How to Write a Script in 3 Months

If you want to hit a screenplay contest deadline, or train yourself to be able to meet the kinds of deadlines you can expect to see while writing for professional contracts, you’re going to need to find a proficient plan. That plan has to be structured in a way where you can not only write fast and focused, but also write well in the process. 

Look no further than our Three-Month Screenwriting Process for a well-structured plan that can keep you on task, ahead of schedule, and writing compelling and fast-paced first drafts that only need a few rewrite passes before submitting to contests or the powers that be while you’re under contract.  

Pro screenwriters don’t have time to wait for inspiration. They work under tight deadlines. When you’re a pro, gone are the days of taking six months to a year or more writing one script. Pros don’t have that luxury. Assignments come with one-to-two month deadlines for a first draft. Rewrites are expected in days just a couple of weeks, sometimes less. 

If you want to be a pro screenwriter, you’re going to need to prove that you can deliver quality work on demand. 

Developing and writing a screenplay in three months (or less) is one of the best ways to train yourself for that reality, and it will help you earlier on in your screenwriting journey as you try to break through via major screenwriting contests and fellowships. 

Since submitting screenplays to major screenwriting contests like Final Draft’s Big Break can be a highly effective way to get your foot in the Hollywood door, the following three-month screenwriting process can also help you make contest deadlines, which usually sneak up on most screenwriters. 

The good news is that this three-month screenwriting process is completely doable for all screenwriters. You don’t have to be a seasoned veteran with multiple scripts under your belt. If you’re a first-timer, this process is simple and highly effective. If you’ve written a couple of scripts already, maybe it’s time to start learning how to write like a pro under pro deadlines. 

We’re going to break this three-month process down into three parts, similar to the structure of a cinematic story. All scripts have the core base of a three-act structure. 

• Beginning - We’re introduced to the world, the characters, and the core conflict. 
• Middle - The characters deal with the evolving conflict and work to find a solution.   
• End - The story is resolved as the characters overcome all odds stacked against them and emerge triumphant (or succumb to the conflict if the story is a tragedy). 

With the three-month screenwriting process, you have three acts within the three-month journey. 

• Month One - Research and Development
• Month Two - The Writing Process
• Month Three - Rewriting and Polishing

If you follow the below process, you’ll be able to successfully finish a script within just three months, training you to write like a pro while also helping you make those “last-minute” screenwriting contest and fellowship deadlines.

Every great script starts long before you type FADE IN on the opening page. This first month is all about building the foundation of your script. This is your first act of the screenwriting process where you discover your world, characters, and story. 

The research part of Month One - usually during Week One and Week Two - is all about building your knowledgebase of your script world and feeding your creative brain. 

Too many writers rush into writing pages before they truly understand the story they want to tell, leading to lackluster drafts, dead ends, writer's block, and major rewrites that are more time-consuming. 

The research period of this three-month screenwriting process is the time to immerse yourself in:

• Movies and TV shows within your genre
• Similar tones, atmospheres, and themes
• Stories with comparable protagonists, antagonists, and worlds
• Real-world elements tied to your concept

If you’re writing a contained thriller, you should be watching contained thriller movies to look for inspiration, creative problem-solving, and also examples of what not to do. 

If you’re writing a romantic comedy, you can watch successful romcoms of the past to study universal elements like structure, pacing, and character dynamics that can be implemented and tweaked for your story. 

This isn’t about copying other people’s work. It’s about:

• Building a creative base your imagination can work from. 
• Finding cliches and tropes to avoid or embrace.
• Looking for character archetypes. 
• Training your brain to think in the cinematic language of pacing, stakes, structure, and tone relevant to the specific story you’re about to tell.  

Beyond watching relevant content, you can also begin to research the world of your script. Your additional time during this first month can be spent researching:

• Professions (police, doctors, lawyers, or whatever may apply to your script)
• Locations and environments
• Technology or procedures

Authenticity makes your script more credible. Credibility keeps script readers and audiences engaged. They don’t need to know all of the specific real-world details (if any) of your story and characters, but the research you do will help to bond your dialogue, scenes, and plot points to the real world. 

Once your brain is full of inspiration and necessary knowledge, it’s time to shift into development mode for Week Three and Week Four. 

This is usually a process that novice screenwriters skip. Don’t make that mistake. 

The stronger your development process is, the faster you’ll be able to write the script, and the cleaner your first draft will be. 

1. Start with the Logline

Your logline is your North Star, always there to guide you back to the core idea of your script. It’s very easy to go off-course during the writing process. Having a strong logline is key to ensuring that you stay on course. 

