brainjelly

If you end up with a complete pile of crap after your first draft you possibly haven't spent long enough working your outline. All of the hard work should have been done, and all the crap thrown out, before you start actually writing (in my opinion).

What Elliot said. Do all the hard work before hitting FD or MM.

seriously no joke. I was in a class and our goal was to finish a script in a month and a half. so yeah I had an outline but didn't spend too much time on it. The instructor was very touchy feely and encouraged deviation from the outline how ever we felt. Although I'm sure this is sound advice in plenty of cases, I think I'm officially one of those people that just needs to hammer down and outline, be in love with that outline, and then execute.