Screenwriting : How Long Did Your First/Favorite Feature Screenplay Take To Write? by Mista Martel

My first took like a year and a half. I was just playing around. My brother in law told me a story and thought I could do better. So I did. Then when I was finished I sent it to three competitions. Placed in one, nothing from the others (never did it again - but they are fun).

My favour tool me about four months, LOVE, MONEY, BOMBS. This will likely never get made unless I make it.

Current on. I did two weeks and then dropped it for about a year. Pitched it to someone, have to finish it now. It was 40 pages when I dropped it (more or less) a very basic story. I now get to add some real meat and make it a feature. I have till June.

About eight months from Fade in to out with such a fond memory spending time in libraries, taking classes at UCLA, Gotham, etc. online and a real one NYU. I didn’t have to work for other job. It was fun meeting friends and reading their scripts in classes. Then I’ve continued for 2-3 years in the revising marathon.

My first one took me about two years. First, I wanted someone else to write it, but they were busy. Then I decided to learn for myself & amazingly enough it won Best Feature Screenplay in the first competition I put in it.

Awesome!

My first serious foray into screenwriting wasn't a feature, but a 10-hour miniseries spec. Scripting the first draft of Episode 1 through 10 took the better part of a year, but it was worth it. It taught me that a good outline will do wonders, but don't be a slave to it.

My very first FL script? It's been going on about 30 years or so - and it ain't done yet.

I'm in 1.5 years and not sure even a major rewrite I'm contemplating can save it.

Actual time on the keyboard roughly a month, month and a half, but that doesn't include weeks of waiting for coverage feedback and workshopping to see what worked and translated the story best to readers.

What a fun question, Mista Martel My first completed heap of trash took about a year and was just written as a learning script in school. My next feature script was for my final project in school and it took quite a bit of time too but was optioned. NOW I can bang out a first draft in about 30 days. I once read if you just write 1 page per day, you can complete 3 features per year (leaving time for outlining/pitching etc). But for those 30 days, I am all consumed. Which means my kids eat a lot of frozen burritos.

Two weeks. Each one is two weeks.

12 hours for BlackBird. My favourite The Indian Wife took about 3 days.

edit... i just realized I didn't answer the question lol.

My first In Your Name took about 2 months. The second "The Indian Wife" took 3 days. And BlackBird, which is my favourite took 12 hours.

I wrote a script it’s three scenes of being finished.

17 weeks to write my first feature back in 2012.

The last produced screenplay I wrote took six days.