Screenplay Beat Sheet Template

# Screenplay beat sheet

## Story in one sentence
A [person with a specific problem] must [take action] before [pressure or deadline], or [consequence].

## What changes
- The immediate goal:
- The relationship or belief under pressure:
- The choice that will resolve the central problem:

## Blank outline

### Act I — the first commitment
- Opening situation: What is the character doing when we meet them?
- Disruption: What makes their current approach impossible?
- Choice: What do they decide to do?
- Consequence: Why does that decision lead into the next part of the story?

### Act II — the cost of the plan
- First attempt: What action do they take, and who resists it?
- Complication: What gets worse because of that attempt?
- Discovery: What changes their understanding of the problem?
- New choice: How do they change tactics?
- Cost: What do they lose or put at risk through that choice?
- Final preparation: What must they do differently to face the central problem?

### Act III — the decisive action
- Confrontation: What action resolves the immediate conflict?
- Price: What does that action cost?
- Aftermath: What can we see that is different from the opening?

## Worked example — Night Deposit

### Story in one sentence
A maintenance worker must stop her town's library basement from flooding before a records transfer, only to discover that the flood is covering up the removal of the town's building-safety archive.

### Act I — the first commitment
- Opening situation: Mara arrives early to replace a basement pump and finds the library locked.
- Disruption: A lunch box comes through the book drop carrying a key and a warning.
- Choice: She uses the key rather than waiting for the supervisor.
- Consequence: She discovers that the replacement pump sends water into the archive. Her job is now part of the damage.

### Act II — the cost of the plan
- First attempt: Mara disconnects the pump and calls her supervisor. He orders her out and sends security.
- Complication: Her access card is canceled. She and Jonah, the night cleaner, must carry boxes through the service tunnels.
- Discovery: Only inspection files for one housing development are missing; the rest were left to be destroyed.
- New choice: Mara stops trying to save everything and searches for a duplicate of the missing files.
- Cost: Reaching the duplicate means opening a locked cabinet with Jonah's key, exposing his involvement in the transfer.
- Final preparation: Jonah agrees to be identified. They bring the duplicate upstairs, where the arriving residents can witness it.

### Act III — the decisive action
- Confrontation: Mara interrupts the public handover and gives the duplicate to the residents instead of her supervisor.
- Price: She loses the maintenance contract. Jonah names his part in the removal.
- Aftermath: The residents catalog the rescued files in the reading room. Mara's work boots dry beside the public book drop.

## Revision pass
- Mark any beat that could be removed without changing what follows.
- Give the next beat a consequence of the previous choice.
- Check that the final action resolves the problem this outline actually set up.

Use the headings as a planning aid. Add, combine, or remove beats as the story develops.