Your logline should be short (no more than one to two sentences), sweet, and to the point. It should clearly define:

• The protagonist
• Inciting incident
• Their goal
• The core conflict
• The stakes

The basic logline structure you can start from?

• When [INCITING INCIDENT OCCURS]...
• A [CHARACTER TYPE]...
• Must [OBJECTIVE]...
• Before [STAKES].

Here are some examples you can follow:

• When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer must hunt the beast down before it kills again. (Jaws)
• When humanity faces extinction from a mysterious threat on the surface of the sun, a lone amnesiac astronaut must rediscover his identity and use his scientific expertise to stop the threat and save humankind. (Project Hail Mary)

You can then refine the logline as needed (it doesn’t need to follow the above structure to a tee). Test different versions. Make sure it’s something that can hook a reader. 

2. Expand the Logline to a Short Synopsis

Next, write a three-paragraph short synopsis, with each paragraph representing the three-act structure. 

• First Paragraph = The Beginning
• Second Paragraph = The Middle
• Third Paragraph = The End/Climax

Refer to the three-act structure breakdown above. Expanding your logline to a short synopsis helps you to hone in on a story window for that core concept. If your logline is your North Star, the short three-paragraph synopsis is your more accurate GPS, keeping you within a focused story window. 

If you’re looking for an example, look no further than the back jacket of a paperback book - only with your version, you’re spoiling how the story ends in that third paragraph. 

The short synopsis also introduces key twists, turns, and plot points.

3. Write a Beat Sheet Outline

Writing an outline is essential. Some screenwriters may have the romantic idea of finding their screenplay during the writing process. Don’t fall into that trap. Screenplays aren’t novels. When you’re writing a novel, you generally have an open canvas, free of the structural aesthetics and page constraints of a screenplay. Screenplays are blueprints for feature films, utilized by hundreds of other professionals to make that film come to life. 

You need to learn how to embrace the process of writing an outline of your script. Most professional contracts require an outline, so it’s best to know how to write one. But it goes beyond that. Once you learn how to write an effective outline, you’ll find that doing so will help you write not just faster, but better. 

The type of outlines that are utilized today are beat sheet outlines. Beat sheets are very similar to the age-old method of writing scenes on note cards where you write a single sentence describing a scene (the location, what characters are present, and what is happening in that scene) on a single note card, and then proceed to write additional scene note cards to assemble the story structure for a script. 

Beat sheet outlines do this using a numbered bullet point form on a document where you start from the opening scene, and write nearly every scene from beginning to the end of the script using each bullet point to describe a new scene. 

You can then mix, match, and reorder the scene however you would like, no different than how screenwriters would use the notecard approach. 

Final Draft screenwriting software has an excellent Beat Board feature that helps you to write an effective beat sheet outline for your script. You can also just open a new document, create a numbered bullet point list, and start envisioning your script by briefly describing each scene you plan to use to tell your cinematic tale. 

Your beat sheet outline should include:

• Character introductions as they happen in the script
• Every major story beat/scene
• Key turning points
• Set pieces and sequences
• Emotional arcs      

For every beat/bullet point, use one-to-a-few sentences to describe where the scene takes place, who is in the scene, and what is happening. When you read your eventual outline, it should read as a visual layout of your whole script from beginning to end. 

Here’s an example from Star Wars of what these beats could look like:

• We’re in the silence of space until a fleeing spaceship is being bombarded by weapon blasts from a pursuing gigantic enemy space ship. One blast causes a huge explosion on the hull of the fleeing ship. 
• Within the fleeing ship, the crew reacts to the explosion, rocking them side to side. In particular, two droids (C3PO and R2D2) react and explain that the main reactor has been shut down, and there will be no escape for the princess this time. The droids and crew react to a loud sound. 
• In space, we see the fleeing space ship floating into the belly of the enemy ship. They’ve been taken by a retractor beam. 
• Armed crewmen react as they line up in defensive positions down a long corridor leading to an access door until the DOOR EXPLODES. Enemy STORMTROOPERS come through the now-destroyed door firing their blasters, starting a firefight that leads to multiple casualties on both sides. 
• Down another corridor, our two droid friends maneuver through another firefight. 
• Back by the exploded door, stormtroopers stand at attention as DARTH VADER enters. He’s a menacing figure dressed in all-black armor. He makes his way deeper into the ship with purpose. 

A scene-by-scene bullet point outline helps to communicate the structure and pacing of your story, allowing you the ability to make any necessary and key changes before you’ve embedded them into the actual script. 

Under pro contracts the outline is essential to the collaboration process between screenwriters and development executives, producers, and directors. 

