Get ready to rumble again! It’s time to throw down your screenwriting skills and see if you’ve got what it takes to be the last writer standing!
Enter the 48-Hour Screenplay Throwdown screenwriting contest to flex your writing skills and pit your quick script up against other writers in the WD community!
Ten finalists will get a chance to have their script submissions read & judged by professional screenwriter/showrunner Andy Bobrow (Community, The Last Man on Earth)
FREE to submit! Effortless to enter! And a fantastic opportunity to win CASH PRIZES to help support your writing journey!
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
In order for your script to be considered, please follow the guidelines below:
No matter what genre you choose to write in or what tone your story takes, your script submission MUST embody this Throwdown Theme.
HOW TO SUBMIT
TEN FINALSTS WILL WIN
- $100
- 1-year free WriterDuet Pro
- Script Submission featured as a Readable Publish Link and read/judged by professional screenwriter Andy Bobrow
THE 1st PLACE WINNER WILL WIN
- $500
- A WriterDuet Pro Lifetime subscription
- Feedback on Throwdown script submission from the featured judge Andy Bobrow
(The 1st Place Winner will receive these prizes instead of the Finalist prizes)
ABOUT THE FEATURED JUDGE
Andy Bobrow is a sitcom veteran who began his television career on the hit Fox series Malcolm In The Middle. Andy has written for some of the most popular and influential American TV comedies, including Community and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Andy was also Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner of Fox’s The Last Man On Earth, and is currently Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner of Fox’s Bless The Harts.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CONTEST?
Reach out to us! help@writerduet.com
Terms Of Service
Your participation in this contest signifies your acceptance of the WriterDuet 48-Hour Screenplay Throwdown Contest terms and conditions below.
You must be at least 13 years of age to enter. If you are under the age of 13 you are not permitted to enter. If you are over the age of 13 but under the age of 18, entry into this contest and acceptance of any prize awarded in the event of a winning script requires you to have the consent of your parent or guardian. No purchase is necessary to enter. Void where prohibited.
WRITERDUET INC. reserves the right to investigate or reject your entry if you have misused the Service or have behaved in any way that we consider inappropriate, unlawful or illegal. In order to participate in this competition, you must also abide by the WRITERDUET Terms of Service and Privacy Policies.
Submitting a script
When you submit a script to the WriterDuet 48-Hour Screenplay Throwdown Contest, you promise that:
You own all rights, including copyright, to the entire script or have been authorized by its copyright owner to submit it to WRITERDUET INC.; The content of the script is not unlawful, defamatory, libelous, threatening, obscene, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or fraudulent, and doesn’t encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or violate any law, or would be otherwise inappropriate; The content of the script does not violate any other rights of any party, such as infringing a copyright or trademark, publishing falsehoods or misrepresentations about WRITERDUET INC. or any other person or entity, or violating another person’s right to privacy or publicity; No other party has a pending claim to the script that, if upheld, would render our Service or products, or those of our Partners, illegal or in violation of any party’s rights. You retain all your prior ownership rights in your submitted scripts. You agree that you will not suggest, directly or indirectly, that WRITERDUET INC. endorses the content of any script that you submit, including opinions, recommendations, or advice expressed by that script.
If you have questions about any of these agreements, you can contact us at help@writerduet.com.
166 Comments
So we are allowed to use more than one location this time 🙂
Correct! Have fun and good luck!
What do you mean by TBA?
To be announced! We will be announcing those this weekend, Saturday June 12th at 12AM PST on this blog page. You’ll then have 48 hours to submit your script.
yall are so so cool
Really enjoyed the last one, can’t wait for this one! Got my fingers hovering over my keyboard already. Getting a bit of cramp, actually.
so we have to copyright the script ourselves for it to be eligible for the contest? (my first time doing this).
No need to get a copyright for your script – you own all rights to your work! If you are a Finalist, we will feature your script submission as a WriterDuet Read publish link, but you will still own 100% of the rights to that script.
Is this open internationally or only for US citizens/residents?
This contest is open worldwide!
I’m from India. Can I still submit? If yes, how are the timings managed?
Hi Jay! You can submit to the contest! The contest is set to start in a few hours from now – Saturday Juen 12th at 12 AM CST. You’ll then have 48 hours to write your script and get it submitted by Sunday, Juen 13th at 11:59 PM CST. So that means the contest would start Saturday at 12:30 PM in India.
