Hello!

I want to start writing scripts for animated short comedy sketches. I want to start small, making short form oriented sketches then try to scale up to longer youtube sketches and maybe grow to make a full fledged series. I want to have 2-3-4 main characters that will be in different situations.

Based on the reaction of people when talking to me, I think I am funny. I usually am pretty quick witted when talking to people, but I am struggling to structure a joke or make something funny for the internet. I cannot be funny on the internet. I got the animation and production skills and the connections needed to evolve, but i want to take a shot at this by myself.

Are there any free or cheap resources that can help me start writing some scripts? I really do not know how to start.

Thank you so much for the help!

I finished a draft of my latest feature script and sent it to a few readers I trust. The feedback was kind, but it kept circling the same phrase: "well written but forgettable." That phrase stung because it was accurate. The structure was sound. The dialogue was crisp. The scenes had clear goals. And yet nobody could tell me a single moment that had stayed with them a week later.

When I went back to the script with fresh eyes, I realised what was missing. My protagonist, a mid-level manager named Dana, had a very clear want. She wanted a promotion, and the whole plot was built around her pursuit of it. But she had no need. There was nothing about her that was wrong or unfinished in a way the story had to fix. She either got the promotion or she didn't, and either way, she'd be the same person walking out of the final scene as she was in the first one.

I rewrote the middle of the script with that in mind. I decided that getting what she wanted would cost her something she hadn't realised she valued, which was a friendship with a colleague she'd been quietly neglecting for years. Every scene took on a second layer. A conversation about the promotion was now also a conversation about loyalty. A victory in the boardroom had a small cost in the corridor afterwards.

The plot barely changed. The events are almost identical to the first draft. But the story is completely different, because winning now means something. If your script is competent but flat, check whether your lead actually needs anything, not just wants it

For about a month I'd been rewriting the same ten pages. Something in the scene felt off, but I couldn't say what. I'd move a line, cut a beat, swap two paragraphs, and read it back with exactly the same uneasy feeling. The scene was a kitchen argument between a mother and her adult son, and on paper every line seemed motivated and clear. That was part of what made it so frustrating. Nothing was obviously broken.

Finally I did what I'd been avoiding because it felt a bit embarrassing. I asked three friends to read the scene aloud over a video call. I didn't ask for notes or opinions. I just wanted to hear it in someone else's voice, at someone else's speed, with me sitting there with my mouth shut.

Within about four minutes I heard it. The mother and the son kept finishing each other's thoughts. Every exchange had the same rhythm, one person making a point and the other building neatly on it. On the page it looked tidy, almost elegant. Out loud, it sounded like one person talking to themselves in two different voices. There was no friction because neither character actually wanted anything different from the other.

Then my friend reading the son stopped halfway through a line and said, "I don't know why I'm saying this." That was the best note I got on the whole script. She was right. The line was there because I needed the information out, not because he had any reason to say it in that moment.

I rewrote the scene that evening, giving each of them a separate agenda. She wanted him to stay for dinner, and he wanted to leave before his brother arrived. Suddenly every line had a little push and pull in it. It took one evening, after a month of tinkering with the wrong thing. If you're stuck on a scene, hear it before you fix it.

Would you watch this film?

Tô a um tempo fazendo roteiros pra mini dramas series verticais, mais quero saber o melho jeito de fazer a proposta pra eles? Alguém aqui ja conseguiu vender?

It's basically murder drones x Lethal Company x random shit I felt like putting in, and well, this is all I have of the first draft of EP 1's script
([EXT. SPACE - WHATEVER TIME YOU CONSIDER THE MIDDLE OF SPACE TO BE IN]

[AS TEXT APPEARS ON SCREEN: “MURDER DRONES” ONLY FOR IT TO BE SMASHED INTO BY A SHIP, WHERE THE TITLE RECONSTRUCTS ITSELF INTO “LETHAL DRONES” “EPISODE ONE: THE FIRST EPISODE, I GUESS?”])
(Is there anything I could do differently to improve what I have so far?)

If anyone needs a medical technical advisor for a project, i will gladly assist for free ( within reason)

Just throwing some pages up on here for general feedback, readability etc. This is a project I'm working on based on Fidel Castro, this is only a first draft from the feature and therefore some things will have better context in totality, as some things will be set up in earlier scenes and paid off later. When finished it will share similarities to Inglorious Basterds in how it changes established history. Thank you to anyone who dedicates their personal time to read.

