Screenwriting exercises for students: what film schools assign
Most lists of screenwriting exercises for students are prompt collections with no order and no page limit, but published film school syllabi set short exercises with hard page caps, run them in a fixed order, and then have students write pages in batches of ten or fifteen until they have an act or a draft. This guide goes through what those syllabi set, links the 13 exercises in this series to that sequence, matches each common book to the exercise it helps with, and lists where to read the scripts courses assign without breaking copyright.
What published syllabi actually set
Every course below has a syllabus, catalogue entry or course page online. Where we quote an assignment, the wording comes from that document. None of this says how a whole school teaches. A syllabus shows one instructor's course in one term, and we name the term where the document gives it.
| Course (published document) | Level | What students hand in | Page counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| USC CTWR 409, Fundamentals of Screenwriting (Spring 2022) | Undergraduate | Memory prompts, an atmosphere exercise, two silent scenes, a character scene, a dialogue scene, loglines, a pitch, an outline, then pages | Ends with "a first act (25-30 pages) of a feature-length script" |
| USC CTWR 523, Intro to the Screenplay (Fall 2024) | Graduate | Beat sheets, a 4–5 page outline, then about 15 pages at a time | "90 -110 pages of original screenplay material" |
| University of Utah FILM 4820 (Fall 2025) | Undergraduate | 4 loglines, 4 elements, short outlines, treatments, then pages in 10-page steps | Pages 1–55 at finals |
| University of Utah screenwriting syllabus (instructor Paul Larsen) | Undergraduate | "ten to fifteen original pages" a month, read aloud in class | "at least sixty pages" |
| UCLA Summer FTV 131A, Intro to TV Writing (sample syllabus) | Summer, TV | 10 loglines, A and B stories, character bios, an outline act by act | A completed Act One |
| UT Dallas, Introduction to Screenwriting (Spring 2012) | Undergraduate | 3–5 premises, a treatment, a step outline, 2 character interviews | Pages in workshop groups |
| UCCS FILM 3900, visual storytelling | Undergraduate | Silent scripts of rising length, then dialogue | "A final 10 scene/20-30 page script" |
| TCNJ COM 325, Writing for Film and Television | Undergraduate | Two-page exercises, a short screenplay | Short of 8–12 pages; Act One of a feature |
| Yale Summer FILM S350, Introduction to Screenwriting | Summer | A scene-by-scene outline "using slug lines", two script coverages | A short screenplay |
| Princeton, Screenwriting II: Adaptation | Undergraduate | Adaptations of "true stories" | "a short film (under 15 pages) and one longer project (30 pages)" |
The pattern: small caps first, then pages in batches
Put these side by side and the same order shows up again and again:
- Short exercises with strict limits. USC CTWR 409 caps its atmosphere exercise at "One paragraph per part. No more than a page total." TCNJ's early exercises are each "2 pages max." UCCS starts with a "2 Page/1 minute silent script".
- Premise work in multiples. UCLA FTV 131A starts with "Write 10 different one-sentence log lines. Each contains a central conflict." Utah FILM 4820 asks for 4 loglines in week 2, and UT Dallas asks for 3–5 premises.
- An outline before any script pages. It might be a beat sheet, a step outline, a treatment or a 4–5 page outline.
- Pages in fixed batches, read aloud. USC CTWR 523 goes 1–15, 16–30, 31–45 and on to 90–110. The Larsen syllabus at Utah has students "have the class read those pages out loud in class."
- A long deliverable at the end. Depending on the course, that is a first act, a first draft, or a pilot.
The short exercises exist because a first act is too big to get feedback on in week two. A one-page scene with one rule can be read, discussed and rewritten in a single class.
A closer look at one course: USC CTWR 409
The Spring 2022 syllabus for USC's CTWR 409, taught by Garth Twa, shows the whole sequence in one course. The USC catalogue describes the course as an "Introduction to writing compelling scenes, creating authentic characters, three-act structure and feature film outlining" (catalogue entry).
- Memory prompts. Three one-page memories: a favorite toy, a secret place and the most frightening person you knew.
- Atmosphere. The same setting written three ways, Horror, Romance and Comedy, with no more than a page in total.
- "Preparation For A Date". "Write two short non-dialogue scenes": half a page before the date and a third of a page after it. The syllabus says this "helps the writer practice time ellipsis, the technique of planting and payoff".
