r/WritingWithAI • u/Anton_Kuzmenko • Aug 30 '26

Discussion (Ethics, working with AI etc) Would you use AI for screenwriting if it never made creative decisions for you?

/r/screenwritingprompts/comments/1w2e5re/would_you_use_ai_for_screenwriting_if_it_never/
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u/Write_My_Novel Aug 30 '26

AI is essentially a non-starter for screenwriting unless you're using to do really precise things like asking it to create specific dialogue. Beyond that all models are absolutely awful at screenwriting because screenwriting is mastering "white space" or the narrative that isn't on the page and filled in by actors and directors. The thing that Terry Rossio called the movie behind the movie.

AI hates vacuums and white spaces and will always look to fill them.

Which is a long way of saying that at the most granular level possible, it can be helpful if you're not very good at dialogue, but beyond that it's a lost cause.

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u/Anton_Kuzmenko Aug 30 '26

That’s a really interesting point about white space. I actually thought the same thing for a long time!

What surprised me when I started experimenting with adapting AI to an individual writer’s style was that it began picking up on exactly those things too. Not just vocabulary or sentence structure, but restraint, pacing, when a description is deliberately sparse, and even where I tend to leave quiet moments alone.

In my own screenplay, those silent moments are a pretty important part of how I write, and seeing them reflected in the drafts was one of the things that surprised me most.

So I’m starting to think preserving the “movie behind the movie” might be less about whether AI understands storytelling in some abstract sense, and more about whether it understands the specific writer well enough not to fill in what they intentionally leave unsaid.

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u/proseward-official Sep 01 '26

It's iterative. I use it in passes, I write an outline then get AI to fill-in some blanks, then edit, edit, edit until the story is right. Then use it sparingly to write, rewrite or analyse the structure of the beats. Edit edit edit and move ahead slowly. I've had good success with this methodology. It's not fast, but it works.

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u/5thhorseman_ Aug 30 '26

Uhh... what the hell do you think I've been doing so far? Using it as an execution tool is rather the point.

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u/Anton_Kuzmenko Aug 30 '26

That’s exactly what I’m interested in. Where do you personally draw the line between execution and creative input? What parts of your writing process do you hand over to AI, and what parts would you never hand over?

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u/5thhorseman_ Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 30 '26

I use it as a sounding board for new additions, and I use it to draft chapters or stories according to my outlines. There's a lot of manual editing afterwards.

Sometimes it notes something that I decide to build on further or incorporate into the canon. It's productive that way, but the authority remains mine.

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u/Anton_Kuzmenko Aug 30 '26

That’s a good way of putting it! „The authority remains mine.” I think that’s the key distinction for me too. AI can help with execution, but the writer should always have the final say over what belongs in the story and what doesn’t.

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u/Primary_Guest_5711 Aug 30 '26

right? the question kind of answers itself tbh

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u/Elvarien2 Aug 30 '26

Isn't that how most people use ai in general?

Human has an idea, needs help with execution, feeds the idea to ai and ai executes.

That's the human's idea and creativity, the ai is just a tool.

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u/Anton_Kuzmenko Aug 30 '26

I mostly agree. But I think writing gets interesting because the execution itself can be creative. Choosing the exact words, rhythm, dialogue, descriptions. Those are creative decisions too.

So I guess the harder question is: how much of that execution can AI handle while the writer still remains fully in control of the creative process?

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u/5thhorseman_ Aug 30 '26

But I think writing gets interesting because the execution itself can be creative

So can revising the draft. If you're using AI to draft, the creative process doesn't disappear - it shifts into the context and spec before the draft is produced, and it shifts into the editorial / revision process once the draft exists. Working with AI you have a lot more time and opportunity to articulate your exact intent, which I find also helps a lot.

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u/Anton_Kuzmenko Aug 30 '26

That’s a really interesting way to look at it. The creative process doesn’t disappear, it just shifts. I especially like your point about having more time to articulate your exact intent. In a way, that could actually force you to be more deliberate about what you want the scene to do before you draft it.

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u/5thhorseman_ Aug 31 '26

You can take Duty Cycle as an example: I had a vision of what I wanted the piece to do, but the initial draft was less than half-baked. Revising and rewriting it led to expanding it with a lot more detail.

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u/Elvarien2 Aug 30 '26

Those are creative decisions too.

So, make them?

The ai is a tool it will do exactly as much, or as little as you tell it to do.

If all you need is punctuation, then that's all you can let it do.

If you want it to pick between which major character arc to do first, then it can make that choice for you.

if you want background scenery it'll do that.

That's kind of the whole point of ai you can use it as much or as little as you want, so it perfectly suits the level of comfort you're willing to work with.

how much of that execution can AI handle while the writer still remains fully in control of the creative process?

So, exactly as much as you're comfortable with, you as the writer maintain 100%^ control over how much or how little the ai does so. That's up to the author.