What It's Like to Write Your First Screenplay

There’s nothing quite like writing your first screenplay. It’s a thrilling, terrifying, empowering, intimidating, and inspiring experience. 

• It’s thrilling because you’re going on a new imaginative journey, not really knowing what to expect. 
• It’s terrifying because you’re staring at a blank screen with a blinking cursor staring back at you, like a deep blue ocean, waiting for you to work. 
• It’s intimidating because you’ve done the research and know that you have to meet certain parameters, guidelines, and industry expectations in the form of rigid format dynamics, effective screenplay and story structure, and so much more.   
• It’s inspiring because you’re doing something most people never have the courage to attempt: you’re chasing a dream.

You’ll always remember your first script. Not because it was perfect (it won’t be). Not because it drew the immediate attention of Hollywood (unlikely). But because it changes you, and it represents the beginning of your screenwriting journey. 

If you’re considering writing a screenplay for the first time, or are about to dive into that process, here’s what it’s really like when you do. 

You don’t casually write your first screenplay - you feel compelled to write it. Why? Because the whispers won’t stop. 

• There’s a spark of an idea that won’t leave you alone.
• There are characters who keep talking to you. 
• There are images, scenes, and scenarios you can’t get out of your head. 

The idea, the characters, and the images of cinematic scenes in your head won’t stop, no matter how hard you try to quiet them.  

Before you know it, you start imagining the trailer for your movie. You start casting each role with the ideal movie star archetype. You start to see the movie play out in your head without you writing a single word. 

You feel inspired. It feels almost magical. There’s this world and these characters being born before your imaginative eyes. And that world and those characters are growing and growing. Pieces of the story narrative puzzle, thought vacant at first, begin to appear. You start connecting your exciting beginning to your shocking ending with second act story threads that appear out of nowhere. 

You’re starting to answer those whispers. 

This is the honeymoon phase of the screenwriting process. Enjoy it because the real work is about to begin. 

That honeymoon phase will be tempting you to jump right into the script. You’ll get to a point where all of these images, story points, and characters feel bottled up. You’ll be tempted to let them loose because you feel too overwhelmed. 

This is when you’re going to need to force yourself to do the front-end work first.

The most common mistake first-time screenwriters make is jumping into the writing process too fast before doing the necessary front-end work. 

Beyond doing the necessary research to learn proper formatting, screenplay structure elements, and industry guidelines and expectations, you need to start organizing all of those creative thoughts and images that have been running through your head over and over and over. 

Screenplays are highly-structured blueprints for potential movies, blueprints that hundreds of people will need to use to make your cinematic story come to life. It’s not like novel writing where you can discover the story as you go, utilizing a relatively open canvas with no real page, structure, or format limitations. 

With screenwriting, you need to condense your story into a 90-115-page (give or take) document, with specific formatting to convey what is to be seen and heard on screen, that will fill a general two-hour window, the preferred limit of screen time for a theatrical or streaming release. 

Front-end work helps prepare your story for the screenplay format and structure. It also helps expand and validate your world, story, and characters. Front-end work includes:

• Visualizing how your story will play on the big screen before you type a single word.
• Researching your world and characters to make them as authentic as possible. 
• Doing further research to make sure your idea hasn’t been done before - and if it has, finding a way to put a new twist on it so Hollywood can differentiate your script from others. 
• Writing a logline for your screenplay to create a compass that always leads you to the core of your idea and story. 
• Writing a synopsis to get the basic three-act structure of your screenplay together. 
• Writing a beat sheet outline to lay out and organize the scenes of your movie. 

Front-end work is key to ensuring that you’re preparing yourself and your screenplay for success. Because you don’t want to go into the writing process blind, even with those images and scenes that have been floating around in your head for months or years. You need direction and structure to turn them into a cinematic movie.  

This may be a mute point at first glance for some beginners, but getting the proper screenwriting software is a huge step towards success in writing your first screenplay. Why? Because screenwriting software takes away the unnecessary worries you don’t need to deal with during your screenwriting process. 

