How long does it take to write a script?

I've just finished the latest draft of a screenplay. It's something that's been with me for quite a while. I wrote the first draft ten years ago and it went 'out there', got me a few jobs too. But it was never quite right. People said nice things about it, some people got very excited about it but no-one got so excited that they wanted to produce it.

So it went back in the drawer. Or at least in a folder on the computer. My old computer.

Every now and then I've thought about stealing a scene or two or a line for something else I was writing at the time. And every time I dusted it down I saw something that I thought I could put right and so I'd tweak and then it would go back in the file and I'd forget about it again. Until such time as I'd decide to try to plunder it again.

I used a little sequence in a pilot I wrote. We made the pilot. We didn't make the series so that sequence was still unseen, so no need to change it in the screenplay.

Then about two years ago I was writing something when suddenly I had a moment of clarity. I knew how to restructure it. It meant taking a scalpel and performing major surgery but it was always too long. But for some reason I didn't finish it. So, it went back in the file.

Until three weeks ago when I was mapping out a new idea. I was playing with the characters when one of them started to talk like the lead in the screenplay. Okay, so why don't I take all the best elements out of the screenplay and give them to him. Made complete sense.

Until I reopened the screenplay and started to read. I discovered that I had finished my restructure but I'd never sent it out. It was almost there.

But now I could see where others things could go. So I've spent my spare time in the past three weeks on a screenplay I first stared ten years ago and its in pretty good shape. Probably the best shape it's been in since I first thought I'd finished. It's leaner, funnier, structurally better. I've lost all the hand waving scenes where I thought I was being clever but actually I was just being self indulgent.

How long does it take to write a script? Well some I've done in a week but this one's taken ten years.

Sometimes things take time to cook.  But you know that's the easy bit. 

Now all I need is a producer.