Wenwen Han shares the keys to writing Duanju

In an interview with Maëlle Billant, Wenwen Han, producer and founder of the Short Drama Alliance, discusses her career and the release of her two seminal works: Short Drama Writing 101 and Future Playbook: China's Short Drama Ecosystem and Insights for Global Business. The latter, published on October 22, 2025, is available in English on Amazon in Kindle format (49 pages). A complete 143-page version is also available on Payhip . These two complementary books are aimed at writers, producers, and investors alike, all eager to understand the new economics of short dramas.

In Short Drama Writing 101, Wenwen Han shares a writing method adapted to this new narrative territory. She reminds us that Duanju is not a segmented film, but a format born for mobile screens, with its own grammar and constraints: accelerated pacing, short duration, and a focus on attention. The first ten episodes, free of charge, serve to test the audience's reaction before the paywall kicks in. The writing must therefore rely on immediate hooks, cliffhangers, and constant emotional tension. "The short drama should be considered an emotional product, not an educational one," she explains. The goal is not to impose a message, but to elicit a quick reaction and maintain the desire for more.

Wenwen Han encourages screenwriters to start with the genres that already structure the platforms, CEO romances, rebirth stories, fantasy, before integrating their own universes. This approach is directly inspired by Chinese web novel culture, where authors constantly engage with their readership. This direct link between creator and audience, she believes, is the true strength of Duanju.

Her second book, Future Playbook , is aimed more at producers and investors. In it, Wenwen Han provides a detailed map of the Chinese short drama ecosystem, which is currently two years ahead of the rest of the world. She explains that most of the major platforms originate not from film but from advertising or web novels. In China, nearly 80 to 90% of budgets are allocated to advertising, compared to only 10 to 20% for production. This distribution shapes the entire creative process: each series is conceived as an evolving prototype, adaptable to the market.

She also highlights the decentralization of production to second-tier cities, where costs are reduced without sacrificing quality. For foreign players, she warns against the cumbersome models inherited from traditional studios: success now hinges on agility, the ability to test and adapt quickly.

Finally, Wenwen Han sees artificial intelligence as accelerating this transformation. With tools like Sora, she envisions a world of creation open to all, where everyone can produce and monetize their own stories. The Short Drama Alliance aims precisely to support this global opening by training a new generation of creators and trainers united by a shared vision of digital storytelling.

Through her two books, Wenwen Han does not simply describe a phenomenon: she offers a real user manual for writing, producing and thinking about Duanju as a fully-fledged cultural language.

Order the book: Amazon

Full version on Payhip (143 pages): https://payhip.com/b/jBRKF

Interview conducted by Maëlle Billant

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