QUESTION:  Why would I want to take six weeks to write a screenplay?
ANSWER:  Practice!

Yes, you too can write a screenplay in six weeks!  I’m not talking about an adaptation of a novel, a rewrite of an existing work, or a short subject.  What I mean is one original feature film screenplay starting with nothing, no idea, nothing.  All it takes is commitment, patience, and maybe a drollop of imagination.  Here we go.

WEEK ONE: GET A CLUE
Come up with an idea.  It could be anything, set anywhere of whatever genre you want it to be.  Come up with a simple conflict.  A conflict between two people, a conflict between a person and an animal, a conflict between a person and a chair.  Any conflict.  One person wants one thing and the other person wants the opposite.  That conflict is your movie.  Without it, you may never finish this script.

WEEK TWO: THE ENDING
Come up with an ending.  How does the conflict resolve itself?  Who wins, who loses?  Who dies, who escapes death?  However you resolve the conflict will show what you want to say with this script.  Guess what?  You just did the hard part.  The rest is just like skiing.

WEEK THREE: STORY TIME
White a scene for scene story outline.  Put it on three-by-five cards, write it on your arm, draw it in the sand.  No matter the medium.  Get it down and learn it.

WEEK FOUR: GET BACK TO WORK!
Take another week with the story because you need to spend more time with it.  Do this part right.  No unnecessary scenes.  Every scene should deal with the central conflict in some way.  Know what way

WEEK FIVE: WRITE THE THING
Make it a goal: fifteen pages a day.  You have everything figured out, so why not?

WEEK SIX: ROUNDING THE BEND
Okay, so you didn’t get fifteen whole pages a day, but you’ve got another week, so stay at it!

At the end of that six week period, if you do not have a good draft, it’s because you didn’t do the first two steps right.  Know what you have to say.  Without your point of view, the writing will not happen.  Once you know what you have to say, just say it.