Time required to write a 'good one'?

It takes as long as it takes.

Don't forget, that idea could have been stewing for 15 years.

As you say, it depends on 'other projects'. My first book took three years but that was with a family, full time job and all the other disasters as far as a writer is concerned. Also I had to do a lot of research and we had only one tabletop computer - and my wife is an internetoholic. So I had to wait until she was looking the other way to get onto the internet.

The second and third I thought would be a sinch but I then had marketing and I really enjoy book signings. So both of them too about a year.

"How long is a piece of string?" - As long as it needs to be.

Fastest I ever wrote a script was three weeks. Longest was over fourteen years from conception to finish.

It really depends.
1) Some people type faster than others.
2) Some let the idea stew for longer.
3) Not everyone can write for 8 hours straight during the day, so even if they all need X hours to complete a script, it takes them different times to reach that limit.
4) It's not unusual to run into a plothole or some other issue, some are easy to solve others take three weeks of constant torture to resolve.
5) Talent and experience. The more you practice the less time it takes.

In short: there's no set time to complete a good script.

First you have to know how to write good stuff. Which takes years. So you take that, add it to the length of the time it finally took to write a sellable script and there you go. That's how much time it took.

I have a "good one" that's has producers interested and managers reading that took over a year to write and another year to rewrite several times until I got it right.

I have another "good one" that was a paid writing assignment for a production company and it took 9 days. There is no set time.

ATP said:

In a thread quite sometime ago, I asked how one recognised that one had written a 'good one'?

Recently, I was watching Polanski's 'Repulsion', and in one of the interview segments, Polanski seems to indicate that he and his co-writer worked on the 'Repulsion' script for 2 years? (I presume while also working on other projects).

I have read that the screenwriter of "Stranger Than Fiction" took 1.5 years til he felt it was a 'good one'. As contrast, Tarantino is reported to have written "Pulp Fiction" in 3 weeks, IIRC.

Elsewhere, I read that you're looking at an average of 6 months to arrive at a 'good one'. That is, finished rewritten and now a pristine product.

In terms of duration to write the 'good one', it isn't all over the map, is it?

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I'm reminded of the anecdote of the famous artist who'd been commissioned to paint someone's portrait, which he painted and delivered in a very short of period of time and charged the price that they'd agreed on -- and the client sued, because he felt that the artist had only spent a few days painting the portrait and, even though the portrait was fine, it didn't seem right to him that the artist should receive what seemed to him to be a small fortune for a few day's work.

And the artist was put on the stand the plaintiff's attorney asked him how long it took him to paint the client's portrait and he replied -- a lifetime.

I've written scripts in ten or fifteen days that I've sold for six figures.

I wrote a script in two days that I sold for five figures.

But the real answer as to how long it took me to write those scripts is the same answer that the artist gave -- a lifetime.

That's because I've been writing screenplays since I was thirteen and I've written hundreds of them. I've read thousands of them. I've watched tens of thousands of movies.

That's the grounding of experience that allows me to sit down and write a screenplay in ten days or two weeks.

NMS

How will one get screen writing assignments ?
padma

padnar said:

How will one get screen writing assignments ?
padma

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When you're good enough that your scripts make others go "Oo! This is good but it's not what we're looking for, but you're too good of a writer to just let go." Then you'll get writing assignments. Also representation helps a great deal because they get the call for writers for open jobs that we simply don't have access to.

Yet again I find myself agreeing with NMS. There really isn't a set time. The project almost dictates how long it will take. I've worked on project's upwards of 3 yrs. Granted that was when I was younger, but the idea still remains. With time and practice I've been able to get it down to less than 6 months.

I've kind of got to the point that I'll know within the first ten pages if i will be able to finish a script. If I can keep myself interested in it up to and past that point I know I will be able to finish it. It might not be the best in the world but I know that when i finish I will at least have a "decent" product to work with. From there I begin the rewrite process and build some of the ideas that I put in the script on the first draft.

Anyways, I don't want to ramble. There is no set amount of time you just kind of know when it's a good one.