Hi, I’m Mikhael Bassilli. Born and raised in LA, I came out of the UCLA television and film program about a dozen years ago focused on screenwriting and production, and that’s exactly the work I built my career around. I ran a production company and produced hundreds of digital media projects, from indie shoots to commercials to feature films. I’ve assembled writers’ rooms, developed thousands of pages of screenplay, sold scripts, worked in film finance and distribution, and helped emerging writers get repped, staffed, and into production deals. Now I’m teaching screenwriting with AI and building AI tools for screenwriters
Today, I’m the CEO of Scriptmatix. Over the last few years, I’ve been commissioned to build screenplay analysis algorithms and AI-powered screenwriting workflows. That work pushed me deep into the intersection of story and technology, and Scriptmatix is the direct result of that experience: a centralized screenplay development platform built by a writer, for writers. When I talk about technology, I’m not speaking theoretically. I’m building with it, testing it, and seeing firsthand where it works, where it fails, and where writers need to be careful.
Right now, technology gives us a chance to help more writers than ever before. So let’s cut through the noise, the fear, and the hype to look at what is actually happening in screenwriting with AI.
AI Doesn’t Remove the Writer. It Transforms the Role.
There is a lot of anxiety right now. Some people think AI is going to replace writers entirely; others write it off as a gimmick. The reality is much more practical: screenwriting with AI does not remove the need for the writer. It changes the role of the writer.
In the old model, a writer’s value came largely from producing raw pages through sheer time, effort, and typing speed. You had the dialogue expert, the plotting specialist, or the person who could churn out 25 pages in 24 hours. But we are entering a new era of screenwriting with AI where generating raw material is no longer the bottleneck. AI can generate text at massive volume and speed.
Because of this shift, the writer’s job is no longer just about sheer production, it is about guidance. You become a creative director or a director of development. Your primary functions become selection, shaping, refinement, and judgment. Vision and taste have suddenly become far more important than typing speed.
What AI Does Best vs. What Humans Do Best
To master screenwriting with AI, you have to be completely honest about what the tool actually excels at. AI is a powerful engine for material generation. It gives you:
- Speed and volume: It can draft text quickly.
- Multiple directions: It surfaces alternate angles and structural choices you might not have considered.
- Development support: It expands raw concepts into treatments, outlines, and early script material.
- Momentum: It breaks through the paralyzing friction of a blank page when your energy is low.
However, AI cannot tell you what is good. As someone who has spent hundreds of hours building analysis algorithms, I can tell you that an algorithm only knows what is, not what matters.
Humans bring the irreplaceable elements:
- Taste and instinct: Knowing instantly when something resonates before you can even explain why.
- Emotional truth: Recognizing when a page feels alive, honest, and genuinely human.
- Discernment: Deciding what stays and what gets cut. In a world of infinite text abundance, ruthless elimination is a superpower.
- Authorial vision: A distinct point of view on why a story matters and what it is trying to express.
Treat AI Like an Instrument, Not an Author
This is the most important principle: Treat AI like an instrument, not an author. If you treat AI as an author, you hand over your creative responsibility. You let the tool make choices that belong to you, which often triggers an artificial feeling of emptiness, detachment, and creative anxiety.
Instead, treat it like an instrument you play. It expands your range, but it doesn’t replace your soul. Think of it this way: AI can suggest the notes, but you still write the music. When practicing screenwriting with AI, you use it to explore terrain faster, but the human remains entirely responsible for the final story.
Why AI Often Feels Generic (And How to Fix It)
When writers complain that screenwriting with AI feels flat or generic, the problem is almost never the technology itself, it is weak direction. Here is why it happens:
- Having no point of view: Passive use creates passive, average output. If you approach the tool with a weak perspective, you get a weak script back.
- Having no workflow: Treating the very first generated output as a final draft is a fatal mistake.
- Chasing speed too aggressively: Optimizing solely for fast output results in thin, hollow work. You must slow down in the right places.
