Scene-Writing Exercises [2016]

Here are 20 scene-writing prompts.

At a fundamental level, screenwriting is scene-writing. Here are prompts for the 4th annual series GITS Scene-Writing Challenge. Use these to improve your scene-writing chops.

A character has a ‘conversation’ with him/herself in the mirror

A character reviews a series of voice mails, each with worse news

A man holding a gun

A pet uses voice-over narration to comment on a family fight

A scene inspired by this photograph

A scene involving a dead body

A scene involving a secret

A scene set in an inhospitable environment, e.g., outer space, underwater, desert

A scene where the entire conversation takes place off-screen

An intervention

Interruption

Introduce a character with a memorable impression

Leaving a voice mail

Miscommunication

One character has to break bad news to the other

Settling an argument by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors

Smack talk at a sporting event

Strangers biding time in a hospital emergency waiting room

The audience knows something the characters don’t

Two people talk while dancing

Under a deadline

Scene-Writing Exercises (2013)
Scene-Writing Exercises (2014)
Scene-Writing Exercises (2015)