How to make a microdrama with AI, step by step

To make a microdrama with AI, write the story as episodes of 150 to 300 words that each end on a turn, paste it into Nima's Long-form Video, approve one cast and one voice per character, and make each episode as its own film. Every episode comes in widescreen with a vertical cut for the phone. Our Pride and Prejudice runs this way: the 14-minute Episode 1 above, and the 54-second vertical piece cut from it below, which is our most watched on Instagram.

Your first trailer is free.

Last updated 27 October 2026

1. Write the season as episodes

A microdrama is written to its length. Film runs at about 150 words a minute with the narrator reading the prose, so:

Each episode needs a hook in its first sentence, one turn in the middle and an unanswered question at the end. Write the whole season before you make anything: the cliffhangers only work if you know what they lead to. How to write the script, with a template.

If you are adapting a book, cut at the moments the book already turns on. Our Little Women episodes are single exchanges from the first chapter, one line each: Jo on manners, Amy on her nose, Meg on being poor.

2. Paste the season and build the cast

1. Paste the text. Open Long-form Video and paste the season, up to 10,000 words at a time. Nima maps the scenes, the cast and the places, and nothing is cut unless you agree.
2. Pick one look. Five looks: detailed claymation, acid pencil, felted wool, comic book ink, paper love. One for the whole series.
3. Approve the cast. Every character is drawn once from your text as a sheet. This is the step that keeps the season consistent, so fix anything here, not later.
4. Pick the voices. Five auditions per speaking character. One voice each, for the season.
5. Watch the free trailer. 15 to 20 seconds of the story, animated, with the voices: the look and the cast before you spend anything.

3. Make the episodes

Tell Nima where each episode starts and ends, in chat. Each episode is built as a storyboard with the voices first, then animated, and has its own link and download. Make episode one, watch it on a phone, then make the rest.

Our episode, and the piece cut from it:

That is Mrs Bennet from chapter one, 54 seconds, cut from the 14-minute episode at the top of this page. Same cast, same set, same voice.

4. Cut it vertical

Each episode is made in widescreen. The vertical cut is made from it: Nima picks the moments, finds the people in each shot and keeps them in the tall frame, and adds a title card with the episode number. You get both files, the widescreen episode and the vertical cut.

If you want the whole episode vertical rather than its cut, say so when you order; the frame is drawn for the phone from the first picture.

5. Post it

• Vertical to Shorts, Reels and TikTok, one episode a day, each ending on the cliffhanger, each caption naming the series and the episode number.
• Widescreen to YouTube as a playlist in order, so a viewer who arrives from a Short can watch from episode one.
• One title pattern: the series name, the episode number, the line the episode is known by. Ours read "Little Women No. 3: I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits".
• The first episodes carry the series. Ours that travelled were single lines everyone knows: a quotation makes the hook for you.

What it costs

Films are made on a monthly plan metered in minutes of finished film: two, ten or a hundred minutes a month, with one, two or five rounds of notes on each film. Extra minutes are $10 each and never expire. That works out from as low as $10 per finished minute; the plans and their current prices are on the pricing page. Film length follows the text at about 150 words a minute with the narrator on.

You need the right to adapt the text. Your own book qualifies, and so does anything in the public domain. If a publisher holds your film or audio-visual rights, ask them before you post a trailer.