> An installable agent skill for AI Content Drop. Machine-readable copy: > https://aicontentdrop.com/skills/short-drama-writer/SKILL.md. > Ships with the aicontentdrop package, and is listed in > /skills/index.json.

Writing a short drama people keep swiping for

Short vertical dramas are watched on a phone, often with the sound off, in episodes of 15 to 90 seconds. They are not quiet films cut short. The format sells big, legible emotion, a clear power imbalance, and an ending that makes the next episode feel owed. This skill writes the story as text; the video is made in Drama Studio at <https://aicontentdrop.com/generate/drama>.

1. Test the premise before writing a line

A premise that works has all four:

1. Someone who wants something now: a specific, urgent goal, not a mood.
2. Something in the way: a person, a secret or a circumstance, already in

motion when the story opens.

3. Stakes a stranger can see: status, money, love, a child, a name. If the

stakes only exist in someone's head, they will not read on screen.

4. Room to escalate: enough conflict for every episode to turn once.

Premises the format rewards most often: the revenge return (the humiliated one comes back powerful), the underdog rise, the forbidden romance, the hidden identity or hidden wealth, the betrayal caught in the act, the contract marriage. Use them as engines, not as templates; the person's own world and characters make it theirs. Never borrow a title, a character or a line from an existing drama.

If the premise fails a test, say which one and offer two sharper versions.

2. Size the episode

A beat is one distinct action of 4 to 15 seconds. A season in Drama Studio can run to 60 episodes; plan the season question first, then let each episode answer a smaller one and raise the next.

3. The rules every episode follows

• Open inside the tension. The first beat is a hook the format sells: a

humiliation, a betrayal caught in the act, an identity reveal, a deadline, a rescue. Never an arrival or small talk.

• One visible power move per scene, readable with the sound off: a slap, a

public snub, a document slammed down, a kneel, a walk-out, a ring removed, a reveal of wealth or identity.

• Status contrast in every scene: someone above, someone below. Reverse it

by the end of the episode.

• Every scene holds friction: a disagreement, a secret, a lie, a deadline

or a cost. A scene where everyone agrees is not a scene.

• The episode turns once: new information changes what a character wants

or believes. Mark that beat.

• State the stakes out loud once per scene, then let subtext carry the

rest. No line only greets, thanks or agrees unless it hides something.

• Settings with contrast: a gala, a penthouse, a boardroom, a hospital

corridor, a courtroom, a kitchen under pressure. Never a scene that is only two people talking at a table.

• End on a question the audience needs answered: a reveal, a decision, a

threat. Write it down as the ending hook.

4. A shot for every beat

This plays on a vertical screen, so most beats are close-ups or medium close-ups on one face. Give each beat one line a camera operator could follow: shot size, angle, movement. Establish wide once per scene, then go close; the reaction at the turn is a close-up; the reveal gets a slow push in.

5. Romance has a ceiling, conflict does not

Agree the romance level before writing: gentle, flirty, romantic, passionate or mature, never graphic. Passionate and mature need an adult, fictional cast. Keep intimate moments off screen and never escalate past the agreed level on your own. The ceiling limits intimacy only; betrayal, rivalry and threat stay at full strength.

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Choosing the premise

Start from a feeling the viewer already knows, named in two to four words: being overlooked, betrayed in public, longing for someone out of reach, the dread of being found out. Build the situation that makes that feeling unavoidable, then find the loudest visible moment it produces; that moment is where the episode opens.

Score a premise one to five on each of six questions and prefer the highest total: is the situation instant (place and moment in the first line), is the feeling recognisable, is there a visible peak a camera can show with the sound off, do two people read the same moment differently while someone watches, can a few people in one or two rooms make it, and can it carry a season because something leaks out in stages. A premise under three on any one question is rewritten before anything is drawn.

• Instant situation: we know where we are and what is happening in the first line.
• Recognisable feeling: a viewer has felt this, or feared it.
• Visible peak: the opening moment can be read with the sound off.
• Reaction contrast: two people read the same moment differently, and someone watches.
• Ease of production: a few people, one or two rooms, nothing a small crew cannot stage.
• Series potential: something can leak in stages for many episodes.

Five engines carry most short dramas: a nobody lifted into the room that ignored them; two people who should not be together with a clock between them; two people who want one thing judged by someone with history with both; someone in the room who is not who the others think, with the proof about to surface; and the one who was mocked or turned away coming back holding what the others need.

• A nobody is lifted: the overlooked worker is handed the room, the title or the microphone.
• Two people who should not be together are, and something with a clock stands between them.
• Two people want one thing, and the one who judges them has history with both.
• Someone in the room is not who the others think, and the proof is about to surface.
• The one who was mocked, fired or turned away comes back holding the thing the others need.

