Let’s face it, Screenwriters aren’t the fastest typists in the world. In fact, the screenwriters average WPM (words per minute) is probably around … three. Not because they can’t type fast, but rather because the craft of screenwriting just isn’t played that way. Unlike novelists, screenwriting is about absolute precision — when millions of dollars are being spent every minute, there simply isn’t time to explore the details, which are the very thing that make worlds of story so realistic and interesting (this is why screenwriting is both an art and a craft). In a recent rant, titled Screenwriters! If You Want to Write a Movie, Write a Book, I talked about how you shouldn’t worry about the budget of a screenplay when writing, and you shouldn’t, but this is one of the main differences between writing for the screen and writing for the page. I’m not sure how much publishing costs (anyone out there want to fact check it?), but I’m pretty sure it’s not nearly as expensive as the movie making process.

Anyway, the real point here is this: Screenwriters type one word at a time … carefully … and judgmentally. because of this, we rarely type fast … unless you’re actually writing a novel, blog, or any other type of writing outside of the screenplay format. Let’s just say, in this race the novelist is definitely the hare.

So my question is, how fast do you type? Have you tested yourself lately? It’s pretty fun if you’ve yet to do so. Try it at TypingTest.com.

My record so far is 85 … now if only I can match that when writing my screenplay.