This is a guest post by Robert Cornero. Be sure to check out HackingHollywood.net for more of Robert’s articles.

Ah yes, Script Frenzy has come around yet again! For those unfamiliar, Script Frenzy is that month-long marathon when writers from all over blast through an entire screenplay from start to finish – 3o days from initial development to final product. For many it will be a fantastic creative journey. In fact, 15,000 people have already signed up for the challenge.

Unfortunately (or, perhaps fortunately depending on your views by the end of this article) for me, I’ve decided that I won’t be joining them.

I’ll admit, I originally signed up to write along with everyone and was completely gung-ho for this to start, but more and more it’s just striking me as, well, a bad idea.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying Script Frenzy is a bad idea in general. In fact, I think it’s a great idea that many people should try, especially first-time writers. It will push them creatively and maybe get them in to a daily writing habit (which is absolutely essential if you plan on calling yourself a writer by trade). But for me (and I suspect other serious writers), participating in Script Frenzy might not be a great idea… Here’s why:

Pacing

Let’s get this out of the way first: Script Frenzy is a breakneck pace at which to write a fully developed script. 3 and a half pages a day might not sound like a lot to many writers, but believe me, you’re not going to have that in you every single day. On a good day, I can crank out 8 to 10 pages. On a bad day, I’m lucky to get just 1. Most days I write fall in between, but if I’m writing a serious script, I want at least two months of solid writing on top of at least two weeks of development and planning to nail down my characters, story beats, important scenes, etc. Even still, I rest fairly often.  There’s at least one day a week where I don’t write at all, and most weeks I take two days off.  Add that to the time you need to develop your idea initially, and you suddenly have a lot fewer days to spit out 100 pages.

Furthermore, I’m not aware of many writers who write professionally at this Script Frenzy pace (not saying there aren’t), but this isn’t a speed which can typically be maintained for very long. In fact, I’d venture to say that many writers, after Script Frenzy, will be feeling pretty burnt out and not want to pick up the pen for a good long while after. Do you want this to be you? I’m of the opinion that if you want writing to be your occupation, you should treat it like your work and be able to attack it (at least a little) every day. Burnout does not facilitate the writer’s lifestyle very well.

Quality (or lack thereof)

Because of the pressure to pump out 100 pages that quickly, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that many of those 15,000+ writers will at some point sacrifice quality for quantity as the writer feels the pressure to keep up with the preordained pace. Pretty soon words lose their meaning as they just start to take up space, and then this virus infects your scenes, and before you know it, it’s spread systemically and you’re left with a dying screenplay (which may have had a fighting change had it been thought through prior to beginning). The worst? Now you’re too burnt out to go back and change it; so sick of the writing that the screenplay just rots in a drawer or on your hard drive, never to see the light of day.

Hear me out: If screenwriting is something you want to do professionally, please please please spend time fleshing out your ideas thoroughly before you begin working. I’m not saying you have to have all the answers. I am saying that you need to test your ideas first to see if they’ll even float, before trying to take them out to sea. Otherwise, you may get stuck on a sinking ship and be too tired to bail it out.

Long Term Goals

I’ll let you all in on a little secret.

I’m working on a project right now that I feel is going to be huge. I’m 75 pages in to it, (it will probably end up around 110 at the end of this first draft) and I don’t want to interrupt the writing if it. For those unfamiliar, I have a pretty outrageous goal, and that’s to have one screenplay written and sold to one of the major studios in one year. I also have strong confidence that this will happen within a time span in or very close to my goal.

Now, that’s all I’m going to say about this project for a moment because the point is this: screenwriting is something I want to be doing professionally, and while I may be perceived as a bit crazy/ambitious (hopefully more the latter), I know I’m not alone in this aspiration.

Script Frenzy doesn’t typically put the writer in too keen of a mental state at the end (something that is not conducive to the writer’s lifestyle), nor does it loan itself to the writer producing a work of quality. In other words, Script Frenzy lives up to its title; whipping writers up into an exhausting frenzy of writing motion.  Too bad much of it us undirected and doesn’t end up advancing things for them.

So I have to ask myself two questions:

1. What good is Script Frenzy? and
2. What’s the alternative?”

Let’s start with the first question:

Script Frenzy is good for people getting started. There are few motivational factors as powerful as guilt, and when you join Script Frenzy, you join a community, and if you fail to keep up, you will feel like you’re letting others down. (Of course, for the more callous of us out there, that can wear off pretty quickly).

Secondly, it helps people get bad scripts out of their system while familiarizing them with screenplay formats and screenwriting software. I know a producer who won’t read anything a person writes until their sixth script because he believes that it takes five scripts to get the all bad ideas out of your system. There is something to be said for this concept.

On to the second question: What’s the Alternative?

Quite simply, the alternative to frenzy is focus.

Come up with an idea, fully flesh it out, and execute on it. I’m not going to go in to all this requires, but needless to say, it probably requires more than just the lone, solitary month Script Frenzy allots. Similarly, it requires constant planning and re-evaluation. And while focus can involve frenzied work, it happens in that order; focus first, frenzy follows as a natural extension of that passion.

What I’ve Realized

Script Frenzy is not bad in and of itself. In fact, they have some tremendous resources available on their site. You will have to weigh whether it’s right for you. In my line of thinking I’ve observed that Script Frenzy is usually for writers who are starting out, who want to test the waters of writing scripts, and who want to see how far they can push their own creativity. These are good things. Likewise, these writers are probably not expecting anything serious in return for their efforts other than their own edification which is, again, a good thing. For these writers, I say go for it.

But for the serious writer; for the writer who has learned all the basics, read all the books, and written a thing or two before in order to at least try to make a living at their chosen craft, it’s (probably) not going to be too helpful.  Sure, they may get a good idea out of it, but what was holding that good idea back before?

True artistry demands time and effort to evaluate and refine. No matter how you slice it, 30 days simply isn’t enough time for most people to develop an artistic and powerful written work. And unless they’re doing it just for fun, I’m left wondering how many of those 15,000+ writers are confusing frenzied motion for real progress.

The point is this: our time is limited. We can only spend it once. I could choose to spend my time in a frenzy and spit out an incomplete work, or I could spend it finishing and refining my major screenplay which I’ve been working on for some time. The choice then becomes whether I want one highly polished screenplay, or two rough, mediocre screenplays. I know which road I’m taking. The best advice for you? Choose wisely.

Happy Writing!

Robert Cornero has been a Cinematic Fanatic since 1986: I’m a writer, adventurer, and much more with a ridiculous goal: I intend to have 1 film written and sold in 1 year to a major studio.  Be sure to check out my website at HackingHollywood.net. I’d love to connect with you as we pursue art together.

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