Use this template to plan a 70-episode Regency romance and make episode 1 with AI. You get the series plan, a beat sheet (the story's turning points, episode by episode), a full episode 1 script and a shot list.
The premise
London, 1815. An anonymous gossip writer called Lady Quill has ruined three reputations this season. One belonged to the late brother of Lucian Ravensworth, Duke of Thornbury.
The Duke wants her found. To get into every drawing room in town, he needs a wife, fast. He picks Lady Eleanor Ashford because she seems to have no talent for secrets.
Eleanor is Lady Quill. She has been since she was seventeen.
What viewers expect from a historical drama
- Rules everyone can see. Chaperones, dance cards, inheritance, reputations. Period dramas get tension for free, because breaking a rule costs something you can see.
- The marriage of convenience. That's a marriage made for practical reasons, not love. It keeps two people stuck together and gives you a ticking clock.
- Dresses, candles and rain. Viewers come for the look. Give them a ballroom and a carriage scene early.
- Twist the clichés: the usual cold duke melts for a gentle heroine. Here he's cold, but she's the dangerous one. Every episode she spends near him puts her secret at risk.
The series at a glance
Aim for episodes of 60–100 seconds. Period dialogue runs long if you let it. Keep each line to one breath, and let the costumes show the world.
| Block | Episodes | What happens | Ends on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | 1–3 | The Duke picks Eleanor at a ball; she learns he's hunting Lady Quill | A note: "I know who you are. R." |
| Escalation | 4–9 | Courtship as investigation; he questions her friends; the blackmailer writes again | The Duke finds ink on her glove |
| Paywall beat | 10 | Wedding morning. The blackmailer demands she publish a lie about him | She signs the marriage register with an ink-stained hand |
| Marriage | 11–28 | Thornbury estate, separate wings, shared midnight library | He tells her what Lady Quill did to his brother |
| Midpoint reversal | 29–36 | The pamphlet about his brother was forged; someone else used her name | The forgery was printed on the Duke's own press |
| Unmasking | 37–55 | Together, without telling each other everything, they trace the forger | He finds her writing desk |
| Dark moment | 56–63 | He learns she's Lady Quill and sends her away | She publishes the truth under her real name |
| Finale | 64–70 | Scandal, a duel averted, the forger exposed at the season's last ball | He asks her to marry him again, properly |
The paywall beat (the big turn where viewers have to start paying) is the wedding itself. Once she signs, there's no way out, and that's exactly where you want viewers to hit the paywall.
Beat sheet
- Ep 1 The Ashford ballroom. The Duke looks over the room and picks Eleanor. A pamphlet burns in the fireplace.
- Ep 2 He tells her, coldly, that it's a business deal. He needs a wife who doesn't gossip.
- Ep 3 Her maid brings a note sealed with an R. Someone knows.
- Ep 4–6 Carriage rides turn into interrogations. He asks about Lady Quill, and she gives him clever, useless answers.
- Ep 7–9 The blackmailer wants money. Eleanor sells a necklace, and the Duke notices her bare throat.
- Ep 10 (paywall beat) Wedding morning. The new demand: publish that the Duke killed his brother. She signs the register anyway.
- Ep 11–20 Thornbury. A locked library, a shared love of books, and a fight about poetry that's really about them.
- Ep 21–28 He tells her about the night his brother died after reading Lady Quill's pamphlet.
- Ep 29–36 Eleanor reads the pamphlet. She didn't write it, and the type matches the estate's own press.
- Ep 37–48 They investigate separately and keep running into each other in the same places.
- Ep 49–55 The forger is the Duke's cousin, next in line for the title.
- Ep 56–63 He finds her desk and her quills. He sends her back to London.
- Ep 64–70 She publishes a confession, and the proof against the cousin, under her own name. The cousin challenges the Duke to a duel, and Eleanor stops it by reading the evidence out loud on the field. Then he proposes again.
Sample episode 1
Screen time: about 1:40.
EPISODE 1 - "A WIFE WHO CANNOT KEEP SECRETS"
[0:00–0:03 HOOK]
INT. ASHFORD HOUSE - BALLROOM - NIGHT
A printed pamphlet curls in a fireplace. The headline burns
last: "WHO IS LADY QUILL?"
