How to write a screenplay: a step-by-step guide

To write a screenplay, turn your idea into a one-sentence logline, map its major beats, outline the scenes, write a fast first draft in standard screenplay format, then rewrite until every scene earns its place. A feature usually lands between 90 and 120 pages, and one page runs roughly one minute on screen.

The order matters more than the speed. Most stalled scripts stall because the writer started typing scenes before they knew what the story was about or where it ended. The steps below move from the smallest version of the story to the largest, so each decision is cheap to change when you make it.

What is a screenplay?

A screenplay is the written blueprint of a film or episode: a document that describes, in the present tense, only what an audience will see and hear. It is formatted in a fixed layout — scene headings, action, character cues and dialogue — so that a page reads at about the same pace as the finished film.

Screenwriting is the craft of writing that document. It is closer to architecture than to prose fiction: you cannot describe a character's thoughts, explain backstory in narration or linger on a sentence for its own sake. Everything has to be shown through behavior, image and speech. That constraint is the whole art.

How to write a screenplay in seven steps

1. Find a premise you can say in one sentence — a character, a goal, an obstacle and what happens if they fail.
2. Write a logline and test it on people who have not heard the idea.
3. Map the structure: the beats that turn the story at the start, middle and end.
4. Outline scene by scene, one line per scene.
5. Write the first draft quickly, without editing as you go.
6. Rewrite in passes: structure first, then scenes, then dialogue, then polish.
7. Format, add a title page and export a clean PDF.

1. Start with a premise, not a scene

A premise is the situation that makes the story inevitable. "A diner owner learns her dead friend may still be alive" is a premise; "a rainy night in a diner" is only a setting. Before you write a scene, decide who the story is about, what they want badly enough to act, and what stands in the way. If you can only describe a mood or a world, keep developing before you draft.

2. Test it as a logline

A logline is the premise compressed into one or two sentences that make someone want to read the script. Writing it early is a diagnostic: if you cannot name the protagonist's goal or the central conflict, the draft will wander in the same places. Our logline guide has a formula and original examples.

3. Map the beats

Beats are the turning points that change the direction of the story: the event that starts it, the decision that commits the hero, the midpoint reversal, the low point and the climax. A three-act structure, a fifteen-beat sheet and the hero's journey are three ways of naming the same skeleton. Pick one as a checklist, not a rulebook. The beat sheet guide compares all three.

4. Outline scene by scene

An outline turns beats into scenes. Write one line per scene: where it happens, who is in it and what changes by the end. A feature typically has 40 to 60 scenes. Read the list top to bottom and look for scenes where nothing changes — those are the ones to cut or merge before you write them.

5. Write the first draft fast

The first draft exists to be rewritten. Write it straight through, in order, and resist fixing earlier pages. Open in the middle of the action, enter each scene as late as you can and leave as soon as its change has happened. Write action lines in short paragraphs of three or four lines, in the present tense, describing only what a camera could record.

INT. BUS DEPOT - NIGHT

Empty benches. A vending machine hums. RUTH (60s) counts coins into her palm, one short.

The machine flashes: EXACT CHANGE ONLY.

She looks around. No one. She kicks it, once, precisely.

A can drops. Then another. Then six more.

RUTH
(to the machine)
Thank you.

That short sample shows the basics: a scene heading in capitals, action in the present tense, a character introduced in capitals with an age, a cue, a parenthetical and a line of dialogue. The screenplay format guide covers every element and margin.

6. Rewrite in passes

Rewriting is where scripts get good, and it works best in focused passes rather than one long edit. Do a structure pass first (does each act turn at the right moment?), then a scene pass (does every scene change something?), then a character pass (does each person want something in every scene?), then a dialogue pass, and finally a polish for typos, length and white space. Put the draft away for a few days between passes when you can.

7. Format and export

Readers expect 12-point Courier, standard margins and correct page breaks, and they notice when a script deviates. Dedicated screenwriting software handles the layout so you never set a margin by hand. Add a title page with the title, your name and contact details, then export a PDF for readers and an editable file for collaborators.

How to start a screenplay

Start a screenplay as close to the problem as possible. The first page should establish whose story it is and suggest what is wrong in their world; a reader decides quickly whether to keep going. One approach is the cold open — opening in the middle of a situation with no setup. Last Call in our Screenplay Museum opens that way: within half a page we know who wants what and why it cannot happen tonight.

How to end a screenplay

End a screenplay by answering the question your first act asked. The climax should force the protagonist to make a choice that proves who they have become, and the final image should echo or invert the opening one. Avoid adding scenes after the main question is settled; the audience leaves emotionally as soon as the story does.

Learn from short examples

Reading scripts is the fastest way to absorb format and rhythm. The Screenplay Museum collects six original one-page screenplays, each built around one technique: a cold open, showing instead of telling, intercutting a phone call, subtext in dialogue, voice-over against image and pressure in a single location. Each can be opened as your own project to take apart.

Writing act by act

Most first drafts go wrong in a predictable place, so it helps to know what each act has to do before you write it.

Act one: get to the problem

Act one introduces the protagonist in a moment that shows who they are, disrupts their life with an inciting incident and ends when they commit to a goal they cannot easily abandon. On a feature that is roughly the first 25 to 30 pages. The common failure is a long setup: if nothing has gone wrong by page 12, cut scenes rather than trim lines.

Act two: escalate, then turn

Act two is half the script and the place most drafts stall. Give it a shape: complications that make the goal harder, a midpoint that changes what the protagonist wants or how they go after it, and a low point near the end of the act. Every sequence should end with the situation worse or different, never just longer. The three-act structure guide covers the midpoint in detail.

Act three: make them choose

Act three is short and decisive. The protagonist uses what the story has taught them, faces the strongest version of the opposition and makes the choice the whole script has been asking about. Resolve the main plot first and the subplots close behind it; one or two scenes after the climax are usually enough.

How to rewrite a screenplay

Put the draft away for a few days, then read it in one sitting without fixing anything, making notes in the margin. A single read shows you pacing problems that page-by-page editing hides.

1. Structure pass: does each act turn where it should, and does the ending answer the question the beginning asked? Move, merge or cut whole scenes here.
2. Character pass: follow each main character through the script alone. Do they want something in every scene they are in, and does the protagonist change?
3. Scene pass: enter each scene late and leave early. Ask what changes in it; a scene where nothing changes is a candidate to cut.
4. Dialogue pass: read the speeches aloud, give each character a distinct way of talking and cut lines that explain what the audience can see. The dialogue guide has exercises.
5. Polish pass: tighten action lines, fix format and typos, and check the page count against your target length.

Keep each pass to one question. Trying to fix structure and dialogue at once usually fixes neither. Save a new version before each pass so you can compare drafts and restore a cut scene.

The screenplay title page

A spec script opens with a plain title page: the title in capitals centred about a third of the way down, "Written by" and the writer's name under it, and contact details at the bottom left. Leave off dates, draft numbers, logos and pictures. The title page guide shows the exact layout, and the free screenplay template has one ready to fill in.

Write it in Scenaloom

Scenaloom is online screenwriting software that runs in the browser and formats as you type: Enter and Tab move between scene headings, action, cues and dialogue, and the editor page and PDF export share one layout. The beats board, outline and scene board are read from the same draft, so a change in the script shows up in the structure. Start a script on the free plan — no card required.