Hum...10-day Script. Is This Any Worth?

For me, it's not the number of pages per day that hangs me up ... I've written as many as 25 - 30 pages in a single day (while working a full time job).

The problem for me is content for those pages. It sometimes seems harder to research, outline, craft a story than to put it down on paper.
 
It almost seems like painting by the numbers sort of thing. I've never heard of this software.
 
Sorry I didn't get back to you guys sooner. It's been crazy.

The book uses screenwriting principles we know already--NOTHING NEW OR UNIQUE--and it puts you on a 10 day schedule. This forces you to write quickly, which, for some people is when the greatest creativity occurs.

Just don't buy it thinking it's some new techique or method that will make you churn out a BLOCKBUSTER. Plus, it's fairly sparse.

"Rehashed material on a schedule."
 
Thanks kyle. If anything, it sounds like it could be useful to someone just starting out. For those of us that have read screenwriting books by all the usual suspects, it sounds kinda lite.
 
The pot thing only means that producing more made them more efficient and learned how to adapt their techniques to pop off a pot faster and better. Practice makes perfect.

Same with editing or anything creative. The first time you try, it will take forever. The other times, not so much.

If you are a writer, write every day. You will learn how to just sit and do it. 10 days, what's the point? Sure, anyone can pop off a feature in ten days. Will it be worth reading? Nope.

Even the most solidified work, needs work. Just go an be a reader for a few days, or talk to someone who was a reader, or better yet - take open submissions to option scripts. You will get a ton of junk. Even WGA people turn out crap. Crap that gets repped and sent to production companies. Crap that will never see the light of day.

The odds you will turn a decent product out in ten days, are almost negligible. Scripts require work, a lot of it, a lot of reading, having people run coverage, rewriting. There is a massive amount of effort that goes into just the first locked revision. If you think it can be done it ten days, I would say - keep dreaming.

If you want to know how to write, start reading (produced) scripts. Learn how they timed things, how their characters worked, how their transitions looked, how they did what they did. It's the best way, that and write. (In my opinion)
 
Mattykins said:
The odds you will turn a decent product out in ten days, are almost negligible. Scripts require work, a lot of it, a lot of reading, having people run coverage, rewriting. There is a massive amount of effort that goes into just the first locked revision. If you think it can be done it ten days, I would say - keep dreaming.
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Totally agree. I think doing a first draft is doable in 10 days. It is not something I would send off as a finished piece at that point. And this is taking into account all the research and development of your characters and story, plus an outline and maybe even a treatment before going into the first draft. To me, the benefit is getting that first draft out and not getting stuck trying to perfect it as you write, which is a common beginner's mistake. I know because I've made that mistake when I started and had no idea what the heck I was doing.

Again, everyone has their own methods. I think 10 days is a little tight, but 20 days seems much better for me on a first draft. Rewriting, who knows. I don't think you can say exactly when the script will be at a point when it is ready to go out into the world. It could take five drafts, or it could take twenty.
 
Yeah, bust that boy out... the first draft anyway. With enough protein bars and Red Bull I can get a draft within 2 weeks. But it is guaranteed to suck. I HATE doing first drafts. I do them just to get some POS to rewrite on.

I've been known to bust out 20 pgs in a day, but they are invariably dialogue, since I tend to hear the characters before I see them. Then go thru rewrites which for me is mainly about putting the visuals in (I started life as a playwright) and sometimes because of this or because the thing goes off the reservation at some point I wind up redoing the whole second half anyway. Plus they tend to run short, skeletal really, 80 or 90 pgs. Indie length. You can definitely bust this out in 10 days.

I think lots of ppl are daunted by the 120-pg "standard" screenplay size. Think 90 and it gets more manageable. Adjust your act breaks accordingly. You can always add stuff that way. You always think of stuff later.

I could probably do 120 in 3 days if I had enough Adderall. Would it suck ? Absolutely. First drafts always do. Overcoming the "I wrote crap" downer is probably the hardest thing of all. If I recall, the "21 Day Movie" includes not caring that the draft sucks.

Cheers, :beer: Jeff
 
Well, I didn't buy this program but I wrote the first draft of my feature (currently in pre-pro/casting) in seven (7) days just at the end of last year.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showpost.php?p=1517835&postcount=3 -- And that's how I did it.

Here's the original thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=158607

It's not the defacto, but a DVXuser's experience with writing something and getting over the actual beginning of writing. I'm on a Fourth (technically tenth, lol) draft right now while casting.
 
After you've written enough, you will find what works best for you. After my 6th feature script, I developed a method that worked for me. It was interesting because I happened to be adapting a novel WITH the author of the novel. It was a 700 page manuscript that we turned into a 113 page script. From that time on, I have used the method I developed doing that adaptation and a feature length script generally takes between 7 and 21 days to write the first draft...depending on what else I've got going on.

The key is getting the whole thing laid out ahead of time. This is where the time is spent. Putting together anywhere from 85 to 200 bullet points. But once it's laid out, it's just a matter of getting the characters together and get them talking, the rest of the work was done laying out the story in the first place. Five pages a day feels a bit light these days.
 
Blaine said:
The key is getting the whole thing laid out ahead of time. This is where the time is spent. Putting together anywhere from 85 to 200 bullet points. But once it's laid out, it's just a matter of getting the characters together and get them talking, the rest of the work was done laying out the story in the first place. Five pages a day feels a bit light these days.
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That is how I try to do things, more or less. As for five pages a day, it does feel light to me too. I've written 10 page short films in as little as three hours, first draft of course. Of course others might have completely different methods and will write more or less pages on a daily basis.

I tend to like to keep going once I'm into the script because when I'm focused I can just get stuff put down on paper pretty quickly. If I stop the PS3 might start to tempt me or I'll go get a snack and then the phone rings and then.... basically I lose momentum and then have to sit down and spend time to get my head back in "the zone" before I can get the writerly flow going again. I think the best time is to write in the dead of night or to get up at the crack of dawn when there is peace and quiet and the normal distractions of everyday life are asleep. Plus, there is nothing good on at after 2 am anyways.

Mark Harris said:
I will second this as really working for me. I spent months laying out the story for my current script in outline form, and it really paid off.
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A script that I will finally start writing this summer has been in the outline and development stages for nearly 2.5 years. Partly because it is the first chapter in a sci-fi trilogy, meaning I have to plot out some of the second and third parts, and also because I have been working on other scripts and projects. I haven't been exclusively pouring over the sci-fi epic every day and night, but the long gestation period saved it because if I had started the first draft within first year from the date of the original idea, it would've been a huge mistake because the story structure and characters just didn't work at that point.
 
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One other thing I think is very important. Always stop where you know exactly what's going to happen next. Makes starting the next day much easier.
 
Blaine said:
One other thing I think is very important. Always stop where you know exactly what's going to happen next. Makes starting the next day much easier.
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To take that thought forward one more step...
Write the next day's slug line, but leave the action bits blank.

Then you are leady to lock & loll
Cheers
beer.gif
 
Blaine said:
One other thing I think is very important. Always stop where you know exactly what's going to happen next. Makes starting the next day much easier.
Click to expand...

CallaghanFilms said:
To take that thought forward one more step...
Write the next day's slug line, but leave the action bits blank.

Then you are leady to lock & loll
Cheers
beer.gif
Click to expand...

Good ideas.

Another thing that helps me quite a bit is structuring my script in sequences instead of just act I, II, and III. This makes each piece a smaller bit to manage and focus on instead of 30 pages, then 60 pages, then another 30. Once you have your structure all laid out, then you could even approach each sequence as a short film and work on completing one sequence every day or two.
 
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