There is a right and wrong way to write a screenplay with AI. This article will show you how to do it the right way so you maintain your creative agency and output the best screenplays of your life.
AI has seemingly changed the entire screenwriting process for screenwriters. But there is a proper way to use it, a way to abuse it, and also a way to misuse it. What I find is that many screenwriters seem to fall into the polar ends of the spectrum, either relying too heavily on it and losing their creative agency, or fighting against it and not using it to give them the advantage they need in this ever-competitive landscape of creators. This guide will show you the correct way to use AI, helping you find a middle ground that allows you to collaborate with AI, step-by-step, in the writing of your next feature screenplay, TV pilot, or short script.
What It Really Means to “Write With AI Properly”
The advantages of AI screenwriting are twofold. On one hand, it gives creators more creative options, and on the other hand it outputs lots of text and does a lot of the tedious work. But when we talk about how to write a screenplay with AI, we need to analyze what the job of the screenwriter is becoming in this environment. In the past, the screenwriter used to be responsible for all of the preparation, all the drafting, and all the rewriting. In other words, they were generating all of the ideas and generating all of the pages.
But this has now fundamentally changed. From my vantage point, it looks like screenwriters are now scooting more into the role of idea creator, idea alchemist, and “director of ideas,” and using AI as the collaborator who does the tedious work. So if we want to get our semantics correct, screenwriters aren’t as much “writers” as they are collaborators and directors. The screenwriters of tomorrow are going to be the ones with the best ideas, because the tedious work (the actual writing and idea generation) is going to be on an even playing field. This is great news if you’re an “idea guy,” and not so good news if you’re the “pump out the pages” guy.
But that’s why I’m writing this article. As the architect and designer of Scriptmatix, I’m going to show you how AI screenwriting should be done properly. It’s clearly NOT about letting the AI write your script for you. It is about:
- Using AI to accelerate the craft: speed has always mattered. When you write a screenplay with AI, you accelerate the speed to market. It’s always been an issue in my eyes that a topical film doesn’t get released until years after people started writing about it. That’s because the timing from idea to market viability simply took a very long time. A screenplay can be written in 3 to 6 months, but for it to be market-ready, was typically going to take another six months at a minimum. That means we were looking at about 12 months before screenplay concepts could even be shown and circulated with any kind of consistent positive feedback.
- Maintaining your voice and originality: by letting AI do the work, what you sacrifice is your voice and your originality. AI is a large language model. It is scouring the Internet and using what it has learned about the “proper” thing to write. If everybody were to let AI do all the work for them, every piece of work would sound the same (generally). The goal here is to maintain your voice and have something meaningful to say. Because if you don’t have something meaningful to say, nobody will care. Screenwriting and filmmaking are cultural artifacts; they are reflections and mirrors of the times. And the people and stories that have always risen to the top were the ones that had something bold to say. AI is only going to regurgitate what has already been said in some form or another if left to its own devices.
- Using structured prompts and workflows instead of random requests. Even though AI has changed the game, it hasn’t really changed the process. The process has always been the same and I do not see it changing. There is a progression to writing a really good screenplay. There are no shortcuts. And the ethic still stands: anything good takes effort and time. Nothing good comes easy, and that will remain true even in the era of AI screenwriting.
- Designing the story yourself and using AI to refine, elevate, and expand your ideas. This is all about having creative control every step of the development process. Relinquishing control means relinquishing agency and means relinquishing your own personal meaning. Story should evolve with humankind, and humans are responsible for furthering the art.
- Thinking like a creative director, not an AI operator. And this comes back to what I just said earlier: AI screenwriting is no longer going to be pure screenwriting as we’ve known it. You are more of a director of the creative elements, and the ones who have a feeling or a sense for what elements and dynamics work will be the ones who have the most success going forward. The writing-machine friend who can pump out pages but didn’t really have a good sense or a great bank of ideas will likely disappear into the pack unless he collaborates with an idea person.
To write a screenplay with AI properly isn’t to let a machine do all the work. Instead, it’s mean to make the AI:
- Your brainstorming partner and collaborator who helps you refine your ideas and assemble more creative options. When done right, your creativity should explode (IN A GOOD WAY!).
- Your research assistant. Remember the days of trying to figure out how to make a scene come to life? I remember writing my first crime scene and having absolutely no idea how it actually worked. I remember having a conversation with the detective whom I paid hourly to give me information so that I could make the scene come to life. You no longer need to pay for a consultant with AI.
