How to write a microdrama script: the episode shape, a template and an example
A microdrama script is a season of episodes of 60 to 120 seconds, each with a hook in the first line, one turn in the middle and a cliffhanger at the end. Write the whole season as an outline first, one line per episode, then each episode at 150 to 300 words. Above: 41 seconds of Little Women, one exchange from chapter one, which has the whole shape in it.
Your first trailer is free.
The shape of one episode
| Beat | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | the first line, 0 to 10 seconds | someone wants something, or something is wrong, in plain sight |
| Turn | the middle, 30 to 60 seconds | the thing they wanted gets harder, or turns out to be something else |
| Cliffhanger | the last line, the last 5 seconds | a question the next episode has to answer |
That is the whole form. Three beats, one scene, two or three people, one place. A microdrama episode has no room for a second scene; if yours needs one, it is two episodes.
The word counts
Film runs at about 150 words a minute when a narrator reads the prose, a little slower when it is all dialogue. So an episode is 150 words at 60 seconds, 225 at 90, 300 at two minutes. Dialogue counts double for pace: a spoken line of ten words takes as long as twenty words of narration, because people pause.
Keep each spoken line under two sentences. Long speeches read as a monologue on a phone; two people trading short lines reads as a scene.
The season outline
Write the season before any episode: one line per episode, each line ending with the question that episode leaves open. A season of twenty is twenty lines. If a line has no question at the end, that episode is missing its cliffhanger, and you find out now, at the cost of a sentence.
The first three episodes carry the series: in the apps they are the free ones, in the feeds they are the ones a new viewer meets. Put the biggest question of the season in episode one.
A template
Episode template (copy and fill)
Episode [n]: [the line it will be known by]
Place: [one place]. People: [two or three names].
Hook (first line): [who wants what, or what is wrong].
Turn (middle): [what makes it harder, or what it really is].
Cliffhanger (last line): [the question the next episode answers].
Words: [150 to 300].
Write the episode as prose with the dialogue in quotation marks, the way a novel is written: that is what you paste. The narrator reads the prose; each character speaks their own lines.
A worked example from a book
The Little Women piece at the top of this page is one exchange from chapter one, in Alcott's own words. Its shape:
| Beat | In the text |
|---|---|
| Hook | Jo, flat on the rug, declares she hates affected, niminy-piminy chits |
| Turn | Amy, who is exactly that, takes it personally; Meg takes Amy's side |
| Cliffhanger | the quarrel is cut off by Beth at the piano, unresolved |
A novel turns every few hundred words, which is why books cut into microdramas so well. Mark every turn in the chapter, and each stretch between two turns is an episode.
An original example
Episode 1: The key that was not hers
Place: the hallway of a boarding house, late. People: Nell, the landlady; Tomas, the new lodger.
Nell had locked the front door at ten for thirty years, and tonight it was open. "You left it," she said to the lodger on the stairs. "I came in through it," said Tomas. "It was open when I came." She looked at the key in his hand. It was brass, old, and it was hers: the one she had lost the winter her husband died. "Where did you get that?" Tomas looked at it as if he had not seen it before. "It was in my room," he said. "On the pillow."
Hook: the door that is never open. Turn: the key is hers. Cliffhanger: who put it on his pillow. 118 words, about 50 seconds.
Paste an episode like that into Long-form Video and it comes back as a film with Nell and Tomas drawn once, each with a voice, for every episode after it. The step-by-step.
What to avoid
- A second scene. If the episode needs to move, it is two episodes.
- A speech. No line over two sentences.
- An answer at the end. The last line asks; the next episode answers.
- A cast that grows. New faces are expensive for the viewer; introduce one a few episodes, and give every character one thing they want for the whole season.
Common questions
How long is a microdrama script?
150 to 300 words an episode, for 60 to 120 seconds of film; a season of twenty episodes is about 4,500 words.
What is the structure of a microdrama episode?
A hook in the first line, one turn in the middle, a cliffhanger in the last line. One scene, one place, two or three people.
How do you write a cliffhanger for a microdrama?
End on the question, not the answer: the last line reveals something or asks something that the next episode has to deal with, and the episode cuts there.
Can I turn a novel into microdrama episodes?
Yes, if you have the right to adapt it. Mark every turn in a chapter; each stretch between two turns is an episode. Our Pride and Prejudice and Little Women episodes are single scenes from the first chapters.
How do I turn the script into the episodes?
Paste it into Nima's Long-form Video: the cast is drawn once, each character gets a voice, and each episode is made as its own animated film, widescreen with a vertical cut.
Paste your first episode. The trailer is free. Make my free trailer.