To write a screenplay, pin the story to a one-sentence logline, write your characters and a scene list, then draft scene headings, action and dialogue in standard format, and rewrite until every setup pays off.
Most first screenplays go wrong before page one: the writer starts typing scenes without knowing who wants what, and then asks AI to fill the gaps, which gives you pages that sound like everyone else's. We read the 27 headed notes and 29 video prompts that Dr. Dreams wrote for Catch Out, a 4:06 short from the Summer 2026 Flick Residency about a runaway who rides freight trains with a crew of punks. This guide shows how to write a screenplay in seven steps, each with the craft rule, the film's real words, and how to do that step with AI in Flick's Story view, where the chat reads and edits your script with you.
In seven steps: write a logline, build the characters, outline the scenes, set the scene headings, write the action, write the dialogue, and rewrite for setup and payoff.
Step 1
Write a logline
Sum up the story in one sentence that names the hero, what they want and what stands in the way, because every scene you write later has to serve that sentence.
Catch Out in one line: a jittery runaway joins a crew of train-hopping punks, and when the railroad police catch them, he has to choose whether to run like everyone else.
Keep it under 30 words, with no character backstory and no theme statement.
In Flick, open the Story tab and tell the chat your idea, or press Dictate a script and say it out loud, then ask for five versions of the logline and rewrite the best one yourself.
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Dr. Dreams, director of Catch Out · Seedance 2.0 · Reference to video
Step 2
Build the characters
Write a short note for each character with how they look and one thing they will do under pressure, so the script has something to set up and pay off.
Dr. Dreams wrote a headed note for each of five characters: Casey, Patches, Gumby, the railroad officer called the Bull, and Thor the dog.
Gumby's note ends on a promise the script keeps in the trainyard: he bolts when things get dangerous.
In Flick, put these notes in a Project memory card from the / menu, because the chat reads that card on every turn and keeps each character consistent.
# Character: Gumby
Male, 23, tall and lanky with a loose rubbery quality to his movements. Wears a faded red bandanna around his head or neck, mismatched Goodwill clothes — oversized thrift-store jacket, baggy worn cords, scuffed sneakers. Scruffy patchy facial hair, easy laugh lines, the kind of guy who whoops and hollers. Loyal but ultimately self-preserving — he bolts when things get dangerous.
Step 3
Outline the scenes
List your scenes in order with a place and a job for each before writing any of them, so you can see the whole story on one page and cut what repeats.
Catch Out's notes number its first and last scenes and name each by place and job: S1 is the rail yard, to establish, and S5 is the boxcar doorway, for freedom.
Between them, eight headed notes plan a montage of life on the road: a truck stop at night, a Walmart dumpster, an overpass in the rain, a busking corner and more.
In Flick, ask the chat to turn your outline into scenes in a script box, then ask it to reorder or cut one; each chat edit is a single undo step, so you can take it back.
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Dr. Dreams, director of Catch Out · Seedance 2.0 · Image to video
# S1: Rail Yard — Establish
Wide night shot of the Asheville rail yard. A chain link fence in the foreground, beyond it rows of dead freight cars stretching into darkness. Four young punks crouch low in the tall weeds near the fence, barely lit. A security truck spotlight rakes across the distant boxcars, a hard cone of light sweeping the metal. Cold blue moonlight, deep shadows, sodium vapor lamp glow far off. Tense, still, cinematic wide shot, 35mm film grain.
Step 4
Set the scene headings
Start every scene with a heading that says inside or outside, where and when, such as EXT. MIDWEST PARK - NIGHT, because readers, crews and AI models all locate the scene from it.
Dr. Dreams titled the location notes the same way, like the campfire park where Patches shaves Casey's head with stolen clippers.
Give a new heading to every change of place or time, and move mood words such as firelight into the action line below it.
In Flick, type / in the Story document and pick Script: a new scene opens on a heading line, Enter moves you to action, and Tab cycles the line type, as in Final Draft.