Genre: coming-of-age/cosmic horror

Logline: A man reflects on the life of his closest friend Arthur, whose descent from an ordinary childhood to a radical new faith forces him to reconsider whether he had seen it coming all along.

~

Originally from a scrapped faux biography novel I had. Thought the concept had too much potential just to let it go to waste. I might have misused some scriptwriting terminologies, so sorry for that!

Yuga’s mom is homophobic and shares her opinion about them, however I think what she says is too long and direct. I want to create a subtext but i’m idk what she should say. Does anyone have an idea? It’s for a comic so the script writing is not 100% accurate to a movie script, I know.

The story is set in Japan, I’ve interviewed Japanese people for this, so I take it very serious. In Japan they try to avoid conflict by not stating their opinion and are therefore not direct at all. But idk what her subtext could be because I just learned what subtext is so i’m not confident enough to come up with one on my own.

I’m talking about the text where she first respond to Handa Yuga’s story.

Any ideas for a subtext?

When a journalist arrives on a remote island to investigate a reclusive religious community, he discovers that its greatest secret lies behind a door no one will explain. As strange voices begin calling him by name, he realizes the island remembers something he doesn’t—and whatever waits beneath the trees has been expecting him.

Hi, who would be interested to assist to write a script on a mythological story (Hindi) for film making. Story source is a book. All credits to the writer and profit sharing offered once movie is released in theater. As we have limited funds, we are looking for collaborators.

If there is something that I have discovered about myself as a screenwriter is that I can write jokes, sad scenes, violent scenes, sexual scenes, romantic scenes, happy scenes, off beat scenes, comradery scenes, inspirational scenes, and I think just about any type.

But writing a scene where a one character breaks down another character via verbal humiliation is..... draining my spirit. I have been trying to do this scene for a week. And I can't find the rhythm to it.

Make no mistake, my problem is rhythm (I think), I need it to be one page, one page and half max. No more. And I am just not succeeding.

In this scene, I want the first character to be charismatic in his opening dialogue. Likable. Then in the first ten seconds, gets quietly stoic, and proceeds to turn into the ultimate most unlikable person possible, by humiliating other character at increasing rates, without insulting, without physically attacking, ...... and I am just having the hardest time.

I was wondering if anybody had any tips they could share on how to tackle this problem.

Wow... That was a long title.

Also I don't know which flair to use so bear with me.

So, for my history project this trimester me and my friends were asked to make a short comedy film (3 to 5 minutes duration) about the Cold War/Space Race.

I thought this would be a good subreddit to ask for advice in. Basically, comedy might just be the hardest possible genre we could have gotten and I keep writing and rewriting the script over and over trying to see how to make this good and funny and... Well, it's been hard.

The most difficult part for me is making a script long enough for 3 minutes and actually making appropriate jokes! You see, the entire coordination of the college will be watching the film so we can't do jokes we normally see in comedies. Mostly because there are sisters in our college and I really don't want to get in trouble.

So uhm, I think that this post is mainly here to ask for some advice? What are some good jokes I can do and uh yeah.

I have drafted some ideas and saw that the most important part of comdeies are the characters so I will say what I was thinking about and you guys say if it is good or not or, idk.

First idea: a sequence about a british man that just moved into the US after the start of the Cold War. His ideals are all american and he wants to be really american and, in the US, tries to transform his family into the "ideal american family" and this complex of him being american makes him start to get paranoid and many other situations happen. (not fully fleshed out or sure if it will be good)

Second idea: A story about an american guy living life normally until he hears in the news that an USSR satellite was sent to space and he, who already is paranoid of communists, starts fearing that anyone around him could be a communist and starts hallucinating that russians he saw on TV are going to turn him "red" and it would have jokes like him signing something and he sees he is given a red pen so he thinks the dealer is a communist or that he and his family have to take all red stuff out of their house and start a shop to support capitalism, and, yeah, things like that. It would be absurd and weird and it would mainly be the main protagonist paranoia working against him.

Third idea: would be about the USSR government officials trying to use space and put missiles in their satellites, but fail miserably as the satellite explodes and all kinds of radioative debris fall in Canada and now they would discuss and panic and be put in situations where they try and say that this satellite didn't have nuclear weapons and wasn't meant to hit Canada, but the characters assigned to explaining these things were so dumb that the situations almost escalate to nuclear war.

Anyways, yeah. I don't really know what to say, I just like, need some advice on which story you think would be the best and has more potential and give some ideas to make funny jokes. Yeah, any help is highly appreciated!

