Note: This essay was entirely written by the human writer named Gordy Hoffman.
I run and judge a screenplay competition that receives thousands of scripts each year, and we give written notes on every submission to us.
For years, we get responses from writers after they have received notes——I loved my feedback, I hated my feedback—–something to that effect.
Now in the age of artificial intelligence, it is becoming more frequent that writers claim that AI read their screenplay.
I have observed when the writers claim their screenplays were read and analyzed by AI they usually disagree with the feedback. In fact, they think it’s awful.
No one ever says, “I loved the feedback! Artificial intelligence must have read my screenplay!”
There’s much to discuss about the use of AI to support the work of writers and how they use it to develop stories. I personally do not use it because I work alone.
But what’s clear to me is AI doesn’t want to read my screenplay. It doesn’t care if I write.
Does my laptop care if I turn it on? If I write a movie? If I do a budget?
No.
AI doesn’t want to go to the movies. It doesn’t care about me.
Will it write me a schedule? Will it tell me how many children Ulysses Grant had? Sure.
But it had no childhood.
It doesn’t value time.
It will never grieve. It doesn’t care about home runs. It won’t point at cats wrestling.
So why would it care if you every wrote a word?
We recently had a top agent ask us to send us the best feature we had.
It’s 2025. And the market wants movies.
There is a demand for screenplays because there is a demand from human beings for motion pictures screened in dark theatres that sell popcorn and candy.
People all over the world want emotional stories on giant screens.
We need and want and seek stories which affirm the challenges and joys of our personal existences——we require other people to reflect our lives through movies.
Started with the campfire thousands and thousands of years ago and here we are, summer of 2025, watching Naked Gun and 8 ½, in a theatre, together.
And all because we want to. All of us.
So our little movie writing contest over here will take your script if you’re human and wrote it, and we, human beings, will read it, because we understand that you wanted to write a story and we want to read it. Why?
Because you have a soul, and AI does not.
I entered the competition, paid my fee, bided my time, waited for a response, received my feedback – and then emailed my feedback contact for something extra and was blanked!
This is why people aren’t entering in their usual numbers Gordy.
There’s no passion, no feeling, no humanity….it’s one and done – pay the money and dispensed with.
Maybe my script’s bollocks, but it’d be nice to feel as if our bollocks was dealt with by a human.
All love brother, but I do not intend to enter bluecat again because of said blanking. It’s more unfeeling and AI-like than AI ever could be.
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve entered the Blue Cat screenplay contest many times and was a quarterfinalist one year. But the feedback I’ve gotten has often been critical and not in a good way. But at the same time I get satisfaction that a person actually read my script to determine if they liked it or not. AI has no emotions because it’s artificial not real.
Amen.
I think AI is great for finding structure, spelling, and formatting issues. It offers ideas taken from ideas entered into the system (what others have written). It can analyze empathy if the writer uses inpactive verbs; it cannot feel empathy.
AI cannot stop to laugh at the humor. “This cracks me up! Oops… I just lost some chips. It’s killing me! I wish I could pee my pants laughing, but I don’t wear clothes.”
I think AI is a good tool to help with an early draft, but it cannot replace a human reader— not for me anyway.
Something I tell others when they get on the subject of AI. A lot of them are all for it. I’m not. There’s a button you have to push, so AI doesn’t use your material for teaching. I don’t want them to use mine for anything. So I do my best to ignore Copilot or AI or any other abhorrent deviation. Writing is complicated enough without having to worry about it being taken, but then I deal with that every time I finish a screenplay. I’m tempted to buy a computer and mail my material. At least, that way I get to keep it.
I told myself if I ever felt like a screenplay competition was giving me fake notes or blowing smoke just to string me along and keep me sending them money I would quit that competition and maybe quit writing altogether. But every single time I receive feedback from the Bluecat competition I know someone genuinely judged my script because their critique is so spot on it’s almost unbelievable how they can give such awesome commentary when they have so many scripts entering. They obviously genuinely care and even if I never win Bluecat, as long as they continue giving me notes that improve my script I will never stop entering. I can’t describe the feeling that I get when I implement their suggested changes and I see my script transform before my eyes. It’s such a rush. It brings me out of the dumps and makes me feel alive again.
I think the heart of this article is absolutely right — we write stories because we’re human, and because we care. But I also believe the future will show us that the human soul and the right AI tools aren’t enemies. The soul gives the story its reason to exist. AI can help shape, polish, and even challenge us in ways that get the story to the screen faster and stronger. One day, someone will work alongside AI and create something remarkable — and that success will remind us that the technology isn’t replacing our humanity. It’s amplifying it.
Sensitive, insightful and with heart. Well done.
Loved this! Thank you!
Here! Here! I’ve been submitting screenplays to Blue Cat since I found them over a decade ago. My wife thinks this writing is a waste of time and my submissions are a waste of money. But I can tell you, I get more out of the analysis that comes back than any class I’ve taken. The comments are on the mark every time. The best comments are in the what needs work section. I love hearing that my writing is “great!” I love it even more when someone tells me what I can do to make it better. Let’s see AI do that!
To tell a story is to be human.
I was able to submit a short script to your contest this year, and in receiving feedback, I felt validated—not by anything that related to my placement in the competition, but in that another person was able to read my words and find some sort of deeper meaning.
It’s easy to get caught up comparing your work to another’s or feeling upset because your script didn’t rank as high as you expected. What’s important is that you’re always growing. Other opinions on your output are vital for the commercial part of this (at times) pretentious business. But, if you care about telling the best stories YOU can, you must put your ego aside and see how an audience resonates—what they laughed at, what made them cry, what they loved, and, yes, what they hated.
A.I. has opinions because a team of programmers gave it a set of ideas to operate on. People have opinions because of the vast trials they face day in and day out. Sometimes we want to live through something we’d never have the chance to. Sometimes we want to resonate with a character—seeing our troubles in them.
I felt, after having submitted and received notes, that my story was handled and read with grace and respect, and I will certainly be returning to your competition my next time around.
So true Gord. All BlueCat feedback comments are appreciated.
I’ve always appreciated the feedback and take careful note of everything the reader comments on. Also, AI may be useful but it lacks true creativity and always will, IMO. Gordy’s article is spot on. Thank you for clarifying.