Okay, i am a very very intelligent writer. I like to wirte detailed and emotional screenplays. I only have one problem. I always seem to dislike my writing a ways through. I get to about page 50 - 75 before i start wondering if the pages before were writen ver well. Like at the moment I am writing a screenplay on Vietnam. I have stuied and embraced Vietnam for a few years and have enough knowledge to write a screenplay. I have a plot fully thought out but I can't seem to write more pages becuase i am erasing many of my pages to re-write. Do you have any advice on how to keep your ideas straight a such. Or how to finish your screenplay help needed I would really enjoy finshing this screenplay.

How long should it usally take to finish a screenplay?

As long as you have a conclusion planned out and a direction (arc) for the story and characters then.... for the first draft, write from the heart. Allow yourself to write bad, just as long as you keep writing forwards, not backwards. The main goal for the first draft is to get from Page 1 to the end page.

After a couple of weeks off, then go back and start the re-writes. It's in the re-writes that the real writing takes over. This is the time to flesh out your ideas\characters\subplots that may not have advanced during the 1st draft.

Hope this helps.

Good advice, MacDuff.

You have a fully thought out plot.  I would put it on paper and have it with you every time you write.  Let that be your roadmap.  You've got to keep pressing forward.  There are times when you may feel your story is going in the totally wrong direction and you need to backtrack and take another direction.  If this is absolutely necessary and you know that you have to do this to finish the first draft, then I would do it, but don't do it all the time.  I was taught that you're not supposed to like your first draft.  It's the last draft you're supposed to like.

The last thing you should do on your first draft is stop and wonder whether it works or not. The first draft is the hardest one to write of any of them. Revision and rewriting is actually easy because you can be as critical as you want, but getting that first draft down is the work part of writing. The most important part is to finish it even if you change directions.

I did that recently. I got to page 115, and decided to make a certain character do something different. I liked it better, but I made a note to go back and fix the setup for the action. I changed NOTHING before was finished with the first draft. I altered a few more things here and there as well, and just noted to myself what I'd done. Sometimes something will occur to me about the first draft, and again, I'll make a note and press onward.

I use my notes while writing to start the revisions. I make those changes first. If you think of something while writing, for God's sake, don'tstop and try to fix. Just take some notes and fix it later. The most important thing (yup, I'm saying it again because it is important) is to finish the first draft.

thats a great way of thinking about it. great advice. maybe it;ll help me in my future endeavers