Using the Beat Board: Plan Your Story on Index Cards
The Beat Board is a wall of index cards for working out a story before, or while, you write it. Each card holds one beat. Cards sit anywhere on an open canvas, carry a color and a label, and can be joined to each other with arrows, so a subplot can branch off the main line and meet it again later.
What Is the Beat Board
It is a planning space that sits beside your screenplay without touching it. Nothing on the board changes the script, and nothing in the script changes the board, so you can try a structure out, pull it apart and try another without risking a page. Every project has its own board.
Opening the Board
Click Beat Board under Tools in the left sidebar. The board opens over the editor; close it with the ✕ at the top right or by pressing Esc when nothing is selected. The Beat Board works in desktop browsers.
Cards
Double-click anywhere on the canvas to add a card there, or click + Card to add one in the middle of the view. Each card has a short label at the top and room for the beat itself below it. Click the colored dot to pick one of seven colors, which is a quick way to mark acts, turning points or a B story at a glance.
Drag a card by its edge or any empty part of it to move it. Cards snap to the grid so rows line up on their own. To delete a card, click its ✕, or select it and press Delete. Its connections go with it.
Connections
Every card has a small circle on its right edge. Drag from it and let go over another card to draw an arrow from the first to the second. A card can have any number of arrows in and out, so one event can lead to several consequences and several threads can converge on one scene.
Click an arrow to select it, then click the ✕ at its middle or press Delete to remove it.
Starting from a Story Structure
Click Presets to add a ready-made set of cards, already connected in order and colored by stage. Each one prompts you with what the beat is for:
- Story Spine: seven linked prompts, from "Once upon a time" to "Ever since then".
- Three-Act Structure: setup, confrontation and resolution with the turning points between them.
- Hero's Journey: twelve stages of departure, initiation and return.
- Save the Cat: fifteen beats often used to pace a feature.
- Freytag's Pyramid: five parts laid out as a pyramid around the climax.
- Kishōtenketsu: four parts built around a twist rather than a conflict.
A preset is added below whatever is already on the board, so you can lay two structures side by side and compare them. For what each structure is good for, see Narrative Structures in Screenwriting.
Moving Around
Drag an empty part of the canvas, or scroll, to pan. Hold ⌘ (or Ctrl) while scrolling, or pinch on a trackpad, to zoom around the pointer. The controls at the bottom left zoom in and out, and Fit frames every card at once. The board remembers where you left it.
View Options
The View menu changes how the board is drawn for you: arrows as curves, right-angled elbows or straight lines; a dotted grid, ruled lines or none; and whether cards snap to the grid. These are your own preferences and do not change the board for anyone else.
Saving and Working Together
The board saves as you work. Without an account it is kept in your browser. Signed in, it is saved to your account with the rest of the project, and everyone you have invited to the project sees the same board. When two people edit at once, each person's changes are kept: if you move a card while a collaborator rewrites it, the card ends up moved and rewritten.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Double-click the canvas: new card
- Delete or Backspace: delete the selected card or arrow
- ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z: undo
- Esc: close a menu, leave a text field, clear the selection, then close the board