What's the shortest amout of time you turned out a first draft (that wasn't the most horrible mess ever)?

The shortest I have developed a first draft that was readable, coherent, contained a logical plot and was feature length....1 month.

This is on average, 2-3 hours per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

When I was 14 it took me two weeks to whip up a 128 page first draft.

Each feature length I've written has taken between two and three weeks to write. I think overall it depends on how fast you write, how often, and how much time you have on your hands.

The majority of my latest script was written in two weeks, but the whole process took about 5 months. It breaks down like this:

1 week 20 pages

4 months of procrastination, occasional outlining/rewriting/thinking, more procrastination, 3 more pages written, worked on some other stuff etc.. almost gave up.

Sudden burst of energy, 2 weeks of writing, up to 90 pages

1 more week, 110 page draft

I really need to get organized

Three days. I preplanned it for about a week before sitting down to write the actual screenplay, which only took 3 days. It is posted on Simply and hasn't had very many revisions to it. I actually rank it as one of my best works to date. It was posted here by the guy who essentially came up with the logline and wanted me to write the script so he could film it. He has half the story credit for his minor contribution. It was called Bring Me To Life 2 to start with, but since I wrote it as a stand alone story (having never read or seen this first one), he retitled it Jagged.

http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-drama/m-1129852695/

This was during the time I actually turned out 2 or 3 complete drafts in a month's time including the planning stages. I think only one of those is posted here.

I actually tracked my writing of Fempiror 3 on a work in progress thread. I worked on it from April 27th through May 30th noting the plot as I went along. That was enjoyable.

http://www.simplyscripts.net/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?b-workinprogress/m-1114578053/s-0/

I was just wondering this because I can finish at least half a script in 2 days or so, after weeks of planning and outlining, of course.  By then I have the story down to a T.  I was just wondering if I still go to fast to be writing, what I think is, good material.  Like my only script on this site, I only wrote that in about 4 and a half days.  I think it's pretty good though.   Is it just me, or did that feel like a plug?  Any way, yeah, I was just wondering how fast you can write on a script and it still be good.

A script is only as good as its story structure, so if you've already planned out the story and everything, the actual writing is a lot easier. Of course, I didn't start posting my script after that three day time frame. I sat on it for a couple weeks and then did some revisions...of course, Elliot (God bless him) went and posted the first draft. It's not the first draft anymore, mind you, but that bugged me.

Congrats on getting the script done so fast, though. That's not bad. Just be ready to tear it apart a couple weeks later when you look back into it.

Agreed.

I could, in theory, write a script in a day or 2. But I couldn't be happy with it, even for a rough draft. Basically, I have the idea in my head (and usually half written down in a dozen or so different books) and I start writing. Two pages forward, one page back. Because I have a pretty demanding day job, I don't have the time or energy to focus 8-10 hours a day on writing.

When I finally get my stuff sold on a regular basis, then I'll contemplate moving to part-time or something. If so, I would probably be able to get drafts out in a couple of weeks.

So I guess 3 years is a long time? I wrote the first draft for my feature in about a month. It was barely 80 pages. I sat on it until I found someone to review it which gave me somewhere to start... thus I had a 120 page script but another review gave me further advice and I trimmed the ending(s) and now it sits at 116 and 3 years later and I'm still not happy with it.

This is what happens when people say "Wow this is good" it throws a person off and 3 years later they sit here thinking "What should I do now?" I haven't found a reviewer yet who will just say what they liked and what they didn't like.

Don't worry Wes. I started my first script when I knew nothing about screenwriting. It was developed over a 3 year period (on and off - I'd leave it for months).

It wasn't until someone said that I had some talent that I realized this is what I love to do.

The first draft of the drama A Última Sessão (the last show) took me 72 hours. In Portuguese, of course! Never, ever I did the same!

I wrote Green Lantern: Emerald Warrior in two weeks flat.  Of course, I spent around 3 weeks writing a very detailed treatment and sat around another week waiting for the "O.K" from my writing partner(who is a huge GL fan.  I had to make sure I was getting the source material right).  