- Eavesdropping. "Listen in on at least two (2) conversations" and take notes on how each person talks.
- A character scene. "no more than two characters, no more than 3 pages. Each character must have a specific goal, and each character's goal must be diametrically opposed to that of the other character."
- "WRONGEST PERSON/INTRUDER". A 3–5 page dialogue scene. Character A is getting ready for B when C turns up, and A "cannot come out and say exactly why character C must leave".
- Loglines, then a pitch. Loglines for three stories. Then a pitch of "NO MORE THAN 2 MINUTES", a one-page pitch, and "TWO PAGES of PROSE".
- Outline. A 2-page preliminary outline, then a 10 Sequence Story Beat Sheet, then a complete outline with scene headings and act breaks.
- Pages. The first 6 pages, then pages 1–15, then 1–22, then the first act of about 25 pages with a title page.
The notable part is how much comes before the outline: six small exercises, each practising one skill.
A graduate version: USC CTWR 523
The Fall 2024 CTWR 523 syllabus, taught by Aaron Carew, gets to pages faster.
In week 1, students "Read a script that is similar … Plot out its main external beats (one page)" and fill in a character sheet. Week 2 adds the B plots. In week 3, students "Add setups, payoffs, and layers and turn beat sheets into 4-5 page outlines". Week 4 workshops the outlines, with The Matrix as the Hollywood script, and students then hand in a red-lined revision.
From week 6, each week covers about 15 pages, and groups take turns at table reads. Star Wars is set around the week that prepares for the midpoint. At midterm, students hand in "the first 30 pages of your screenplay, along with a scene-by-scene outline for the remainder" of the script. The final is a complete first draft.
Television courses
The TV syllabi follow the same order but use TV terms.
- UCLA Summer FTV 131A. Ten loglines, a "1:3:3 exercise" and two possible A and B stories. Then a comp episode analysed with "logistical tracking", an outline act by act with table reads, a Story Area Document, and a completed Act One.
- UCLA FTV 133B (intermediate sample syllabus). A beat sheet, then an outline in two halves of about five pages each, then a first draft. The first draft is 20% of the grade, and the beat sheet and outline 10% each.
- NYU's undergraduate bulletin (FMTV-UT courses). FMTV-UT 1102 is described as going "from premise lines for A, B, C stories to the beat sheet, outlines to script pages". Its hour-long counterpart, FMTV-UT 1132, works with "A, B, C and D stories".
- UT Dallas (Creating Television Scripts, Spring 2017). A spec treatment, spec pages in two 15-page halves, pilot outlines, a pilot beat sheet and pilot pages. Students read the Breaking Bad pilot and the Arrested Development pilot.
- AFI Conservatory. The curriculum page describes SCR 572, in which Fellows "break an original story and develop an outline and first draft spec script for a current television series".
Conservatories and diplomas
At conservatory level the weight moves to full-length scripts and the feedback loop, though short prompted exercises remain in first-year workshops.
- AFI. First-year Fellows complete "at least one full-length feature screenplay, and a second draft of that screenplay". SCR 557, a first-year workshop with in-class exercises "to specific prompts", includes possible "'special' dialogue assignments, some involving eavesdropping". In the second-year thesis workshop, each Fellow builds a portfolio of "two full-length written works", and "All Fellows in the workshop group read each other's work and come prepared with constructive notes" (second-year page).
- NFTS. The Script Development diploma is aimed at a career in development rather than writing. It has "continuous written assignments throughout the taught section of the programme which are mostly practical". Applicants send 750 words on "a film or TV drama you wish you had developed".
The 13 exercises, grouped
The table puts each exercise in this series next to the syllabus assignments it most resembles. It also gives what you hand in and how long it takes. Each exercise post has a box that opens the exercise in ScripTao, which is free, needs no sign-up and keeps your work in your browser.
