Screenwriting : Has anyone used AI as a screenwriting assistant/helper? by Doug Nelson

It’s truly inspiring to see you returning to screenwriting after such an incredible journey. Your decades of experience are a treasure that AI can only enhance, not replace. If you’ve carried a strong story with you for a year, that means it’s ready to come to life — and you absolutely should give it another shot. Many writers are finding AI helpful for brainstorming, outlining, and getting past creative blocks. Wishing you the very best as you jump back in. Your next chapter might be the most exciting one yet!

“AI can only support you — it will never be able to take credit for your creativity.”

It's very good as an assistant. Think of it as a robot that can perform and summarise a week's worth of Google research in less than a minute.

The likes of ChatGPT are configured to be painfully pandering in tone though. Everything you suggest will be responded to as genius and the missing part of the puzzle that you've just solved. You have to drive it hard.

When it comes to craft and career stuff, the general GPT is just pulling from forum threads, so almost entirely built on garbage. I built a custom GPT that uses my blogs and Turn & Burn guide as its learning. You can find my screenwriting GPT here.

Great for research. Fun to brainstorm with as it can keep all your scatterbrained ideas in order.

Completely agree with what CJ said. I use it as a light assistant only. I’ve always thought of it as a 24/7 sounding board for research, summaries, and catching small grammar or spelling things I might miss. That’s where it ends for me. I will always be the writer, but it can be a powerful tool.

It is absolutely geared toward positivity and can pander if you let it, but you can adjust that in the settings. I usually set a few parameters that force it to respond more critically and objectively. I’ll also ask it to respond like a reader or audience member, which helps cut down on the fluff and gives me more honest feedback on a scene. Other than that, generating character images has been fun, and making mock storyboards from scenes I’ve written has been a genuinely helpful visual tool.

Hi Doug, how is your film festival going?

I will third the insight from Martin Graham and CJ Walley - great research assistant (BUT always ask it provide the sources, and you may want to check them periodically) and congrats on this next phase of your screenwriting Doug Nelson !

Hey I use Grammarly all the time, it's a good way to make sure my spelling and punctuation are on point. Nothing wrong with it in my opinion.

I’ve only used AI to sort out “mass content” of scripts already written for a specific remit for producers. EG Genre Sci Fi, circa 1990’s, minimum location/actors. In minutes, over days of reading we get instant results. Eg Five scripts match enquiry over thousands. Yet been search tools since 90’s data base, nothing magic there. However, regards writing actual script, nothing replaces unique human experience. Of course, scripts are made from AI but a generic pool is only one option. Unsure if you meant writing a script or sorting scripts. Re writing, with your own experience & history, I’d go with the flow. No robot met Hitch. If producers want to tweak a script, for a reason, artificial intelligence then offers options.

PS Just had to re charge battery. Did several days masterclasses on AI screenwriting assist. Results mixed. AI jumbled up answers on best selling film of all time.

I would say, don't do it. Whatever time you save in the draft you're going to use in editing. and in the end, it doesn't make a difference. You are still going to spend hundreds of hours editing. Not worth the short cut. It may lead you stray.

Personally, I find it a useful tool. You can't actually write with it because it' produces laughably bad results, but as a way of doing research, or searching for the occasional word, I think it can be quite helpful.

For instance, I was thinking about a scene where the criminals murder someone by staging his death to look like a fiery car crash, so I asked, what might a Medical Examiner find in an autopsy under those circumstances that could indicate the crash wasn't the cause of death? It actually gave me a bunch of actionable material to consider. So, for stuff like that, it's pretty cool

Hey Debbie - It's been a few years since I've written anything so this AI stuff is all new to me; a Masterclass on AI screenwriting assist would be welcome. I haven't directed or produced anything in years and have no intention of ever doing that again. But writing still flows through my veins. I'm going to try getting one more strong commercial script out before I become extinct. I had two years of research done before The Stolen Kingdom and another two before The Hooded Summer - AI seems to be much faster.

I understand it hallucinates a bit - most of us did in the '60s - that doesn't bother me. I'm looking for an assist; that's all.

People have tried to put together courses on using AI for screenwriting and they've been met with pitchforks. It's still a very contentious topic.

I’ve been using it for two reasons: to guide me with the script structure and to correct my English. But there are a lot of copyright concerns with that, so I decided to start from scratch on my own. After that, I’ll look for a correction service.

I think it’s great if you have a detailed outline, scene by scene.

That’s what I was doing — I developed the outline with micro-scenes and sent each part to ChatGPT O3 to generate the section with dialogue and short description.

It’s truly a great tool; the problem is all about the copyright issues.

I think it’s absolutely worth trying. When I urgently need to know about a 1951 Sweden–New York ship, what Botswana smells like, or what a physicist could secretly do in a closed city, ChatGPT or Claude are indispensable. If your story has been around for a year, AI can help you polish it into the fifth draft in just a week—and then you’ll be ready to start a new one! Also, as Meriem Bouziani said, when English isn’t your first language, AI is invaluable. It can give you fresh ideas and unexpected angles you might not have thought of.

It seems to be unable to remember what it suggested earlier IMO. Maybe I am biased. It also seems to write the same script as seen in previous movies.

For generating any actual content for my stories, absolutely not. It's mostly just an organization tool.

Some folks brainstorm with it. But content generated by AI is a big gray area and I'm not willing to risk it. I use to organize my chaos. For that, it works splendid.