself that I don't need....

However, I don't necessarily think that the longer you spend on a script, the better it will be.  I think there is a point where you mull over a script too much and it becomes just an endless cycle of revisions.  You ever notice every time you go back and read an old script, you find something that you want to change?  It's just like that.  Every script I have posted on here I felt was the best I could do at the time i submitted it.  But I have taken a look back at every single one and have seen things that I would like to and could change.

You have to be careful because I think every writer's worst enemy is himself.  You will always find someting to critique when you are writing.  You just have to push through and realize when enough is enough and the script is as good as it will be to your best abilities.  

It took me about a month or so to write "The Juicer" my recent gay superhero screenplay and it has been sitting on my computer for about 5 or so months because I had a problem with FinalDraft and it wants me to reformat the entire screenplay 1 scene at a time.

Doesn't take long at all to write a first draft if properly motivated and a treatment is handy.

I am still writing my first screenplay and it has to be pushing more than 8 months. I think with the majority of writers their first is what takes the longest. I am constantly looking for inspiration everywhere i go and slowly churning it out.

The Journey trilogy, which I consider just one really long movie. Been working on it for going on ten years now, and just started again working on about the twelfth write.

My current screenplay That I have been working on, I'm now into the eight month region...

Quoted from R.E._Freak The Journey trilogy, which I consider just one really long movie. Been working on it for going on ten years now, and just started again working on about the twelfth write.

Whoa. May I ask what it is about? What genre?

Quoted Text Whoa. May I ask what it is about? What genre?

It is my overly long, overly bloated zombie epic.

I posted my first draft of "Grave Mishaps" here, and got some valuable feedback. My second draft still didn't satisfy me, but the third draft did. That's where I'm leaving it. I agree there's a point you have to stop tinkering, realize you've told the story the way you meant to, and move on to other works.

I took it off here, because the former comments are now obsolete. Final version will be posted later on. I didn't keep track of how long all this took. I know it was less than six months.

Thanks to all who helped in the process.

Monette

Quoted from guyjackson You have to be careful because I think every writer's worst enemy is himself.  You will always find someting to critique when you are writing.  You just have to push through and realize when enough is enough and the script is as good as it will be to your best abilities.

No doubt about that.  I had blasted through 50 pages of my feature in about 2 weeks, then November came and I wrote about 10 pages in that entire month.  December yielded only about 1.5 and January was good for about 2.5.  Most of the issue was wondering if I should radically change the step outline and treatment after I got to 50 pages and got feedback on the treatment from members of my class.  

Then I got married in December, the holidays and honeymoon were a complete bust for writing.  Now I'm gearing up for actual filming of a different short and did an outline Saturday night for a new original short.

All excuses, yes I know.  But it is very easy to make no progress if you're the slightest bit unhappy with the direction its headed.  It's likely I'm going to finish my Fortnight script before going back to Logan St.

-Bob

it took me about 6 months from start to finish to write my action flick "Divine Revelation."  What started out as a religious thriller turned into a blasphemous story where I took Bible verses and crafted them into what I was writing.  I like the story, just not that part of it.  Needless to say, I never posted it on here.

I would love to do another, more excessible rewrite to it.  Oh well...

Quoted from Jonathan Terry it took me about 6 months from start to finish to write my action flick "Divine Revelation."  What started out as a religious thriller turned into a blasphemous story where I took Bible verses and crafted them into what I was writing.  I like the story, just not that part of it.  Needless to say, I never posted it on here. I would love to do another, more excessible rewrite to it.  Oh well...

This sounds kind of good. Any chance I could read it?

Diplomatic Immunity and it has been on and off for 8 months.  I finally finished it and I was so glad to kick it off my work in progress list.  I had done several others in between but this one took forever!

When I was 13 or 14 I wrote a 119 page horror script called "Frantic" which was my second full length screenplay. It took about a year and a half or two years....Shortly after finishing it my computer got a virus and screwed up all my text files...it was completely lost. Now, I always back up my files. Looking back, It's better that I lost it because it probably wasn't that great.  

My first script probably took me the longest.  I did it during second semester for an independent study with my friend in school so we were working at least four hours a week (most of the time a lot more).  It took us the entire semester to put out 100 pages.

I never ever posted the script because I wouldn't want to be kicked off the site for the terribleness of it.  We only knew very basic formatting, had never written a script before, nor ever read one.  On top of that we didn't do any real pre-planning on it so there's no character developement and a ridiculous amount of scenes (over 40 if I remember correctly).  At the beginning of this school year we got some people to proofread it (before we realized its terrible formatting anyway).  I've always wanted to redo it, but I don't have time to do the work it requires so I'll just stick to my shorts for now.  Over this coming summer though I plan to do a complete rewrite and the way things are going, it will still be my first feature length script.

So it took about 6 months to write the first draft (including planning) and then another 3 to get it proofread and now I'm going to be rewriting it completely later, so it'll probably be about a year and a half to two years overall before it's actually done.

-Pat

I've been working on a script for 4 years that has been changing and changing. I have three others I've written in that time as well.

Same here, I've been on one script, Cover of Darkness, for about 2 years and everytime I get toward the middle, the first of the script has to be rewritten AGAIN.  Besides, my research for this script is always changing details and characters.  But I love it!

Every other script I average 1-3 months.

Quoted from Just_Initials Same here, I've been on one script, Cover of Darkness, for about 2 years and everytime I get toward the middle, the first of the script has to be rewritten AGAIN.  Besides, my research for this script is always changing details and characters.  But I love it!

Don't go back until you've finished your script.  Otherwise, you'll never get it done.


Phil

I'm hearin' ya Phil,
Just that my first scene explains my last scene... But I think it's locked down now,

Word!

Complete the first draft, even if it means contradicting yourself in the story.  Change it in the rewrite.  It's faster this way.


Phil