[0:03–0:30]
Candlelight. A quadrille ends. LADY ELEANOR ASHFORD (20, dark
curls pinned up, pale blue empire-waist gown, pearl drop
earrings) fans herself beside her AUNT HARRIET (60, purple
turban).
The room hushes. LUCIAN RAVENSWORTH, DUKE OF THORNBURY (29,
black tailcoat, white cravat, cold gray eyes) enters. He
doesn't dance. He looks.
AUNT HARRIET
(behind her fan)
He's looking for a wife. Or a body.
Nobody's sure which.
[0:30–1:00]
The Duke crosses the floor and stops in front of Eleanor.
DUKE
Lady Eleanor. You don't gossip.
ELEANOR
Is that a question, Your Grace?
DUKE
No. You've said nothing interesting
all evening.
ELEANOR
I was saving it.
DUKE
Don't. Interesting women exhaust me.
(offers his hand)
Dance.
[1:00–1:20]
They dance. Close. He speaks without moving his lips.
DUKE (CONT'D)
I'm told you have no secrets.
ELEANOR
Who says so?
DUKE
Everyone. That's why I'm marrying you.
She misses a step. He catches her waist.
[1:20–1:40 CLIFFHANGER]
INT. ASHFORD HOUSE - ELEANOR'S BEDROOM - LATER
Eleanor shuts the door, breathing hard. She opens a hidden
drawer: a stack of pamphlets, a quill, an inkwell.
Her MAID, TESS (18), knocks and slips in with a sealed letter.
TESS
Came to the kitchen door, miss.
No name.
INSERT - THE LETTER
Wax seal stamped R. Inside, one line:
"I know who you are."
Eleanor looks at her ink-stained fingers.
SMASH CUT TO BLACK.
Making it with AI video
Plan on around 13 generations (separate clips). Candlelit rooms look rich in most current models, but the flicker changes from clip to clip.
So pick one warm color grade (the overall color look) and apply it to every clip in your editor afterward. Don't try to match it in the prompt.
| # | Shot | Length | What happens | Dialogue | Try |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | insert | 3s | Pamphlet curling in the fire, headline burning | no | Hailuo |
| 2 | establishing | 4s | Candlelit ballroom, dancers finishing a quadrille | no | Wan |
| 3 | medium | 5s | Eleanor and Aunt Harriet behind a fan | yes | Seedance |
| 4 | wide | 4s | The Duke enters, the room goes quiet | no | Kling |
| 5 | tracking | 5s | He crosses the floor straight toward Eleanor | no | Kling |
| 6 | over-the-shoulder | 8s | "You don't gossip" exchange | yes | Veo |
| 7 | medium | 6s | They dance; he speaks quietly | yes | Seedance |
| 8 | close-up | 3s | She misses a step, his hand at her waist | no | Hailuo |
| 9 | medium | 4s | Bedroom, she opens the hidden drawer | no | Wan |
| 10 | medium | 4s | Tess hands over the sealed letter | yes | Veo |
| 11 | insert | 3s | The R wax seal and the single line | no | Hailuo |
| 12 | close-up | 3s | Eleanor's ink-stained fingers, then her face | no | Seedance |
Only four of the twelve shots have dialogue. The rest are silent, and silent shots are usually easier to get right.
Make these references first. A reference is an image you give the model so it copies that face or room.
- Eleanor and the Duke in full costume, front and three-quarter views. Period gowns change shape easily, so describe the empire waist and the pearl drop earrings in every prompt.
- The ballroom as one still, with the chandeliers and windows in fixed spots.
- Aunt Harriet's purple turban. A small, loud prop is what makes a side character easy to spot in a vertical frame.
- Make the pamphlet, the R seal and the letter as stills. Handwriting in video comes out as nonsense more often than not.
Prompts to start from: Veo historical prompts, Kling historical prompts, Wan historical prompts.
Related guides: Writing a micro drama script · Storyboarding with AI · Character consistency · How to make an AI micro drama