Dr. Dreams, director of Catch Out · Nano Banana Pro
# EXT. Midwest Park Near Trainyard — Firelight — Night (Location Plate)
A scrubby patch of Midwest parkland at the edge of a railyard at night, a small campfire burning in a dirt clearing, warm orange firelight pooling on the packed earth and low weeds. Silhouetted trees and a distant tree line in the background, dark rail cars and a faint trainyard beyond, a weathered wooden post to one side. Deep night blues behind the flickering warm glow of the fire. Empty scene, no people or animals, framed to leave the fireside clearing open for figures to sit.
Step 5
Write the action
Write action lines in the present tense as what a camera can see and hear, nothing more, because a feeling has to show up as behavior before an actor or a video model can play it.
The Walmart prompt never says Casey is nervous; it shows him "glancing around nervously, shifting his weight" while Patches takes the clippers "smooth as breathing."
A line written this way works twice: as action on the page, and as the shot prompt that made this clip in Seedance 2.0.
In Flick, ask the chat to cut a scene's action to what the camera sees, then read the change and undo it if it lost your voice.
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Dr. Dreams, director of Catch Out · Seedance 2.0 · Reference to video
INT. WALMART - DAY
Casey keeps lookout at the end of the grooming aisle. He is terrible at it: too obvious, glancing around, shifting his weight.
Patches walks up the aisle and slides a boxed hair clipper set into her jacket, smooth as breathing.
She passes Casey, clocks his face, smirks, and winks.
Step 6
Write the dialogue
Give each character a voice of their own and let them argue about something small while the scene is about something big, so the audience leans in to hear what is really said.
In the boxcar, Casey thanks Patches, and she answers with the film's theme: "There are no real friends out here. Everyone ditches eventually."
His reply, "Nah. Not me. This is it.", is a promise the climax will test.
In Flick, type a name on a Character line and Enter drops to Dialogue; ask the chat for three tighter versions of a line, and keep the one that sounds like the person.
Start frame00:10
Dr. Dreams, director of Catch Out · Seedance 2.0 · Image to video
INT. BOXCAR - NIGHT
The crew sleeps. Casey and Patches sit awake by the open door, passing a single cigarette.
CASEY
Thanks for the help. Glad I'm not alone out here.
PATCHES
(exhaling smoke)
There are no real friends out here. Everyone ditches eventually.
CASEY
Nah. Not me. This is it.
Patches gives him a knowing look and takes the cigarette.
Step 7
Rewrite the payoff
Read the draft for every setup and make sure each one pays off on screen, because the rewrite is where a screenplay goes from a list of events to a story.
In the trainyard, Gumby bolts as his note promised, Patches tells Casey to run, and Casey does not, which answers the boxcar scene without a word of explanation.
Later, Patches gives him his road name: "Welcome to the crew, Scrapes."
In Flick, press Understand how this script works in the Story chat for a plain read-back of your draft, then download it as PDF or Word to get notes from people.
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Dr. Dreams, director of Catch Out · Seedance 2.5 · Reference to video
EXT. TRAINYARD - NIGHT
The Bull grips Patches by the wrist and marches her toward his truck. Gumby takes off running into the night.
The character, scene and location notes are copied word for word from the image prompts Dr. Dreams saved on the film's public canvas, dashes included. The screenplay blocks are our formatting of the film's shot prompts: the spoken lines are copied word for word, and the action lines are condensed from the same prompts. The logline and the order of the scenes are our reading of those notes and shots, not the filmmaker's words.
What does screenplay format look like?
A screenplay is built from seven kinds of line, each with its own position on the page, so a reader can tell at a glance what is seen, who speaks and where the scene is.
The seven line types of standard screenplay format, which are also the line types in a Flick script box, with Catch Out's words set in each.