• All page margins are instantly set to the correct industry standards. 
• All formatting is also set to the correct industry standards. 
• The different screenplay format elements (Scene Headings, Action, Dialogue, Transitions, etc.) and their settings are just a single click away.   

The industry standard screenwriting software Final Draft offers everything you need, in those respects, and so much more, including the Beat Board that you can use to create your front-end outline.  

Screenwriting software will be your best and most empowering financial investment in your screenwriting career. 

There’s nothing more thrilling, terrifying, and intimidating than that blank screen and blinking cursor staring back at you, waiting for your fingers to start typing. 

The moment you type FADE IN is thrilling. It’s like pushing the start button to an exciting arcade game or rollercoaster ride. The adventure is about to begin. 

After that, terror and intimidation can set in. Now it’s time to do the work. It’s time to write your first scene. And through research, as well as watching movies and reading screenplays, you hopefully know how important it is to capture the attention of the script reader (and audience) from the get go. 

If you’ve done the front-end work though, you know exactly what you’re going to be starting off with. And hopefully it’s a scene that introduces the concept and story as quickly as possible. You need to look no further than your favorite movies to see examples of how to do that effectively. 

Once you start typing though, you’ll quickly feel the thrill return as you finally find yourself putting your visuals down onto the page. You’ll be thrilled to finally see your world and your characters come to life. 

It’s relatively easy to start a screenplay strong and end it with a bang. Great openings and cathartic closings are usually what we conjure first when we hear those initial creative whispers. 

It’s the second act of the script that is usually the hardest for beginners. 

In the first act:

• You’ve introduced your concept and core conflict. 
• You’ve briefly introduced your protagonist within their ordinary world. 
• You’ve thrown them into the fire of the conflict.
• You’ve showcased their initial reactions to that conflict.      

That’s all great. You’re off to an outstanding start. 

But it’s the second act that can stall your momentum. 

Sure, if you’ve done your front-end work well, particularly with your outline/beat sheet, the second act is going to be much, much easier for you. But even as you’re writing your outline, the second act is what halts most progress. 

But fear not! There are certain go-to practices that you can utilize to break you through the mid-script wall. 

• Stay in the habit of evolving the conflict and raising the stakes every 5 pages (give or take). 
• Have your protagonist make mistakes, learn from them, apply what they’ve learned to the current conflict, only for that to lead to evolved conflict and more dire stakes.
• Introduce secondary conflicts your characters must deal with. 

The short of it is this: Keep things new and interesting every few pages. If you are mindful of the need to do this, you’ll have no problem navigating around, over, under, and through the mid-script wall. 

When you break through the mid-script wall by introducing evolving conflict and higher stakes, you’ll start to feel the thrill of building to your worthy ending.

Story momentum is exciting. You’ll start feeling the inevitable end approaching. Because of this, you’ll feel some pressure building as you rush to get everything (plot points, character arcs, emotional beats, etc.) in. 

You’ll likely find yourself either writing too long of a screenplay (anything 120 pages and beyond is too long for a spec script) or missing intended or necessary story, plot, or character elements.

But as you work through the writing process, you’ll be thrilled knowing that you faced the pressure and managed to not just deliver a satisfactory ending - you’ve finished your first screenplay.

All screenwriters go through an initial phase of naivete. You’ve just spent a great deal of time laboring over your screenplay - your baby. You’ve loved it. You’ve nurtured it. You’ve helped it grow. It’s the center of your world. 

Once again, you’ll feel thrilled. The thrill of finally seeing your idea, world, story, and characters come to life on the script page is amazing. And kudos to you for finishing it. Most don’t get that far. 

However, you’ll quickly learn that any delusions of grandeur were premature. After you finish a screenplay, it’s a good practice to step away from it for a month.

• Don’t think about it. 
• Don’t talk about it. 
• Don’t share it with anyone. 