- Your structure coach. With tools like Scriptmatix, the structure is embedded, and you no longer have to get an education on the purpose of each plot phase. That information is available to you. It’s like having a screenplay professor by your side at all times. I’m sorry, screenwriting schools (BUH-BYE).
- Your revision engine. Revising a scene becomes so much easier because now you can simply input your revision notes into the Scriptmatix Rewrite tool, and revisions are instantly applied.
- And your productivity multiplier. Multiple aspects of screenplay development can progress simultaneously. I can generate multiple character journey profiles, I can create multiple character webs and relationships that span across supporting and secondary characters if I want. And they can all happen simultaneously, and within minutes.
But all that being said, the story remains yours. Having options is amazing, but it’s what you do with those options that is going to separate the artists from the journeymen. If you want to effectively write a screenplay with AI, the true skill going forward is going to be understanding dynamics and having a strong intuition for which ideas are truly original and which ones people actually want to see.
How to Write a Screenplay with AI
Before AI generates anything, you need to bring something to the table. That still begins with:
- A logline. Having a clear idea of the beginning, middle, and end of the story is going to help you achieve your vision. In the past, we never started writing a screenplay unless we had a clear grasp on it. That’s what a logline represented. But maybe with AI you don’t need to know the whole thing right away. You can probably get away with just a core concept.
- A core concept. A core concept is the seed of an idea. It’s not like a logline that has a clear trajectory (beginning, middle, end). With AI screenwriting theory, it’s much easier to go from a core concept to a logline. In the past, we used to have to scratch our heads and go to workshops to work our logline into existence. But with AI being your collaborator, there is an advantage to being open-minded with the direction of your story. Discovery used to be much harder as an individual with a limited amount of brainpower and ideas. Discovery is now seemingly unlimited, and every possibility for your story is going to be available at your fingertips, which makes a core concept a little bit more powerful than even a logline.
- A basic sense of characters. We were all guilty of this in the past. We would start writing our script without really having a clearly fleshed-out character. This was one of those elements that you would weave into your completed screenplay. Through multiple revisions and passes, you would refine your character and bring more definition and fidelity to their inner and outer world. But now you can write a screenplay with AI and use tools like Scriptmatix’s Character Journey Builder, you can have the most complex, multilayered characters ready to weave into your narrative within minutes.
- The genre, tone, and general world. Your script has DNA. It comes from a canon of other scripts of similar genres, character arcs, and plot frameworks. Scriptmatix is already using previous frameworks from preexisting narratives to construct new and original screenplays, essentially taking the best of cinematic history and consolidating it into extremely powerful stories.
So when you’re starting, use AI for:
- Variations of your logline. Let it give you multiple different versions of the same concept. Iterate and put all the options on the table.
- High-level creative brainstorming. Consult your AI and make sure you go deep into each and every idea and leave no stone unturned so that you know which idea is the best one to go with.
Avoid using AI for:
- Instant scripts. Microwavable scripts is not how you write a screenplay with AI. That’s called being lazy and producing low-effort narratives that saturate the market with no shot at getting made.
- Generic plots will have no value. Complex, new-age plots are going to emerge and we will see an evolution.
- Uncontrolled outlining. This is the result of generating without human intervention and it’s obvious, contrived, and lacking value.
Pro Tip: Spending more time on your initial concept is like compounding interest… it makes all future AI outputs more robust and rich with ideas and unique content.
Build Characters That Are As Complex As Yourself
When you write a screenplay with AI, you have the advantage of frontloading your character development. Scriptmatix’s Character Journey model can give you such complex characters, they might feel real… for real.
What AI can help with in terms of character development:
- Not only can you make characters’ core traits, objectives, and motivations, but with tools like Scriptmatix’s Character Journey Builder, you can build a deep spiritual/emotional/psychological journey. The model uses astrological blueprinting to create deep and complex characters.
- Relational dynamics are notorious as some of the hardest things to write. In the past, I remember spending months trying to flesh out the character dynamics. Now with tools like the Character Journey Builder, a writer can create an entire network of characters that have thematic resonance and bring greater meaning and purpose to the character journey.
How not to write a screenplay with AI:
- Let it invent generic characters on the fly as it outputs your pages. This completely defeats the purpose of creating with AI.