This is super cool and I cant wait to “flex” my writing skills. First time doing this so I am excited.
💪✍️✨
Should it be a complete story with its beginning and ending? Or just a scene/scenes that don’t have to lead to a finale?
It’s totally up to you! A complete story of some kind usually is more compelling for these contests but we want to be open to creativity in any form.
May we submit as a team (partnership)?
You can! We actually had a writing duo make the finalists last Throwdown! Just choose one of you to submit. If you win, we will just send all communications, prize money and free license to that email for your team to split however you like.
The summation has to be a finished short screenplay, or I can submitted 4 minutes of one of my screenplays?
It doesn’t have to be a standalone short but it will need to follow the rules, including embodying the theme and and incorporating the featured prop. These will be announced Saturday at 12AM PST. So you will likely need to rewrite some things to be considered.
Do you chose the subject and outline, is that what you mean by TBA. I don’t understand. New here. Thank you.
We will give you the theme and featured prop, which you’ll need to incorporate into your script. TBA means to be announced. We will be announcing the theme and prop Saturday, June 12 @12AM PST. You can title your work whatever you feel is best!
I have a question about the speaking characters rule. If I have a third person saying something but out of reach, just mouth moving am I breaking the rule?
Great question. If they don’t have any dialogue, you’ll be fine!
What is the throwdown theme?
We about to announce it! Check back on this post tonight at midnight June 12th @ 12AM PST 🙌
Are we allowed to have any additional characters outside of the speaking roles?
Hi Matthew! The “maximum of 2 speaking characters” guideline is not to limit the number of characters you can have in your script – you can have as many as you would like! But only 2 of them can speak, so if you were to have multiple characters featured in the script, only 2 of them would be allowed to have dialogue lines throughout the entire script.
Hello! I’m not sure I got the point ‘Incorporate the Featured Prop’ correctly. Would you be so kind to help me figure it out? So, ‘to embody the Featured theme’ which will be announced on Saturday, June 12th @ 12 AM PST — that is the theme we should write our scripts on… And ‘featured props’? Thank you in advance for the answer.
Hey there!
Both the theme and prop will be announced tonight. You’ll need to write a script which 1) embodies the theme AND 2) incorporates the prop. They will be two separate things but both must be incorporated into your script.
Does this help clear things up?
Yeah, it does a little bit. But I’m still confused with the featured prop… What is that? I mean just in general.
It could be anything you might expect as a standard prop in a script, (examples: a hammer, a music box, a business card)
Yeah, it does. Thank you very much. But I’m still a bit confused with the featured prop. What is that? I mean just in general.
hi, whats the embodied theme and featured prop
The theme and prop with be announced here, tonight (June 12th @ 12am PST)
sorry im from india so what would be here?
Hi Omkar! If you are currently in India, the contest would begin Saturday, June 12th at 12:30 PM. You when then have 48 hours to get your script written and submitted!
sorry im from india so what time would be here then?
Hey, can we send in multiple entries ?
Hi Priyansh! We are only accepting one entry per person.
Hi! Can the script be for an animated project?
Hi James, of course! Just make sure the script adheres to general industry formatting standards.
Michigan here! So I should expect the theme and prop in about 3 hours?
Theywill be announced in about 1 hour!
What is the featured prop and theme? Can’t find it.
Hi Heather! The contest page should be updated now with the Throwdown Theme and Featured Prop. The theme is Secret Identities 🤐 and the prop is a Pencil ✏️
what time does the prompt comes out
12AM PST (in about 1 hour)
This is an awesome idea, thank you!
Can I have a speaker that chnages his name in the middle of the script? does it count as one or two?
So long as you indicate in the script that the character’s name has changed, their dialogue lines will be considered the same as their character’s previous name. That way, they’ll only count as one character!
thanks!
Whats the theme and the prop
Hi Nick, it’s posted right here. The theme is Secret Identities 🤐 and the prop is a Pencil ✏️
Take another look at the blog post for all the details/rules.
Hi. Does the identity of both speaking characters have to be secret or can there be a third non-speaking character whose identity is a unknown?
Hi there! As far as how you incorporate the Throwdown Theme of “Secret Identities”, this should not affect how many characters can be in your script – you can have as many as you would like! So long as only two of those characters have dialogue lines/speak during the script, you should be all set!
For the secret identity rule: does the secret identity HAVE to be a secret to the audience/readers or can it be a “secret” in the story? Does that count?