You should lock it away and take a vacation from it. Then, when a month has passed, open the script and read it from beginning to end as a reader (not the writer who wrote it). 

Most screenwriters will quickly see the flaws jump off of the page. 

• Bad format
• Grammar and spelling mistakes
• Poor pacing
• Lackluster dialogue
• Overwritten scene description
• Plot holes 

But some screenwriters may keep their heads in the clouds, thinking it’s flawless. Again, it’s natural. They’ll overlook script issues. They’ll think what they wrote is good enough for Hollywood. And because of that, they’ll start marketing their script to Hollywood. 

Those who jump into the marketing phase right after their first script will quickly realize that nobody is biting, or, worse yet, industry insiders may bite on your concept but once they get and read the actual script, a bridge is burned because the writing didn’t deliver. In short, it could be a waste of a great cold query or networking connection.  

Those who can step away from the script, return to it, and have the ability to look at their own work with more objective eyes will be one step ahead of the latter. 

Pro screenwriters don’t “nail it” on the first draft. 

• They sculpt it. 
• They tighten. 
• They elevate what works. 
• They cut the fat and excess away.   

Your first screenplay will eventually teach you that writing is rewriting. It’s a huge accomplishment to finish your first script. But the real work isn’t done until you go through it again, learn from your mistakes, pinpoint the weaknesses and strengths, and do everything you can to make it the best it can possibly be. Only then do you want to market it to Hollywood. 

So, be sure to force yourself to do at least a couple of additional rewrites. 

Writing your first screenplay isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s emotional. Any given minute, hour, or day during the screenwriting process will have you dealing with multiple emotions:

• Confidence
• Doubt
• Frustration
• Pride
• Fear
• Hope

Sometimes all on the same day. But the flipside is so worth it because there’s nothing more exhilarating and satisfying than hearing someone respond well to your story. 

If you stay the course and understand that each screenplay you write during those first few efforts is a valuable learning and growing experience, you’ll eventually feel the calm of things clicking. 

Somewhere along the way, something changes. 

• You start thinking in scenes. 
• You understand why constantly raising the stakes matters. 
• You see how setups and payoffs create momentum. 
• You begin to spot when scenes are lacking tension. 
• You stop just “writing stuff that happens” and start crafting cause-and-effect storytelling. 

This is when you stop feeling like someone who wants to be a screenwriter, and realize that you are a screenwriter. 

Your first screenplay will likely not sell. It probably won’t land you an agent or manager. It may not win a major screenwriting competition. 

And that’s okay. 

Your first screenplay is more like an apprenticeship. You’re training your storytelling instincts. You’re learning how to apply industry standards, wants, needs, and expectations. 

Most screenwriters don’t sell their first screenplays. Knowing that, you can and should take a lot of emotional weight off of your shoulders. Understand that this first script is only the beginning. It’s not your career on the line. It’s you setting the initial foundation of your screenwriting. 

It teaches you structure, pacing, character arcs, plot points, turning points, theme, and so much more. Most importantly, your first script teaches you discipline. And if you luck out and that first script does draw the attention of Hollywood, that’s icing on the cake.

Finishing a screenplay proves that you can do it! It’s possible. That confidence will carry you forward throughout your whole screenwriting journey. 

When you type FADE OUT or FADE TO BLACK, something happens internally. It doesn’t matter if the script isn’t working, if it’s overwritten or underwritten, or if it needs a huge overhaul or slight rewrite.

You did it. 

You took an idea that existed only in your imagination and turned it into a cinematic story. That’s rare. Most don’t get that far. You’ve now created proof for yourself, and others, that you’re capable of writing a screenplay. 

Screenwriters never stop learning, mind you. Even professional screenwriters are constantly learning with each and every script. 

When you’re a beginner, failure isn’t you failing. It’s you creating opportunities to learn, to get better, and to evolve into a screenwriter capable of making a living doing what you love. There’s no better feeling than that.