7 Screenwriting Prompts and Exercises to Strengthen Your Screenplay
June 24, 2025
Inspiration doesn’t come easy for many screenwriters, and oftentimes certain mental tricks and daily routines are required to spur or facilitate the writing process. This is why screenwriting prompts and exercises are used by many writers looking to stay motivated and write to the best of their abilities. Sometimes all it takes is asking yourself the right question to get the gears of your mind working. Similarly, a consistent work routine can keep you productive and in great screenwriting shape.
The below prompts and exercises can help you come up with ideas, improve your writing, overcome creative fatigue, build consistency and reignite your momentum. They will not only help you to finish your screenplay but also strengthen it.
1. “What Are My Favorite Parts of Old Movies I Can Use?”
This is a good plot prop if you’re suffering from writer’s block and looking to generate ideas. Think of older movies you love and some of your favorite scenes and plot points, with focus on films in the same genre (although don’t rule out mixing different genre elements if they work with your story and characters). Your influences should be thought of as a grab bag of ideas that can assist you when you’re drawing a blank.
However, this doesn’t mean you should simply reproduce specific scenes from a film: sometimes there’s a thin line between homage and plagiarism. Make sure to update whatever part of a movie you’re taking inspiration from and make it your own. Also mix different things from different movies a’la Quentin Tarantino. If you bring together enough different elements from different sources, that in itself can make it new and fresh.
After brainstorming, you can jot down notes or add these plot points and scene ideas to the Beat Board and Outline Editor in Final Draft. Even after you’ve started writing your script, you can always update your outline and send these new outline elements to your script and take it from there.
2. “How Can This Character Enhance This Story?”
This is a character prop that can help you think more deeply about your characters and their role in the story you’re crafting. Ideally, character and story should be symbiotic and working with one another. Is there something ironic about your protagonist’s relationship to other characters or even to the main plot? Do certain personality traits or flaws keep the protagonist from achieving their primary goal? In general, the more conflict, the better. So creating a character with a strong emotional through line that’s at odds with the world can not only lead to a great character, but it can deepen your story and take your script to the next level.
While writing, always track what’s going on emotionally with your main characters, especially your protagonist. Final Draft’s Navigator can be used to track specific characters and see how many scenes they appear in. For example, if a supporting player appears more often throughout your script than your protagonist, you’ve probably been focusing on the wrong character. This is important, both in terms of your storytelling, but also when it comes to attaching talent. If you want a movie star to play your protagonist, make sure their character is driving the story.
3. “But What If This Happened Instead?”
This plot prop is useful when you’ve hit a second act slump and don’t know where to take your story next. If this has happened, chances are you might’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way and made a decision that wasn’t best for your script. Maybe you got rid of a supporting character too soon? Maybe you didn’t create enough conflict and obstacles for your protagonist? Perhaps you have a plot twist that isn’t working?
No worries. Simply track back and rethink any character or story element that’s contributing to the slump. The great thing about writing is if you’re hitting a wall, you can always reimagine things and forge a new path forward. Even if you outlined beforehand, if it’s not working on the page, it’s best to jailbreak your script and allow it to become whatever it needs to become. Don’t be frightened to shake things up. Go into an unexpected direction. Subvert familiar tropes. Change your characters and what happens to them. Embrace irony in storytelling and keep an open mind.
If you’ve outlined beforehand, you can simply delete old beats and add new beats to the Beat Board and Outline Editor. An outline should be thought of as a blueprint and not a contract. You’re the one in the driver’s seat here! Revise your outline and then revise your script accordingly.
4. “What Would These Characters Really Be Saying?”
This is a dialogue prop every screenwriter should ask themselves before a character speaks their lines and regardless of the genre. One of the biggest things scriptwriters struggle with, especially beginners, is writing naturalistic dialogue. Oftentimes their dialogue reads clunky and stilted.
To avoid this, listen to how people talk in your daily interactions with them or even via eavesdropping in public spaces (restaurants, sporting events, concerts, etc.). Although you don’t want to be indulgent with your dialogue, allow for the occasional digression and don’t always have characters speak directly about what’s happening with them or with the plot.
If you’re not sure if your dialogue is ringing true, read it out loud to yourself. Does it sound like how people really speak? Dialogue is like music: you’ll hear if it sounds off or not. You can also use Final Draft’s Alternate (Alt) Dialogue feature, which allows you to write various lines of dialogue and store them for later use (this is especially useful if you’re writing a comedy script). Try out different lines and go with what flows most naturally.
5. “What Music Works Best with This Scene?”
A fun screenwriting exercise that can help you with inspiration and set the perfect mood for your script is making a soundtrack or playlist for your script. Having music playing while you write not only helps to drown out distracting sounds, it can jumpstart your creativity and get the ideas flowing again, especially if you’re playing music that works with what you’re writing.
However, if you’re writing a script that has major tonal shifts and different kinds of scenes, you might want to switch up the music while you’re in the zone and typing away. For example, if you’re writing an action sequence, you should be playing something more uptempo and hard-hitting than what you’d be playing during a more introspective scene. Many times I’ve bounced from my Final Draft document to my iTunes and created an immediate vibe shift by changing the music that was playing.
6. “How Am I Most Comfortable Writing?”
Another important writing exercise is making sure you’re writing in the best environment possible and customizing every aspect of your writing process: where you write, when you write, how you write, etc. Our minds work best when we’re in a comfortable space and are physically comfortable. Similarly, the more tailor-made the process, the more productive you’ll be.
Over the years, Final Draft has become increasingly customizable, allowing you to change the script views to your liking and to write in various modes depending on the situation and your preference (e.g, Focus Mode, Day, Night and Midnight Mode). There’s also Typewriter Mode, which helps you to keep your line of vision centered on the page for improved ergonomics. Also having your desktop positioned in an ergonomic-friendly position (once again, being mindful of your eye-line) and investing in a good chair is important. And be mindful of the chair’s height and positioning with your desk. If you have back issues, buy a lumbar support pillow.
Tailoring your environment to your specific needs and being as comfortable as possible when you write, will lead to you writing away with joy and ease!
7. “Did I Reach My Page Count Quota?”
Probably the most effective writing exercise is tracking your productivity by adhering to a page count quota. The average length of a feature screenplay is 90 to 120 pages (the “one minute = one page” rule mirroring the average running time of a movie). Going by a standard writer agreement in the film industry, writers are usually given a 12-week timeframe to start and finish a script. So most professional screenwriters complete a first draft of a screenplay within 12 weeks (just under 3 months).
This might sound daunting for beginners, but if you have a consistent work routine and make it a habit to complete at least 5 pages per day, you will develop the ability to write numerous pages in shorter and shorter intervals. Because of this, even if you’re suffering from writer’s block, you should make it a point to always write 5 pages per day, regardless of what it is: maybe it’s a different script than the primary one you’re working on, or it’s a treatment, an outline, a short story, a script for a YouTube video or TikiTok, a long email or comment on a message board, etc.
You can also make use of Final Draft’s Sprint Timer, which clocks you as you write. Have fun with it and see how many pages you can knock out in under an hour. Sometimes the simple act of typing can jumpstart your creativity and get the ideas flowing again. Just always be writing and think of it as a skill-building exercise. An athlete has to work out to build muscle and increase their limberness, right? Well, a writer does this by consistently pounding away on those keys and turning out page after page!
The above screenwriting prompts and exercises should become a natural extension of your writing process. Whenever you’re stuck, asking yourself these questions and making sure you’re writing in the most comfortable and consistent way possible, can help you to finish and strengthen your screenplay.