- Force a predefined arc on your protagonist. This is particularly common in screenplay generators that use a set training dataset of screenplays. The result is a predefined structure and character arc, which is boring and lacks originality.
The best way to use AI to write characters is to use Scriptmatix Story Engine’s Character Journey Builder to create thematically rich character journeys, character webs, and psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually complex evolutions.
How to Write a Screenplay with AI: Draft a Plot Treatment
Screenwriters have historically always produced plot treatments. This is a way of getting the entire story onto the page in prose form. In Hollywood, treatments would circulate and would open up the idea of the screenplay. It was a great way of getting feedback before jumping into the outline. In Europe, the market would almost exclusively circulate treatments before any further development was engaged.
If you want to write a screenplay with AI, the treatment is the foundation your entire screenplay is built upon.
And this is where AI can help you:
- Expand your idea into a cohesive narrative. Scriptmatix Story Engine can guide you through a development process that turns your concept into a full plot treatment (here’s an article that walks you through this process). Even if the concept is unstructured, the goal is to put it into a structure, and that’s precisely what the treatment is.
- Explore multiple plot phases. Segmenting your feature screenplay into multiple plot phases (setup, catalyst, break into two, etc.) is a sound practice amongst professional screenplay writers. Exploring each plot phase and getting as many creative ideas onto the plate is one of the big advantages when developing the concept into a polished treatment. It gets you on the right footing because the plot treatment is fundamentally the most important document before you enter the outlining phase.
- Strengthen motivations. Having your plot treatment streamlined is a great way to identify if the protagonist’s motives and objectives are clear.
- Identify gaps in logic. AI can help you dissect any logical gaps in your plot treatment. Running a simple analysis will get the job done in minutes.
How not to write a screenplay with AI:
Take the development process in stride. Don’t rush through phases because you’re eager to get into the outline. It’s never recommended to jump straight into outlining without first knowing the clear tentpole plot phases of your treatment. Because AI-written pages without clear story direction will lead to incoherent and generic stories.
How to Write a Screenplay with AI: Step Outline
Once you’ve written a strong plot treatment, you are hopefully satisfied with all your prior choices. This is where AI shines as your collaborator because it gets to do the tedious work of turning your treatment into a structured step outline. In Scriptmatix Story Engine, turning your plot treatment into a scene-by-scene step outline is done with one click.
A proper AI-assisted outline should include strong adherence to your plot treatment. The beats should escalate, show strong character development, and oscillate between A-story, B-story, and subplots.
What AI does well when outlining:
- Fills in structural gaps, adds transitions, and maintains strong connective tissue between plot events. It should avoid redundancy and maintain a steady plot progression and escalation toward the climax and finale.
What AI should NOT do when outlining:
- Use a shallow synopsis, concept, or logline as context. It will not produce anything valuable unless the context from which it’s pulling story information is fully developed (aka a polished plot treatment).
Write a Screenplay with AI
This is where preparation is everything. Without the prior stage of a polished plot treatment and a completed and polished outline, your script pages will be hit or miss. You will be relying too heavily on AI to produce something of value for you. This is where the human touch can easily get lost and your efforts will fall flat. This is also where most screenwriters make their biggest mistake because they haven’t polished all the ideas and done the work to prime AI to write the draft they desire.
Here are the best practices next time you write a screenplay with AI:
- Either feed AI the outline one scene at a time, or use Scriptmatix Story Engine and it’ll process each one of your scenes with a click of a button.
- Provide previous scenes for contextual consistency so that the AI can maintain the pace and intention of the scene at hand.
- Specify characters in the scene, the intention of the scene, and the type of scene (is it a transition scene, a set piece, and why is this scene important? What should the audience get from the scene?).
- Edit your pages manually. In Scriptmatix Story Engine, the Rewrite tool can help you make quick changes, but the screenplay pages are less about speed and more about depth and quality.
- Continue scene by scene. This is the old-school way and this will never change.
Why this method works:
- When you write a screenplay with AI, your goal is to maintain creative control throughout the entire process, or you risk losing continuity. Your goal is to keep the pages feeling human, so avoid generic AI generations because they’re a total waste of time.
Using AI for Revisions and Polishes
This is one of AI’s greatest use-cases. When your screenplay pages are done, combing through each scene one at a time and providing revision notes is going to go much faster, and it’s the attention to detail every great screenplay needs.