Line
What it does
From Catch Out
Scene heading
Inside or outside, place, time of day; opens each scene
EXT. TRAINYARD - NIGHT
Action
What we see and hear, in the present tense
Casey does not run. Jaw set.
Character
The speaker's name in capitals, above their line
PATCHES
Dialogue
What the character says
Welcome to the crew, Scrapes.
Parenthetical
A few words on how a line is said
(exhaling smoke)
Transition
How a scene hands off to the next, used sparingly
CUT TO:
Shot
A camera angle, when the story needs one
CLOSE ON CASEY
Standard pages use 12 point Courier with set margins, which is what makes one page run about a minute of screen time. Flick lays the script out this way as you type, and it can also import a script from a .fountain, .txt, .fdx (Final Draft), .pdf or .docx file.
Where does AI help in writing a screenplay?
In the steps that need options, checks and speed, while the idea, the characters' choices and the final words stay yours.
1. Write the logline yourself
Ask AI for variations of a logline you wrote, not for the idea, because a premise that comes from a model reads like the average of every film it has seen.
2. Keep notes the AI reads
Put the logline and character notes where the chat sees them each turn, such as a Project memory card in Flick, so its suggestions stay true to your people.
3. Edit one scene at a time
Ask for a change to a single scene or a single line, because long stretches of generated script drift in tone and lose the details you planted.
4. Ask for options, then choose
Request three versions of a line or a beat and pick or combine them, so you stay the writer and the AI stays a sounding board.
5. Read it back
Ask the chat to explain what happens and who wants what in your draft, because a summary that misses your point shows where the page does too.
6. Hear the lines
Generate the lines with Text to Voice before you shoot, as the Catch Out canvas holds four Text to Voice clips, since dialogue that reads well can still sound stiff.
How long should a screenplay be?
About one page per minute of screen time, so a feature runs about 90 to 120 pages and a short film anywhere from 1 to 40.
Rough page counts at one page per minute, the usual rule of thumb for scripts in standard screenplay format. Dialogue-heavy pages run faster on screen, action-heavy pages slower.
Kind of script
Screen time
Script pages
Short film
1 to 40 minutes
1 to 40
Half-hour TV episode
about 22 to 30 minutes
22 to 35
One-hour TV episode
about 45 to 60 minutes
45 to 65
Feature film
about 90 to 120 minutes
90 to 120
Questions about writing a screenplay
What is the format of a screenplay?
A screenplay is written in scene headings (INT. or EXT., the place and the time of day), action lines in the present tense, character names in capitals above their dialogue, and short parentheticals for delivery. Pages use 12 point Courier with standard margins, so one page equals about a minute on screen.
How many pages is a screenplay?
A feature screenplay usually runs 90 to 120 pages, at about one page per minute of screen time. A short film script is 1 to 40 pages, since the Academy counts a film of 40 minutes or less, credits included, as a short.
How do you start writing a screenplay?
Start with a logline: one sentence that names the main character, what they want and what stands in the way, in under 30 words. Then write a short note for each character and a numbered list of scenes before writing the first page.
Can AI write a screenplay?
AI can draft scenes, format them and suggest alternatives, but a screenplay worth making needs your idea, your characters' choices and your rewrite. Use AI for variations and read-backs, and write the logline and the final lines yourself.
What software do you need to write a screenplay?
Any tool that keeps standard format works, from Final Draft to a plain text file in Fountain syntax. Flick's Story view formats a screenplay as you type, imports .fountain, .txt, .fdx, .pdf and .docx files, and downloads a script as PDF or Word.
What is the difference between a script and a screenplay?
A screenplay is a script written for film, in screenplay format; script is the wider word that also covers plays, TV and video scripts. In everyday use the two words mean the same thing for a film.
How do you write good dialogue in a screenplay?
Give each character a way of speaking that fits who they are, keep lines short, and let people talk around what they mean. Read every line aloud, or hear it in a generated voice, and cut any line that explains what the audience can already see.
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