| Exercise | Group | Closest syllabus assignment | You hand in | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ten loglines for one idea | Premise & character | UCLA FTV 131A's 10 loglines; Utah's 4 loglines | 10 one-sentence loglines, one chosen | 30–45 min |
| Want, need, wound | Premise & character | USC CTWR 523's external/internal character sheet | Want, need, wound, flaw and secret for a lead and an opponent | 45 min |
| The silent scene | Scenes | UCCS silent scripts; USC CTWR 409's non-dialogue date scenes | 1–3 pages, no dialogue | 1 hr |
| Argue about something else | Scenes | USC CTWR 409's intruder scene; TCNJ's argument | One scene planned in an outline, then drafted | 1–2 hr |
| Goal, conflict, turn | Structure | USC CTWR 409's opposed-goals scene | Fixed scenes, each with a turn | 45 min |
| Step-outline a film you love | Structure | USC CTWR 523's one-page beats of a similar script | One line per scene of a produced film | 2–3 hr |
| Reverse-outline your own draft | Rewriting | USC CTWR 523's red-lined outline | An outline made from your pages | 30–60 min |
| Rewrite from workshop notes | Rewriting | AFI's peer notes; table reads | A revised draft plus a notes list | 1–2 hr |
| Three pages into one | Rewriting | Page caps on nearly every exercise | One page that keeps the story | 45 min |
| Map every setup to its payoff | Structure | USC CTWR 523's "setups, payoffs, and layers" | A setup-to-payoff list | 45 min |
| The bomb under the table | Structure | USC CTWR 409's intruder scene (A knows, C doesn't) | A scene built on dramatic irony | 45 min |
| Break a pilot into A, B and C stories | Television | NYU FMTV-UT 1102; UCLA 131A's A and B stories | A story break by act | 2 hr |
| Adapt a public-domain story | Adaptation | Utah ENG 5570's 10-page adaptations; Princeton's true-story adaptations | A short adapted script | An afternoon |
Premise and character
Loglines come first in many of these courses because they cost the least to throw away. Writing ten versions of one idea makes you change the protagonist, the stakes and the antagonist, which you rarely do with the first version. Here is one original idea written two ways:
A night-shift toll collector who knows every regular's car sees the same sedan pass twice in an hour with a different driver, and has until dawn to decide whether to report it or protect the frightened woman in the back seat.
A retired toll collector is pulled back for one night shift and has to decide whether to report a car she recognises: it belongs to the son she stopped speaking to.
The second version moves the conflict from a stranger to a family member. You don't find that kind of shift until you have written the first version and kept going. The logline exercise goes through all ten. Want, need and wound then asks what the toll collector is chasing, what she actually lacks and the old injury behind her flaw, and does the same for her opponent.
Scenes
Silence is often the first scene constraint in these syllabi. At UCCS, three sizes of silent script come before any dialogue. In USC CTWR 409, the date scenes have no dialogue, and the dialogue scenes come later. Taking away speech forces you to say everything in action lines. For example:
- A man lays two plates, then puts one back in the cupboard.
- He lays it out again.
- He turns the photo on the fridge face down, then props it back up.
The silent scene exercise asks for 1–3 pages with no dialogue at all.
Subtext comes next. The USC intruder assignment is subtext with a timer: character A can't say why C has to leave, and the scene ends the moment B arrives. The subtext exercise has two people argue about an object while the real conflict stays unspoken. In this original example, two siblings are clearing out their late father's garage:
DANA: You never used the socket set. / MARCUS: I used it every Sunday I drove up here. / DANA: Which Sundays were those?
The argument is about a toolbox. What they are really fighting over is who looked after him.
Structure
The CTWR 409 character scene is a scene-structure exercise: two people, "no more than 3 pages", with goals "diametrically opposed". Goal, conflict, turn applies the same test to scenes you have already written. For each scene, ask what the character wants, what's in the way, and what has changed by the end. If nothing has changed, the scene is flat.
Outlining comes next. CTWR 523's week-1 task is to plot out the main external beats of a produced script similar to your idea, on one page. Step-outline a film you love is a longer version of that: one line per scene, for a whole film. Map every setup to its payoff and the bomb under the table both work on what the audience knows and when they learn it. They sit in the TV post because their practice projects are episodes.
Rewriting
Nearly every course here has a revision step. USC CTWR 523 red-lines its outline, Utah counts pages but "rewrites do not count" toward the sixty, and AFI builds its thesis year around peer notes. The rewriting exercises turn this into two tasks with a deliverable each. One is a rewrite driven by notes, where you record which notes you took and which you turned down. The other is a cut from three pages to one. The reverse outline outlines the pages you actually wrote, not the story you planned, so you can see where the two differ.
