MASTERING STORYTELLING

A Guide to Beat Sheets in Film, Novels, and Serials

A beat sheet serves as a crucial tool in storytelling for several reasons. It acts as a roadmap for writers, providing clarity and focus throughout the writing process. With a clear outline of the story’s main events, writers can avoid getting lost in the weeds and stay focused on driving the narrative forward. Having a tangible structure empowers writers to experiment within a defined framework and it fosters creativity. Four essential benefits from a beat sheet are:

Framework for Structure: Helps you organize and structure your story so it makes sense from start to finish, ensuring that the story unfolds in a coherent and strategically paced manner.

Maintains Narrative Pace: Outlining key events or beats (a beat sheet) helps maintain the narrative’s pace. Making sure the story doesn’t drag or end too abruptly by planning important events is key.

Assist With Character Development: Characters should grow and change in response to the story’s events in a believable and satisfying way. A beat sheet guides the growth of your characters throughout the story.

Theme Exploration: A beat sheet helps writers integrate and explore themes throughout their narrative, ensuring that the story’s deeper meanings and messages are woven into plot and character arcs.

Beat sheets can easily be access online. Here’s a list of books I’ve explored on beat sheets and story structure:

· “Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need” by Blake. Snyder

· “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Broody

· “SAVE THE CAT! BEAT SHEET WORKBOOK” by Jamie Nash

The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet is a plot structure template and the structure can be viewed here. Another good resource to reference is savethecat.com where numerous films like Ghostbusters, Sleepy Hollow, Everything Everywhere All at Once and more have been drown down through a beat sheet analysis.

Image from sceneone.app

Utilizing AI like ChatGPT to generate beat sheets can streamline the creative process. Take the following result for example as I prompt ChatGPT to generate beat sheets for three different story writing formats.

Feature Film Script

For a feature film script, a commonly used structure is the three-act structure, broken down into specific beats, mostly derived from Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat!” methodology:

1. Opening Image (1–5 minutes): Sets the tone, type, and initial glimpse of the protagonist and the world.
2. Theme Stated (5 minutes): The movie’s theme is subtly hinted at, usually in dialogue.
3. Set-Up (1–10 minutes): Establishes the protagonist, their world, what they lack, and their desire.
4. Catalyst (12 minutes): An event that shakes up the protagonist’s world, presenting them with a challenge.
5. Debate (12–25 minutes): The protagonist hesitates or considers the challenge ahead.
6. Break into Two (25 minutes): The protagonist makes a decision that leads them into a new, opposite world of Act Two.
7. B Story (30 minutes): A subplot that usually involves a love interest or a secondary theme, supporting the main storyline.
8. Fun and Games (30–55 minutes): The protagonist explores the new world and faces challenges; the promise of the premise is fulfilled.
9. Midpoint (55 minutes): A major event that changes the game, either for better or worse.
10. Bad Guys Close In (55–75 minutes): Internal and external pressures mount on the protagonist; things start to fall apart.
11. All Is Lost (75 minutes): The lowest point, where the protagonist seems farthest from achieving their goal.
12. Dark Night of the Soul (75–85 minutes): The protagonist reflects on what went wrong and often realizes what needs to be done to succeed.
13. Break into Three (85 minutes): Armed with new knowledge or resolve, the protagonist decides to face the central conflict.
14. Finale (85–110 minutes): The protagonist confronts the main force of antagonism; all storylines are resolved.
15. Final Image (110 minutes): A mirror to the opening image, showing how the protagonist and world have changed.

Novel

Novels tend to have more flexibility in structure due to their length, but a classic approach is the following, inspired by the hero’s journey and traditional novel-writing techniques:

1. Inciting Incident: Introduces the central conflict or problem that the protagonist faces.
2. Response: The protagonist reacts to the initial challenge, often unsuccessfully.
3. First Plot Point: A significant event that irrevocably commits the protagonist to their journey.
4. First Pinch Point: Introduces new tension or reminds the audience of the antagonistic forces.
5. Midpoint: A key turning point where the protagonist moves from reaction to action.
6. Second Pinch Point: Another bout of pressure applied to the protagonist, increasing the stakes.
7. Second Plot Point: The final piece of information needed before the protagonist can face the climax.
8. Climax: The protagonist faces the main conflict.
9. Falling Action: Immediate repercussions of the climax.
10. Resolution: Ties up loose ends and shows how the protagonist and the world have changed.

Short Novel Series

A short novel series (or serial) might follow an overarching beat sheet for the entire series and mini beat sheets for each novel. Here’s a simplified version for a series:

Series Beat Sheet
1. Series Inciting Incident: An event that sets up the series-long conflict or quest.

2. Series Progression: Each book escalates the stakes and explores different facets of the main conflict.

3. Series Climax: The final novel brings all threads to an ultimate confrontation and climax.

4. Series Resolution: Concludes the story, resolving the overarching conflict and character arcs.

Individual Book Beat Sheet
Each book can follow the novel structure outlined above but on a smaller scale, ensuring each book feels complete while still contributing to the series arc. For each format, the specifics can and often should be adapted to fit the particular needs of your story, characters, and thematic goals.

START WRITING

There you go! Armed with the tools to master pace, theme, and character arcs, you’re all set to bring your own stories to life with the guide of a beat sheet. Start writing with confidence and allow your creativity to soar. The path to great storytelling starts with just one idea. Happy writing!