AI can help with:
- Adjusting pacing — ask AI to ease into an interaction, add a beat before the turning point of a scene, or streamline the scene and get to the point faster. You must feel the pace, and instruct the AI based on your intuition.
- Sharpening dialogue — you can pinpoint specific interactions and provide specific notes on the dynamics of the interaction.
- Accentuating character motivations — instruct the AI to inject some nuance and character motives, with any degree of obviousness.
- Strengthening emotional beats — this can be done in various ways, and asking AI to give you options on how to approach an emotional beat is a great way to generate more creative options. Then instruct AI on how the beat should be executed.
When revising, AI excels at:
- Perspective alignment — writing a scene from a different perspective is a great way of adjusting a scene’s dynamics.
- Subtext and tone shifts — infusing subtext and nuance is easy to instruct, but ultimately it’s the manual human touch that produces the best results.
Common Mistakes When You Write a Screenplay With AI
If you want to write a screenplay with AI and get good results, you must not:
❌ Ask AI to “write me a screenplay about [idea].” AI won’t write a good screenplay based on a simple prompt or idea. It needs progressive development.
❌ Let AI make story decisions for you. You must stay in control and be the director of the creative.
❌ Overwrite scenes with too much detail. AI can ramble, and it’s your job to reel it in and establish boundaries.
❌ Use AI outputs without human editing. Don’t send out AI screenplays. Everyone can tell, and nobody will respect the effort.
❌ Allow AI to break character consistency. AI can hallucinate, and it can also completely drop the ball on your characters from time to time. Take responsibility for every word.
Recommended Tools When You Write A Screenplay With AI
The best AI screenwriting tools are located inside of Scriptmatix Story Engine (Best for professionals & beginners)
- Structured screenplay development. The engine will guide you from concept to plot treatment to outline to script pages inside an industry-standard screenplay editor.
- Scene-by-scene accuracy. When generating an outline or screenplay, the engine has very strong plot adherence.
- Character arcs + emotional arcs. Character Journey Builder is the industry-leading character development tool for rich, multi-layered, and complex characters that feel real.
- Highly controlled prompting. Story Engine is built for professionals who value creative control.
- Designed for real screenwriters. Engineered and designed by Mikhael Bassilli, a professional screenwriter and story developer who has sold screenplays and developed dozens of projects across many genres.
- Output consistency. The quality of output is contingent on the quality of your chain of development.
General AI Models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude)
- Great for brainstorming.
- Good for revising plot phases, sequences, and scenes.
- Good for polishing scenes.
Professional Workflow Example
This is the exact workflow working screenwriters use when they write a screenplay with AI:
Step 1 — Concept
Generate and iterate 5–10 concept variations with AI.
Step 2 — Characters
Use your own structured prompts to build rich, psychologically coherent characters. Or use Scriptmatix Character Journey Builder for in-depth character arcs and character webs.
Step 3 — Treatment
Generate a detailed plot treatment based on your concept, character arcs, and various ideas that communicate your vision.
Step 4 — Outline
Convert the treatment into a professional beat sheet by feeding each plot phase into the LLM. Or use Scriptmatix Story Engine and convert your plot treatment into an outline with one click.
Step 5 — Script Draft
Generate one scene at a time in the LLM, or use Scriptmatix Story Engine to write a screenplay with AI based on the completed outline.
Step 6 — Rewriting
Iterate and revise intelligently, feeding the LLM sequences or scenes with specific and precise notes. Or import your screenplay into Scriptmatix Story Engine and use the Rewrite tool to revise each scene.
Final Thoughts
As I outlined above, AI fundamentally changes your role from a screenwriter to a creative director and collaborator. When you write a screenplay with AI properly, it:
- Reduces writing time by 80–90%
- Improves the clarity of your story
- Helps you structure complex narratives with greater creative flourish
- Accelerates the development of ideas
- Removes writer’s block and accelerates the time from concept to draft
- Keeps your ideas organized and controlled
But for all the positives, one thing we can’t end without acknowledging is the humanity behind it all — the emotional truth, the meaning, the lived experience that must come from the creator. AI will never replace human storytelling, but it will augment it. When used correctly, it unlocks your human potential and makes you a substantially better human creator.
Start using Scriptmatix for free today and craft your next feature screenplay or TV script using the correct approach and workflow.