Television
The TV syllabi share a vocabulary: A, B and C stories, act breaks, teasers and comps. The A, B and C story break sets out a pilot's stories act by act before any pages exist. That is roughly the step the NYU bulletin describes as going "from premise lines for A, B, C stories to the beat sheet".
Adaptation
Adaptation gets its own courses. Utah's ENG 5570 (Fall 2025) sets "3 written/verbal story approaches (pitches), 2 10-page scripts adapted from another source, a report critiquing a book-to-film adaptation, and a 20-page script adaptation". Princeton's Screenwriting II set true stories from non-fiction and "60 pages of reading per week". Note that the course page we read is an archived one that mentions a 2014 deadline. The public-domain adaptation exercise uses a public-domain source so rights never come up.
A twelve-week plan built from the pattern
This plan is ours, not any school's. It follows the order the syllabi above share, and it works for a class, a writing group or one person working alone.
| Week | Exercise | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Silent scene | 1–3 pages, no dialogue |
| 2 | Subtext scene | One scene |
| 3 | Goal, conflict, turn on weeks 1–2 | Revised scenes |
| 4 | Ten loglines | 10 loglines, one chosen |
| 5 | Want, need, wound | Want, need and wound for lead and opponent |
| 6 | Step-outline a film similar to your idea | One line per scene |
| 7 | Your own outline, with a setup and payoff map | 3–5 page outline |
| 8–10 | Pages, about 10 a week, read aloud | Pages 1–30 |
| 11 | Reverse outline of pages 1–30 | Outline of what's on the page |
| 12 | Rewrite from notes plus three pages into one | Revised act one |
A TV class can replace weeks 6–7 with the A, B and C story break. An adaptation class can use the public-domain exercise for weeks 8–10.
Books, and which exercise each one suits
The syllabi assign a small set of books over and over. The table covers each book's verified assignments and the exercise it best supports. Where we couldn't find a syllabus that assigns a book, the table says so.
| Book | Where we found it assigned or described | Pair it with |
|---|---|---|
| Syd Field, Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting | Required at UF RTV3108 (Spring 2026), alongside Save the Cat! | Step outline; goal, conflict, turn |
| Syd Field, The Screenwriter's Workbook | Its own page: "Read a chapter, do the exercise at the end of the chapter" | Ten loglines, then a four-page treatment |
| Robert McKee, Story | Recommended at UF; chapters set at UT Dallas; readings at Yale Summer | Goal, conflict, turn; setups and payoffs |
| Blake Snyder, Save the Cat! | Listed among the recommended and required texts at Utah FILM 4820 and ENG 5570; required at UF; recommended at USC CTWR 523 | Step outline; ten loglines |
| David Trottier, The Screenwriter's Bible | Recommended at USC CTWR 523; listed in the Larsen Utah syllabus | Silent scene (format of action lines) |
| Lew Hunter, Screenwriting 434 | Not on any syllabus we read. The publisher says it follows his UCLA class "by actually writing an original script, step by step" | Step outline; reverse outline |
| Pamela Douglas, Writing the TV Drama Series | Set at UT Dallas; recommended in UCLA's FTV 133B and 2020 summer TV syllabi | A, B and C story break |
| Ellen Sandler, The TV Writer's Workbook | Set at UT Dallas; recommended in UCLA's 2020 summer TV syllabus | A, B and C story break; ten loglines |
| Now Write! Screenwriting, ed. Sherry Ellis and Laurie Lamson | The book's site: "over 90 insightful screenwriting exercises" | Any scene exercise, as extra prompts |
| Howard and Mabley, The Tools of Screenwriting | USC CTWR 409 (Spring 2022); UT Dallas (Spring 2012) | Goal, conflict, turn; the bomb under the table |
| Russin and Downs, Screenplay: Writing the Picture | Required at USC CTWR 523 (Fall 2024); listed at UCCS | Silent scene; step outline |
A few notes on using the books well:
- Field's workbook. Its page describes Field's first class assignment as a four-page treatment "focusing on the ending, the beginning, Plot Point I and Plot Point II", which he called the "kick in the ass" exercise. That fits right after the loglines.
- Sandler. Her publisher's page promises "A technique for breaking down a show style". That makes the book a natural partner for breaking down a comp episode before you break your own.
