Screenwriting : Crawl Before You Walk by Robert People

One way I've approached screenwriting is the mindset of "crawl before you walk." I feel like I'm making progress. It's slow progress, but it's progress nonetheless. I understand how that can be very difficult for some people, but in my opinion, it's absolutely essential to take that mindset when it comes to this. When I wrote my first screenplay, I basically wrote it just to get something down on paper. I paid for a professional to give coverage and basically my whole point was to find out just where I was as far as the basics were concerned. I didn't even plan on sending that one to agencies or managers. The guidance was very helpful. It was the same for my second and the third one. I spent the time writing them with the sole purpose of getting feedback, not looking to sell them at all. As I got feedback, I made the changes as necessary. It takes me a few weeks to complete one screenplay, but this does not include outlining, character descriptions, etc. It's just the writing itself and that's just the first draft. My first few were done just so I could see where the mistakes were, knowing that I probably had a bunch. As time went on and more screenplays were written, I made less and less mistakes. I just feel that it was very necessary for me to start off that way and not kid myself by thinking that my first screenplay would be ready. I can understand that some people take longer and the thought of spending several months on a screenplay with NO intention of sending it agents/managers sounds completely insane and like a total waste of time. But to me, this is what perfecting a craft means. You have to be prepared to sit down and do a TON of writing with the mindset that it's strictly to get better and that the particular work as is will go NOWHERE. It's "practicing," so to speak. With me, as I've improved, I've gone back to these first few screenplays and the mistakes I made really stand out. That's a big reason it's no so difficult for me to "crawl before I walk."