But in your own development process, the outline helps you to write the skeleton of your script before you add the “meat” and texture when you get to the writing process. 

• A strong logline
• A short synopsis
• A detailed beat sheet outline

Now you’re ready to write.

This is the second act of your three-month journey, where the work of writing begins. 

The key to writing and finishing a script within three months (or less)? Writing sessions. 

Writing in writing sessions (rather than focusing on how many minutes/hours/days you write) is one of the most effective ways to write fast, and write well. 

Here’s the approach:

• Write in focused sessions with no time goals
• Aim to write 10 pages each session
• Before you write another 10 pages, read the prior pages you’ve written (read more on that below). This helps you to stay on the same page with yourself each time. 
• As you read previous pages, tweak them as needed. This helps you to rewrite the script as you go. 
• Even when you’re ready to start writing Page 51, you should read the previous 50 pages before you do. 

If you write 10 pages per writing session, you can complete a 100-page (give or take) screenplay in just 10 writing sessions throughout Month Two of this three-month screenwriting process. 

10 pages per writing session may sound intimidating at first, but it’s easier than you think, especially with your outline in hand. And before you consider breaking any records by writing 30 pages or more per writing session, it’s best to keep it to 10 pages (give or take one or two) so you leave each writing session wanting to write more. This will help fuel you to stay engaged in the writing process, and also help you avoid writer’s block and burnout. 

It helps you to write faster, and ensure that you finish the script in a timely manner. It also takes away the pressure of feeling the need to write for huge blocks of time. 

When you focus on writing sessions, there’s no time limit. You can certainly spend eight hours during one session. But you can also write ten pages in an hour if you have already outlined what you’re going to write for the next writing session. 

• A complete first draft
• Roughly 90-110 pages, which is the sweet spot for spec scripts

This second month obviously leaves extra time. When you finish that script by the end of 10 writing sessions, you can feel free to do another read of what will be the whole first draft. Tweak and refine as you go, and then put the script away for a week or two. Give yourself time to be able to do that. This step is a vital one as you go into Month Three.

Don’t look at the script, don’t talk about it, don’t think about it, don’t share it with anyone. Take a short vacation from it. This will help you approach the script objectively as you move into the next step of writing.

Now comes the third act of your three-month screenwriting process, where good scripts become great ones. Rewriting is where the magic happens. Luckily, you’ve been rewriting and refining your script throughout the whole process so far already. Now’s the time to make your script really shine.

Now is the time to open that script up again after your one-to-two week break, sit down, and read it from beginning to end. No stopping. No editing. Just experience the script from a reader’s perspective. 

Ask yourself:

• Does the story flow?
• Are there slow sections that halt the momentum?
• Are the stakes clear and high enough?
• Do the characters feel consistent?
• Does the dialogue drag or pop? 

You can take notes as you go, but resist rewriting on this first read. After that, it’s time to roll up your creative sleeves and get to work. 

This is the big picture rewrite where you need to address structure, character arcs, pacing, and stakes. Don’t get lost in dialogue tweaks yet. This is all about giving a pass on the big picture of your script. 

This first pass you can do within a few days. 

This is probably the most fun rewrite pass because you get to pepper your script with creative plants, payoffs, and foreshadowing. Script readers get bored. If your script is routine and bland, they’re not going to hand it up to their bosses. But if they see creative plot, story, and character plants that are later paid off in the script, they’re going to take notice of that. 

Find ways to accomplish this throughout your scripts, both with A and B stories and stories and characters, as well as C stories and characters. 

Once again, you can take a few days to do this. 

Your script needs to shed some weight. Hollywood wants lean and mean muscle machines for spec scripts. Those are the types of scripts that are memorable reads where no line of dialogue or scene/sequence is a waste. Dive into your script and see what absolutely doesn’t need to be there. 

Anything that stops the flow of your story needs to go, even if you’re cutting great dialogue or amazing scenes. If they don’t serve the story and keep the pacing going, they need to go. 

A few days on this pass will do the trick. 

You now have a sleek, lean, fast, and furious machine rolling off of the line. But you’re not done just yet. It’s time to polish any tiny scuffs, no matter how small. 

• Do a dialogue trim and make sure every word is there for a reason. 
• Check your format and make sure it’s not overly busy. 
• Run a spelling and grammar check.
• Remove unnecessary exposition. 

• A polished draft ready for screenplay contest submission
• You’ll also have a strong logline and short synopsis for any networking opportunities. 

Whether you’re racing toward a contest deadline or training yourself to write under pro deadlines, if you commit to this process, you’ll build habits that will make you a better and more proficient screenwriter.