Then I toiled over it everyday for two weeks, pouring my heart and soul into it.  That's one of the few times where I've actually fallen in love with a story and the characters.  I wanted to make sure everything was done justice, not ending the screenplay until it was around 173 pages.

I then spent a few days cutting out the clutter, knocking it back to about 148 pages.

For me, the speed that I write at has to do with two things: My schedule(of course), and how much feeling I have in the story and characters.  If your excited about your work then you're going to spend more time on it.

I don't have large amounts of time to write. I'm working on my first feature right now, and its an adaptation of a book called "Eragon."

I don't rush what I'm doing, so I don't go really fast. I'm at page 40 and have been working on it for 26 days. But thats because I only get to write for about two hours every morning.

Everyone always says "you write your best when you're inspired." So I find a way to make sure I'm inspired by 7:30 every morning. he he.

About 6 months for a feature...but I can only get about an hour a day in due to my demanding job and wife & son I have to attend to.  I can get about two-three hours in on the weekend.  But I never miss a day on writing.

Time frames differ from writer to writer for bringing in a first draft..

According to Charles Deemer, some writers are Tree People and write from the hip, they jump straight in and they write with the flow of it..

Other writers, who plan everything, these are referred to as Forest People, they plan their structure, the plot points, inciting, mid-point and reversal (this means they know the end before they start), they develop full back histories for all their characters...

No one type of writer can be said to use or write with a correct method because there isn't one..

You do whatever works for yourself..

Life can get in the way of writing and a sense of discipline is required from yourself.. Some of the suggestions in this thread regarding dedicating 2 or 3 hours a day when writing a screenplay is sound advice..

The great things about writing is no one day is the same because you try and move forward into other scenes and develop dialogue which moves the story forward.

The trick with writing a First Draft is to just strive to write 90 to 100 pages, complete the thing then go back and chainsaw it, fix the structure, tighten up the dialogue and ensure your writing is concise and to the point but tells an interesting story which people  want to read.. It is probably equally important that you pay as much attention to the formatting as you do with your story and character details..

This is why being a member of the SimplyScripts community is a good thing because other writers can read your work, provide help and good friendly advice but more importantly, inspire you to go and carry on with additional revisions and re-writes because writing can be a lonely enterprise so the feedback on this board is an extremely valuable resource..

I agree completely with Kevan. I guess I'm a "Forest Person" lol. I plan absolutely everything before I sit down to write and this saves me a lot of hassle in the long run, because I don't really need to add in more character-defining moments or story points after I've completed the screenplay.

I couldn't start a script without knowing everything about it beforehand. That, to me, would be like trying to drive a car with no gas. I need to know every plot point so that I can make the preceding scenes lead up to it properly and the proceeding scenes carry on from it properly.

That's just my way, but I really take my hat off to those writers who just make it up as they go along, with only a vague story and premise to guide them. I think that takes a lot of intuition and can sometimes be a hit or miss.

My general method is planning out my plot points, but then mostly writing from the hip. I've watched so many films, I can see what I'm writing in my head as I go along, and can pretty much see what needs to happen to create the path to where I need to go and make it look like the characters actually got there on their own.

Quoted from Acroname I couldn't start a script without knowing everything about it beforehand. That, to me, would be like trying to drive a car with no gas. I need to know every plot point so that I can make the preceding scenes lead up to it properly and the proceeding scenes carry on from it properly.

I'm the same way.  I have to have virtually every scene in the movie planned so that I know what to foreshadow, the basic structure, conflict, all that.  

I think this is good in many ways, and a handicap in others.  Instead of limiting myself, I think I could really benefit from "writing from the hip".

Yeah me too. About two years ago I wrote a feature length script in about a week or two. I knew only the basic story and only some of the characters. And come to think of it, that was probably the most fun I've ever had writing a screenplay.

There were no real points to hit. I could just write it all down and it would make sense to the story. I wrote it by hand in two writing pads, which probably added to the feeling of freedom. And now, two years on, I still think it would make a good film. With some changes here and there, of course.

But then again, if I just waited and planned it all out scene-by-scene from beginning to end, there wouldn't be many changes to be made lol! I think I'll just stick to my normal "forest person's" approach, even if it is a little boring at times!