The scripts courses study, and where to read them legally
These are the scripts named in the documents above:
- USC CTWR 409 (Spring 2022): Get Out (Jordan Peele), Booksmart (Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins), Nebraska (Bob Nelson), Fight Club (Jim Uhls) and Judas and the Black Messiah (Will Berson and Shaka King).
- USC CTWR 523 (Fall 2024): The Matrix and Star Wars. The syllabus says assigned scripts "will be provided as PDFs".
- UT Dallas TV: the Breaking Bad and Arrested Development pilots.
- Yale Summer: The Godfather, as the basis for a character exercise, and Blade Runner.
- Princeton adaptation: Boys Don't Cry, Maria Full of Grace, Lynn Barber's An Education and Capote's In Cold Blood.
The official routes to a legitimate copy that we found:
- BBC Writersroom Script Library. The library offers "over 1000 scripts" across TV, radio and film. Its films section includes An Education, which pairs well with the Princeton reading list. The terms: scripts are "available only for private, personal use", and you may not share them or "extract anything from them to develop or train artificial intelligence". The Writers Guild Foundation calls it a "Great resource for Doctor Who scripts."
- Awards-season scripts. The Writers Guild Foundation notes that "During film awards season (December to March), studios will often post scripts online via Deadline", and that they sometimes come down once the season ends. These are the FYC (for your consideration) scripts. No Film School describes them as material studios put out as part of their Oscar campaigns. Download from the studio's own posting when you can.
- Writers' own sites. The same WGF page lists David Koepp's and Javier Grillo-Marxuach's personal sites, where the writers post their own scripts and development material.
- Libraries. The WGF points to university libraries with film programmes. It also says its own library "does not post scripts online due to copyright and donor agreements".
Then there are the unofficial sites. IMSDb says "Our site lets you read or download movie scripts for free" and that its scripts are in HTML. Script Slug hosts PDFs and runs pages such as its Oscar scripts collection. Both are free to read, but neither is the rights holder. The WGF, which lists Script Slug, adds that "Our listing a site here is not an endorsement". It also warns that some sites "post transcripts of scripts", which are typed up from the finished film and are not the shooting script. For studying format, that difference matters.
Mistakes these syllabi are designed to prevent
- Writing pages before an outline. Most of the courses above set an outline, beat sheet or treatment before script pages. Utah's order is loglines, then elements, then short outlines, then treatments, and only then pages.
- Exercises with no limit. Nearly every exercise has a cap: "No more than a page total", "2 pages max", "no more than 3 pages".
- Feedback that comes too late. Table reads start at pages 1–10 or 1–15, not after a full draft.
FAQ
How do you teach script writing to students?
Follow the order the published syllabi share:
- Short scenes with one rule and a hard page cap, such as no dialogue or two opposed goals.
- Several premises or loglines.
- An outline.
- Script pages in 10–15 page batches, read aloud in class.
- A revision based on notes.
USC CTWR 409 (Spring 2022) runs that order over one semester and ends with a first act of about 25 pages. The twelve-week plan above does the same with the exercises in this series.
Is Syd Field still relevant?
His book is still on syllabi: UF's Spring 2026 RTV3108 lists Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting as a required textbook, next to Save the Cat!. Screenwriting teacher Linda Seger writes that Field "didn't invent the Three-Act Structure" but "made it easier for teachers who came after him to teach and write about screenwriting". Field himself called three acts "form, not formula" in a Cal Alumni interview. Use him for the big shape of a story, and pair him with scene-level exercises such as goal, conflict, turn.
Is IMSDb free to use?
It's free to read: IMSDb says you can "read or download movie scripts for free", in HTML in your browser. Free to read doesn't make it official, though. IMSDb doesn't hold the rights to the scripts it hosts, and some copies on unofficial sites are transcripts. For class use, try the BBC Writersroom library, studio FYC postings in awards season and writers' own sites first.
How many pages do screenwriting students write in a semester?
The documents above range from about 25 to 110 pages. At the low end, USC CTWR 409 asks for a first act of 25–30 pages. The Larsen Utah syllabus sets "at least sixty pages". At the top, USC CTWR 523 expects "90 -110 pages of original screenplay material".
What is the first exercise in a screenwriting course?
It depends on the course. USC CTWR 409 starts with one-page memory prompts. UCLA FTV 131A starts with ten loglines. UCCS starts with a two-page silent script. Among the courses we read, the most common openers are either a short scene with no dialogue or a set of loglines.