- Breezing over development: With modern workflows utilizing screenwriting with AI, development should consume more time, not less. Front-loading your narrative exploration is essential.
Don’t Start With Plot. Start With People.
A lot of stories feel forced because writers jump straight into plot mechanics before they understand the human beings at the center. Screenwriting with AI becomes exponentially more powerful when character comes first.
Begin your process with three core questions:
- Who are they? What is their identity, core desire, and motivation?
- Why do they behave that way? What are their hidden fears, emotional wounds, and underlying psychological drivers?
- Who is in their network? Supporting characters create the tension, contrast, and pressure that define a protagonist.
Once your character ecosystem is deeply established, plot emerges organically. Use tools like a Character Journey Builder to explore internal psychology and emotional arcs rather than relying on shallow, artificial plot twists.
A Better Human-AI Workflow
To keep your work sharp and original, adopt a disciplined, iterative workflow:
- Start with an idea: A single beat, a character tension, or a specific premise, not a fully solved script.
- Generate and compile options: Ask the tool for multiple possible directions and variations for your next sequence.
- Iterate and judge: Never accept the first output. Compare, combine, merge, and push the material through your own aesthetic filter.
- Integrate the narrative: Take what possesses real emotional energy and weave it back into your master script.
- Create strict guardrails: AI performs best when you explicitly tell it what not to do. Compress friction, never thought.
The Future Belongs to Creative Directors
The competitive advantage in Hollywood and the creator economy is moving upward. The future does not belong to the person who can generate the most pages in isolation; it belongs to the person who can act as a creative director, orchestrating a virtual writer’s room with distinct taste and clear strategic intent.
As content saturation increases, tools become commoditized. Everyone will have access to the exact same software. The ultimate differentiator will always be the quality and emotional truth of your story. When you embrace this shift, you stop acting like a traditional writer waiting around for permission, and you start operating like your own production studio, a builder of story systems and a shaper of powerful narrative assets.
The writer still decides. Use your taste, your discernment, and your humanity to lead the process, and the future will reward your work.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What kind of work do you do with writers? At the highest level, I help writers build disciplined AI workflows and strong development habits. That means helping them clarify concepts, structure screenplays, deepen characters, strengthen scenes, and build systems that move projects forward. My broader goal is building an independent ecosystem where top creative talent can thrive both on the page and in production.
- What skills should emerging writers build now to stay relevant? Stop locking yourself entirely inside the legacy Hollywood pipeline. Today, digital platforms and alternative media formats are massive. You need the flexibility to adapt your storytelling across different mediums. If you want to monetize your talent quickly, consider producing shorter episodic content or serialized projects rather than spending years gambling on a single feature film. Beyond that, double down on story instincts, character depth, and your ability to act as a decisive creative director.
- How important is it to be in a room with other serious creators right now? It is critical. When an industry undergoes a massive shift, you cannot afford to figure everything out in isolation. You need proximity to serious peers who are actively experimenting, testing boundaries, and holding a high standard of work.
- What do serious writers need access to right now? Serious writers need access to three core things: disciplined creative workflows that integrate new tools properly, strong online development environments where they can pressure-test ideas, and direct proximity to forward-thinking creators who understand where the industry is heading.
- How does this approach impact getting representation? Traditional representation is only one avenue, and right now, that avenue is tighter and harder to access than ever. Today’s agents and managers look for creators who already possess real momentum, attention, and an audience. Rather than cold-emailing and waiting for permission from gatekeepers, modern screenwriting with AI and the creator economy allow you to build your own audience, develop proprietary IP, and establish leverage on your own terms.
- I created a Scriptmatix account—where should I start? Start simple. Test out the Character Journey Builder or a low-cognitive-load creative model to get a feel for how the app functions. Because the platform is versatile, you can build a customized workflow tailored to your unique creative process rather than being forced into a rigid, one-size-fits-all box. Build something natural, use the rewrite toolkits, and lean on the community when you need guidance.
