Beats at your length
Snyder places his fifteen beats on a 110-page script. The calculator keeps each beat at the same share of the story, on your page count.
Free · private browser tool
Save the Cat Beat Sheet Calculator
Enter your script's page count and get all fifteen Save the Cat beats on the right pages, grouped by act, with a beat sheet template you can copy.
Your beat sheet
Fifteen beats on 110 pages. The Midpoint lands on page 55.
Opens as a new Plot project once you sign in or create a free account. Inkwell keeps this copy for 24 hours.
- Act OnePages 1–25
- Act TwoPages 25–85
- Act ThreePages 85–110
Act One
Pages 1–25- Opening ImagePage 1A snapshot of the hero's world and problem before anything changes.
- Theme StatedPage 5Someone voices the lesson the hero will need, usually without the hero noticing.
- Set-UpPages 1–10The hero's life, wants and flaws, and the people who will matter later.
- CatalystPage 12The event that disrupts the hero's life and starts the story.
- DebatePages 12–25The hero hesitates, weighs the cost and resists the call.
Act Two
Pages 25–85- Break into TwoPage 25The hero chooses to act and steps into the new world of Act Two.
- B StoryPage 30A second story, often a relationship, that carries the theme.
- Fun and GamesPages 30–55The premise in action: the scenes the trailer would show.
- MidpointPage 55A false victory or false defeat that raises the stakes and turns the story.
- Bad Guys Close InPages 55–75Pressure builds from outside and doubt from inside; the team starts to crack.
- All Is LostPage 75The lowest point on the surface: a loss that seems to end any chance of winning.
- Dark Night of the SoulPages 75–85The hero absorbs the loss before finding the way forward.
Act Three
Pages 85–110- Break into ThreePage 85The answer arrives, often from what the A and B stories taught together.
- FinalePages 85–110The hero applies the lesson, confronts the problem and changes the world.
- Final ImagePage 110A mirror of the Opening Image that shows how much has changed.
Useful output, not a score
What this tool gives you
Acts on one line
See where Act One, Act Two and Act Three begin and end, with every turn marked on a single timeline.
A template to fill
Copy the beats as a plain-text beat sheet, one line per beat with its page, ready for your own sentence about each turn.
How to use it
- 1
Enter the page count
Type your target length or pick a common feature length. A 90-page comedy and a 120-page drama get different pages.
- 2
Read the beats by act
Each beat shows the page it lands on, or the pages it spans, and what it does for the story.
- 3
Copy the beat sheet
Copy the template into your notes or a Plot draft and write one sentence for each beat.
Questions writers ask
Where do the page numbers come from?
From Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!, which places the fifteen beats on a 110-page script: the Catalyst on page 12, Break into Two on 25, the Midpoint on 55, All Is Lost on 75 and Break into Three on 85. The calculator scales each page in proportion to your length and rounds it to a whole page.
Does this work for a TV pilot?
Yes. Enter 30 pages for a half-hour pilot or 60 for an hour, and every beat scales with it. For a network show, put your commercial breaks on the beats nearest them: Break into Two, the Midpoint, All Is Lost and Break into Three.
Do the beats have to land on these exact pages?
They mark where each turn sits in a working feature, and a Catalyst a few pages either side reads fine. A Midpoint on page 80 of a 110-page script is the signal: the second act is carrying scenes it doesn't need.
Can I use it for a novel?
Yes, if you plan in pages or chapters. Enter the total and read each beat as a share of the book. The proportions are the same; only the unit changes.
What is the Blake Snyder beat sheet?
It is the fifteen-beat outline Blake Snyder published in Save the Cat! (2005), also called the Save the Cat beat sheet. Each beat has a target page in a 110-page script, and this calculator moves every one of them to your own page count.
Defined in the glossary
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.
Three-Act Structure
A common story shape: setup (Act One), confrontation (Act Two), and resolution (Act Three), with major turns at the act breaks that re-aim the protagonist's goal and cost.
Inciting Incident
The event that breaks the protagonist’s ordinary world and forces the main story to start — early, concrete, and hard to ignore.
Midpoint
The midpoint is the major turn halfway through a story. A false victory, a defeat or a revelation changes what the protagonist wants or how they pursue it, so the second half of the story cannot repeat the first.
B-Story
A B-story is a secondary storyline that runs alongside the main plot, the A-story. It often carries the theme through a relationship, and in TV it is the second plot in an episode, after the A-plot.
Dark Night of the Soul
The beat near the end of the second act when the hero, after their lowest point, faces the loss and changes in response. It is usually quiet and short, and it is what makes the final act the hero's choice rather than luck.
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.
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