The director's craft: writing for the clip model

The studio compiles each clip prompt from these fields, so a script that fills them renders as it was written and a script that leaves them empty renders as a guess. Write them in.

Four parts. Four parts, in this order, and list each beat id under its part in episode.structure (hook, context, escalation, cliffhanger). The hook opens on the loudest moment of the episode, the one the viewer does not yet understand, never on how it began. The context part restores what led there and changes the main character's fortunes every twenty to thirty seconds of running time: a setback, then a hope, then another blow. The escalation is one unexpected turn written as two performances at once, each character reading the moment differently, with the movement spelled out: who stands, who crosses the room, who turns away. The cliffhanger stops one line before the answer, and its last beat carries cutToBlack true. The last scene quickens: angles change more often, someone enters, small gestures pile up, and anticipation is built before a key face is finally shown.

Reactions. Reactions are written, never assumed: in any beat with two or more characters present, reactions names what the second character does with face and body while the first acts, in physical terms a camera can hold. At the turn of the scene the two must read the moment differently, one taking it as a threat and the other as an opening, one shrinking and the other leaning in, so the contrast is visible before anyone speaks.

Voices. Voices are text: every character who speaks anywhere in the season gets a voiceDescription of how the voice sounds, by accent described as sounds in the mouth rather than as a nationality, by pitch, by pace and by timbre, in one sentence of at most three hundred characters, never a real person's name or a performer to imitate. Write it once on the character and copy it unchanged wherever it is asked for; how the voice sounds in a given moment belongs in that beat's action or reactions, not in the description.

Continuity. Each scene carries a continuity table: one row per present character with wears (every garment and accessory on them in this scene), carries (what is in their hands or on their person) and changes (what is removed, handed over, put on or broken during the scene, and at which beat). An item that comes off stays off in every later scene unless a beat puts it back; an object handed over travels with its new holder. The episode's continuityNotes summarise what the next episode must inherit.

Location. Every environment carries a layout: a map in words of where the furniture, doors, windows and walking paths are, which side the light enters from, and where the camera usually stands, so that any angle of the room agrees with every other. Write it from a three-quarter view that shows the paths the scenes use. A place used for one scene is described against the main location rather than built from nothing: the same building, the same light, one new room.

Inserts. An insert is a beat that must be its own clip: a fall, a phone call, a reveal of hands, eyes or an object, a reaction the master shot would lose. Mark it insert true, keep it short, and write its action as one physical event the camera can hold alone; the scene around it reads as a whole without it and gains from it when it is cut in.

Blocking. Blocking is stated per beat: blocking says who is where at the beat's first frame, left or right of frame as the camera sees it, near or far, standing or seated, and where each person is looking. An entrance names the door it uses; a crossing names where it ends. Blocking changes only when an action in the beat moves someone.

Lighting. Each scene names one lighting logic in lighting: the sources in the room (a window, a lamp, a screen, a candle), the direction the key light comes from, its colour and hardness, and what the backlight is. Every shot of the scene is lit by that logic; a change of light happens only when the story switches something on or off.

Beat tags. Tag each beat with up to four families in tags, most important first, from exactly these words: action, camera, vfx, dialogue, product, emotion, transition, performance. A beat carried by what people do gets action and performance; a beat carried by what is said gets dialogue; a beat whose camera move is the event gets camera; a beat that changes the room or the time gets transition.

Before handing over. Also ask: does the hook open on the loudest moment before it is explained? does every beat with two people present carry reactions for the second? does every speaker have a voice description copied unchanged? does each scene carry a lighting line and a continuity table? does the last beat cut to black one line before the answer?

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6. What to hand over

Deliver it in this shape so it pastes straight into Drama Studio:

Title:
Logline: (one sentence: who wants what, against whom, or else)
Audience question: (the question the season answers)
Settings: episodes N · S seconds each · 9:16 · genre · style · romance level

Cast
- Name, age: who they are, what they want, what they hide

Episode 1: Title
Opening hook:
Scene 1 (location, time of day)
  Beat 1 (6 s): action. Shot: size, angle, movement. Dialogue: "Speaker: words"
  Beat 2 (…)
Turn: (the beat that changes what someone wants)
Ending hook:

Then tell the person the next step in one line: open <https://aicontentdrop.com/generate/drama>, start a drama with this premise and settings, and use the outline as the writing instruction. Drama Studio writes the full script, shows the cost of every clip before anything renders, and cuts the finished episode. Questions about what a plan includes go to <https://aicontentdrop.com/plans>.

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