Description
Believe it or not, you can finish a screenplay in just ten writing days.
In fact, the ability to do so will be necessary if and when you get to the big leagues of Hollywood writing assignments. Yes, many assignment contracts offer eight to ten weeks to finish the first draft (with just a couple of weeks to complete the final draft and polish draft), but you’ll quickly find that many companies ask for even tighter deadlines.
So consider the ability to write under extremely tight deadlines as an expected and desired trait that studios and production companies look for in a screenwriter being considered for assignments.
This ability will help you to be able to come into a project late and work your magic quickly before production begins. It will train you to conjure ideas, structure plots, and answer story and character questions rapidly.
Hollywood moves slowly in an expeditious way, which means that the development process can be long and arduous, but once a project gains some steam, the process is kicked into high gear.
• The talent attached only has a small window in their schedule to act in the film.
• The director has another project shooting in six months, so production needs to begin as soon as possible.
• The studio wants to shoot for a particular release date, so production is moved up a few months to accommodate that want.
• The film has been pre-sold in foreign territories, so it needs to be written, produced and edited starting yesterday so the distributors and investors can turn a profit.
These are all realities that working screenwriters know all too well. It gets crazy. With that in mind, here we offer ten tried-and-true steps to finishing a screenplay within just ten days — or more specifically, ten writing sessions — using a technique we call
The 10-Day Screenplay Solution.
If you don’t want to — or can’t — utilize this technique in ten consecutive days, these ten writing sessions can be spread out between two to three months, with gaps in between writing sessions for your day job duties, family life responsibilities, school
schedule, or for time to visualize what you’ll be writing in the next sessions.
Regardless, follow these ten steps, and you’ll see that you certainly can finish a screenplay in just ten days and learn how to write lightning fast!
"ScreenCraft is an amazing organization." - James V. Hart, award-winning screenwriter of Hook (directed by Steven Spielberg), Dracula (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) and Contact (directed by Robert Zemeckis)
“ScreenCraft catapulted my career years ahead of even my most optimistic expectations. The contacts and — perhaps even more importantly — the legitimacy the Fellowship gave me has helped me land top tier representation and put me in a position to pitch projects to major studios.” – Robert Haffey
“The ScreenCraft Fellowship was a pivotal moment in my career as a writer. John and Cam made every effort to not only connect me with industry members, but to make sure that I received representation. It’s hard to imagine being nearly as confident in the future of my writing without the fellowship. I can’t thank ScreenCraft enough and I encourage any writer seeking reps to apply.” - Mark Stasenko
