The 10-Day Screenplay: How to Write a Screenplay in 10 Days by Darrin Donnelly


The 10-Day Screenplay: How to Write a Screenplay in 10 Days
Title : The 10-Day Screenplay: How to Write a Screenplay in 10 Days
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : -
Format Type : Kindle Edition
Number of Pages : 146
Publication : First published July 30, 2013

The Step-By-Step Course That Shows You How to Write Your Screenplay in Just 10 Days!

“If you want to write screenplays for a living, there is nothing more valuable for a writer than being able to produce a quality screenplay quickly. We created this course to give you all the tools you need to accomplish exactly that. This system is laid out in a way that we hope writers of all experience levels will find easy to use. Our promise is simple: follow this system and in 10 days, you’ll have a powerful script finished!” - Travis Donnelly, writer & producer of MEDIUM, co-author of THE 10-DAY SCREENPLAY

Some of the most famous movies in history were written in 10 days or less.

Sylvester Stallone wrote ROCKY in just three days. The movie became one of the most successful of all time and made Stallone an international superstar.

Kevin Williamson wrote SCREAM in four days. The script created a hot bidding war and made Williamson one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood.

Joe Eszterhas wrote BASIC INSTINCT in 10 days. When he was finished, he shipped the script to his agent and sold it three days later for $3 million.

Not only is it possible to write a great screenplay in 10 days or less, but spending too much time on a script is actually one of the worst mistakes a screenwriter can make! It can lead to boring, dull, and unoriginal scripts.

Stop wasting so much time and energy trying to write your next screenplay. Simply follow this program and in as little as 10 days, you’ll finish the screenplay that could just launch your screenwriting career!

THE 10-DAY SCREENPLAY system works like this:

STEP 1: THE 10-DAY SCREENPLAY shows you how to evaluate your initial idea using the five requirements of every great movie idea. Is your idea unique? Is it big enough? Will it make for a compelling two-hour movie? What can be done to make your idea bigger and better?

STEP 2: THE 10-DAY SCREENPLAY system forces you to flesh out your characters. Contrary to anything you may have heard, great characters make great movies. You need to really know your characters and let THEM dictate your plot, NOT the other way around. Amateur screenwriters come up with a plot and then plug in forced characters to play it out. This is a huge mistake and you'll never succeed this way!

STEP 3: Once you have your idea and your characters, it's time to write your script following THE 10-DAY SCREENPLAY course. Each day of the course includes an important lesson on what your story objective should be for that day along with a manageable writing assignment. If you simply follow this course, at the end of the 10 days, you will have a finished script!

To make this process easy to understand, THE 10-DAY SCREENPLAY breaks down six blockbuster movies along the way – ROCKY, DIE HARD, HOME ALONE, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, SCREAM, and BRIDESMAIDS. You’ll see how our plot and character techniques worked in each movie and how they can be applied to your screenplay.

It's time to stop dreaming and start writing! This book will show you the way.


The 10-Day Screenplay: How to Write a Screenplay in 10 Days Reviews


  • Ahmad sarookhani

    That's a very useful book... It explains everything that you must know in the proper amount of text. this book teaches you to write a script step by step.

  • Terri Lynn

    This just ridiculous beyond belief. Author Darrin Donnelly is not a screenwriter. Co-writer (and brother) Travis talks about selling his screenplays but can't tell us if they were produced and what they are. They spend a lot of time telling you that great screenplay writers have written screenplays in 10 days and that "in 10 days you will have written a blockbuster screenplay." Uh huh. Really. Every one of the screenwriters he mentions who has written a screenplay in 10 (or so) days are all well-known and extremely experienced screenwriters with multiple awards. I hardly see a rank beginner doing the same. And as for blockbusters, every experienced well known screenwriter I have seen or read interviews with say they take a lot of time planning a screenplay- deciding on the story, creating characters, researching locations and careers, etc BEFORE writing and emphasize that not even all of their screenplays are blockbusters or even get sold.

    The information is the same old stuff you've read before. And at one point, they even admit you need to spend time planning your script before writing. One example they put on the cover was how Joe Eszterhas wrote Basic Instinct in 10 days and sold it for 3 million BUT Joe was already a superstar experienced writer and shipped this off to his AGENT who sold it 3 days later. Hardly going to happen to John and Jane Doe with no experience, no fame, and no agent.

    What is particularly annoying is that each day they give examples from some older and very crummy movies, all of which I hate and nothing I'd want to emulate- Rocky, Home Alone, There's Something About Mary, Scream, and Bridesmaids- plus 1 I kind of like- Die Hard. I am interested in mystery/suspense/thrillers and in the kind of serious drama you see in Schindler's List.

    The whole book is small and comes across as amateurish. It has a "I was self-published" look and vibe about it.

  • Vaishali

    Very useful.

  • Douglas Misquita

    With one day left in 2019, I was looking for a quick read that would round out my 2019 reading to 50 books. I found this book on Kindle Unlimited and decided to go for it. What I like about this book is it's succinct framework for a great story. While other books spend 50 pages or more on each aspect of a story and delve into philosophy and discourse, this book does very effectively by referencing 10 example films. Any serious movie buff will have watched most of the 10 films and can identify with the sequences of the film as described in this book. In fact just reading the goals of the sequences kept me longing to discover, what's next which is a surefire indicator of how well the sequences meld into the real narrative.

  • Matthew Andrus

    Great book for the aspiring screen writer.

    Darrin and Travis Donnelly have here a great overview of the basic elements needed to write a competent screenplay. The book breaks down the essential sections of a screenplay into individual chapters. The explanations are easy to understand and provide an approximate page count help give an idea of how long each scene should be.

    What really helps provide context are the examples the authors use through out the book. They choose five very popular movies from different genres and use them to illustrate the lessons/principles in each chapter. This was especially helpful, because as someone who has no experience with screenplays it made it easier to understand each lesson and allowed me to analyze each example as I read.

    The main drawback to the book is the authors do not discuss screenplay format at all. There is a brief mention of available screenwriting programs that will handle format for you, but it would have been helpful to hear some tips from the authors. To be fair the books intent is to explain story structure, so anyone serious about screenplay writing will probably need to supplement this book with additional readings or information from the web.

    All in all, a good book on screenplay writing and one I recommend to anyone interested in trying their hand at the craft.

  • Raphael Bernardo

    I read this because I heard about how Katharine Emmer wrote 'Life in Color' after reading the book. It's mostly about plot, but I really like the attitude of making the screenplay without procrastinating, or hidden procrastination. Next will be Robert McKee's book 'Story, Substance, Structure'. Today is day 1 out of 10 for me by the way.

  • Jilles

    This little book has some nice pointers and easy to use suggestions to make writing a screenplay a little easier.

  • Alicia

    This is a reliable, if deceptively simple, point of departure for feature screenwriting, complete with modern and popular examples to break down the basic three-act structure's main plot points.