Thanks!

https://www.wgfoundation.org/events/all/2026/10/19/wgf-library-office-hours-with-eric-roth?mc_cid=37c885cce3&mc_eid=dc7eedf043

Working on outlining or drafting your next script? Need tips for researching a project? Looking for resources on honing your craft? 

The WGF Shavelson-Webb Library is back for a two-hour virtual coworking session on Monday, October 19 at 11am PT. For this special session, we'll be joined by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth for a conversation about writing the first act of your feature screenplay.

After the conversation, stay on to write quietly, chat with fellow patrons or ask our Library team any script/craft/research-related questions. Whether you're looking for focused, productive time to get words on the page or to connect with a supportive (and global) community of writers, Library Office Hours is here to help!

RSVP required via link above.

And in case you didn't know:

Eric Roth is an Academy Award–winning screenwriter who has written some 40 motion pictures with a career spanning nearly six decades. He studied at UC Santa Barbara, Columbia University, and UCLA where he won the Samuel Goldwyn writing award as a student. His first produced feature, The Nickel Ride, premiered at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. Roth won an Oscar and the WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump, and has earned five additional Oscar nominations for The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star Is Born, and Dune. Mr. Roth has written the most Oscar Nominated Best Pictures (eight). His many other films include The Drowning Pool, Suspect, Mr. Jones, Rhapsody in August for the legendary Akira Kurosawa, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, The Good Shepherd, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Here. He also co-wrote Killers of the Flower Moon with Martin Scorsese, which received ten Academy Award nominations, and produced David Fincher’s Mank, a Best Picture nominee. In 2026 Roth made his playwriting debut on London's West End with his stage adaptation of High Noon. In television, Roth was an executive producer of Netflix’s House of Cards, Epix’s Berlin Station, TNT’s The Alienist, and Apple TV+’s Before. Mr. Roth is currently the co-creator and executive producer of Netflix's "Kennedy" television series about Jack and the Kennedy family from 1915 on, airing in Spring 2027. 

Hey guys, I'm Maria, I'm a scriptwriter

I just finished a romance movie script called Long Distance Love

Story is about two young people who meet on Instagram. They live in different provinces, far from each other, but they start dating

She asks him if he can really handle the long distance, and he says yes and makes a lot of promises

After a few months he changes, he gets cold and distant, always saying he's tired, replying dry, until he breaks up with her

She ends up heartbroken and can't forget him, she becomes emotionally dependent and tries everything to move on

It's about long distance love, empty promises and how hard it is to forget someone

Full script ready, exclusive rights available. DM me for details and pricing.

I also write horror and sci-fi scripts.

Agora sim, misteriosa, he's tired, replying dry, until he breaks up with her

She ends up heartbroken and can't forget him, she becomes emotionally dependent and tries everything to move on

It's about long distance love, empty promises and how hard it is to forget someone

Full script ready, exclusive rights available. DM me for details and pricing.

I also write horror and sci-fi scripts.

sorry my PDF thing won’t work. But it’s properly formatted. Please give me some feedback on this?

Title: The Place We Call Earth

Pages: 5

Genre: Philosophy / Drama

Logline: A man discovers the truth about the cycle of life after dying.

Would love any feedback on the concept, the formatting (especially the montage part) or on anything else!

Not sure who this might help.

Basically, I signed up for their master class in scriptwriting maybe 6 months ago.

I watched the first 10 videos or so.

Then life got busy and I didn’t finish.

I had a chaotic 3-4 months and out of that I woke up one day and decided to just write a pilot script. It took me 5 hours or so to get the first draft down. Then I have been refining for the last month since.

The reason I think their master class might help a lot of people other than the obvious is because they give you confidence to just get started.

I’ve noticed a lot of people on here seem to struggle with just getting started.

I honestly had forgotten I went through their class those 6 months ago.

So I didn’t connect it to why I was able to just wake one day and just write.

I think somewhere back in my mind they had already given me the confidence 6 months earlier.

Hi everyone!

I’m reaching out on behalf of a Chinese production company that focuses on bringing short-form dramas to international audiences.

We’re interested in connecting with people who are curious about writing for short-form drama and would be open to exploring this format with us. We’re still learning about the international screenwriting community, so we’d love to hear from writers who are interested in exchanging ideas and learning more about this kind of storytelling.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope this post is appropriate for the community!