Hi CJ! The Throwdown Theme can be interpreted in any way that you would like in your script! It’s less a rule and more of a guiding prompt that you can incorporate in your script’s story.
Where are the rules posted and theme?
Hi there! The Screenplay Throwdown Summer ’21 Guidelines and Throwdown Theme should be listed under the “Submission Guidelines” section of the contest page.
Does the pencil have to be used throughout the screenplay or just be shown once? Is it supposed to be an important piece?
Hi Dakota! There isn’t any specific way that the Featured Prop has to be used – it can be the prominent focus of your story or appear once. It’s totally up to you! So long as the Pencil appears in the script, you should be good to go!
Are on screen text message considered dialogue? Thank you!!
Hey Jeremy! As long as the character is not speaking and the portion of text message is not formatted as dialogue, that’s fine.
In terms of spoken dialogue, would on screen text messages be considered?
Hey Thien! As long as the character is not speaking and the portion of text message is not formatted as dialogue, there won’t be an issue.
When will the winners be announced again? Thanks!
Gave it a try last time and had great fun! Going to give it a try again just for the challenge.
Hi, so by secret identities, you mean the characters cannot have names? Or do they need to just be anonymous in the story kind of?
Hi Red! There isn’t one specific way you need to use the Throwdown Theme in your story. It’s more like a prompt in that we want you to write your script based on you specifically as a writer would interpret that theme.
Just submitted! That was a great (and unexpected!) way to spend my Sunday. Thanks for the encouragement to flex my writing skills.
Hi Anna! We’re so glad you enjoyed creating for the Screenplay Throwdown! 🎉💪
Hello, a quick question! Can one character’s identity be revealed in the end or must it stay secret throughout the whole story?
Hi Beatriz! There isn’t one specific way you need to use the Throwdown Theme in your story. It’s more like a prompt in that we want you to write your script based on you specifically as a writer would interpret that theme. So if you want to reveal the identity of a character at the end, or never reveal it all, that’s totally up to you!
Never used Writer Duet before and just realised the title page didn’t update with my name – already submitted, anything I can do?
User here, but resave your title page then just press ‘update published version’ and it will update it, I believe!
does talking count if the character is writing something down
Hi Don! As long as the character is not speaking (has dialogue lines) and the portion of what they’re writing down is not formatted as dialogue, then you should be all set!
Ahoy-hoy. I am an idiot, and somehow double-pasted the link into the upload thingy and now it’s not viewable. Is there any way to amend the form? Thanks 🙂
Hey David, you can’t amend the form but give us the email address you used to submit and we can correct the link on our end and make sure it’s working.
Okay thanks, I’ll e-mail!
Hi. Just wondered if it had to be a screenplay, or could it be a stage script with all the exact same rules?
Hi Lindsey! For this specific contest, we are accepting screenplays. That said! We absolutely will consider opening up to Statgeplays in future contests.
I submitted it once but the link only showed my title page. I resubmitted the link and it worked the second time. Is there a way I can delete the first submission?
Not a problem Emilee! We will make sure we only review/consider your second submission. Thanks for letting us know
Thank you!
Of course! Good luck!
Should I include my adress, phone and e-mail on to title page?
Hi Barkin! It’s not required to include your address/phone/email on your title page, but you can if you want! So long as you have the scripts name and the author’s name on the title page, you should be good to create your publish link and submit!
thank you for fast reply!
When I copy my publish link and try to open up in my browser, it only shows my title page and first paragraph of first page, what am I doing wrong?
Hi, when the terms and services says “doesn’t encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or violate any law, or would be otherwise inappropriate”, am I allowed to write an action piece that is completely fictional but set in the real world and involves some fight sequences?
Or swear words?
Yes Roni, you can. There are definitely some extreme examples where a story might cross a line but you should be good with a fight scene! Use your best judgment.
Are swear words allowed?
Swear words are allowed!
Hello! Can we add narration to the story? If so, does it have to be a character?
Hi Matthew! If the narration is formatted as dialogue then technically that would be another speaking character.
If we write with a partner normally, are we able to enter the contest together with both names on the script?
Correct! We love the collaboration. Put both of your names on the script but just one of you submit the script. All communication will come to that email address, including any prizes for you to divide as your writing team sees fit.
Hello! Can we add narration to our story?
Hi Matthew! If the narration is formatted as dialogue then technically that would be another speaking character.
Does there have to be four pages? If so, does the fourth page need to be filled entirely?