# Beat sheet > A short outline of a story’s key moments — the beats — used to plan structure before or during drafting without writing every scene yet. Also known as beat outline ## In practice Treat each beat as a change of pressure, not a scene title. When you write "they fight," ask what becomes impossible afterward: a secret is out, an ally leaves, a plan dies. Specificity lets you test structure before you spend weeks drafting pages that cannot turn when the room asks hard questions about stakes. Use the beat sheet to find missing turns early. If Act Two lists tasks with no reversals, the pages will stall. If the midpoint does not redefine the goal or the cost, the second half usually repeats the first. Reverse-beat a messy draft when discovery drafting left you with momentum but no spine worth defending in notes. Keep the beat sheet beside the screenplay while you break — notes, treatments, and pages can live as separate Plot projects when you need distinct histories, or as sections inside one draft when the beat list is short. Name a save point before you reshape from beats into new scenes so the exploratory draft remains available while you protect the spine the room already agreed on during breaking. [Beat sheet template](https://www.inkwell.software/templates/beat-sheet-canvas) ## Common questions ### How many beats should a feature beat sheet have? Enough to prove the major turns — often a dozen to two dozen named moments. If every scene needs its own beat, you are outlining, not checking the spine. ### Should TV pilots use the same beat-sheet shape as features? Use the act pattern your format expects, then name the turns that re-aim pressure. Pilots also need engine beats that prove the series can generate more episodes. ### What if my beat sheet and draft disagree? Decide which document is the truth for this pass. Either rewrite pages to honor the beats, or reverse-beat the draft and revise the sheet so the room is not chasing two stories. ### Can I beat-sheet inside Inkwell? Yes — keep a short beat list in the same draft, or open a separate Plot project for a longer beat sheet when you want its own save history. Create a save point before you rebuild scenes from a new structural plan. The linked Canvas template is a standalone planning starter; keep the working beat sheet and screenplay canon in Plot. ## Related terms - [Act break](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/act-break): The turn that ends an act — a cliffhanger or reversal in TV, a major structural shift in features — that re-aims the story’s pressure. - [Beat board](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/beat-board): A card view of a story, one beat or scene per card, arranged so the shape of the whole is visible at once and cards can be moved to test a different order. - [Inciting incident](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/inciting-incident): The event that breaks the protagonist’s ordinary world and forces the main story to start — early, concrete, and hard to ignore. - [B-story](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/b-story): A secondary plotline running beside the A-story — often relationship, theme, or a contrasting character thread that pressures the main pursuit. --- Canonical page: