I've finished 7 screenplays -- 6 of them in the past year -- and I'm darn proud! Last year, I made a commitment to sit down and write for 2 hours a day during the school year, and 6 hours a day during the summer (I'm a college student in film school). I can't even begin to explain how much I've learned since I wrote that first script. Skills like writing realistic dialogue and creating plots you just learn over time. But I think the most important lesson you learn from writing consistently is that writing is not something that you do, but rather, a part of who you are. You are always a writer, even when you're not writing pages. But writing those pages is the daily reminder that you need to keep yourself in it, and not shy away from the difficulty of it all. If you give all of yourself to a story, a story will give all of itself to you. Writing pages is simply your offering to the story.

I've written 2 features and a short and am currently writing my 3rd. It seemed a lot easier in the beginning, back when I didn't know anything, and it seems the more I learned about the craft (through reading, watching, etc.) has almost slowed me down because now I look at things I never thought of before, but my writing has improved significantly, so...

How many features I have written depends how you look upon it. Because I few times I've dumped a script and started all over, not using anything from the old version. I consider these as new scripts and not rewrites. And in that case: 7 (I think) I know WAY much more now than when I wrote my first. Of course you learn by writing, but it is what is around the writing that makes you move forwards. If I had only been sitting on my butt writing and not listen to feedback, worked with the language, urged to become better, learning structure and storytelling I would still write as lousy as my first script was. But, never the less, it is by your writing you prove yourself worthy.