Beat Sheet
A visual, drag-and-drop kanban board for your story's dramatic beats β with scene documents, character tracking, progress indicators, structure templates, and direct connections to every other panel.
Overview
What the Beat Sheet does and where it sits in your workflow.
The Beat Sheet is where your story stops being a summary and becomes a sequence of events. Each event lives on a beat card placed in a horizontal act lane β ACT I, ACT II, ACT III by default. You can reorder cards by dragging them, move them between acts, add detailed scene text, tag characters and locations, and track each beat's production status from Planned through to Final.
A beat card is both a structural note and a mini-document. The front face shows the beat's title, status, purpose snippet, and tag chips. Flip it over to see and edit the full scene text. When you are ready to write, send the beats straight to the Script Editor as formatted scene headings and action lines.
Drag-and-Drop Cards
Reorder beats within a lane or move them between acts by dragging. Position is preserved between sessions.
Act Lanes
Beats live in horizontal swimlanes. Add or remove lanes to match your format β three-act, five-act, or any custom structure.
Scene Documents
Each beat card contains a full scene editor. Write action, dialogue, and description for any beat without leaving the board.
Character Tracking
Tag characters and locations on each card. The Character Tracker shows which scenes each character appears in across every act.
Structure Templates
Populate the entire board from a story structure preset: Save the Cat, Hero's Journey, Story Circle, and more.
Script Sync
Import scene headings from the Script Editor automatically, creating a beat card for each scene in the script.
Board Interface
Top Toolbar
The top toolbar contains the primary board-level controls.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| π New | Creates a blank board. Asks for confirmation before discarding unsaved work. |
| π Open | Opens a saved .bboard file. |
| πΎ Save | Saves the board as a .bboard file. |
| β¨ Beat | Adds a new blank beat card to the first act lane. |
| π Delete | Deletes the selected beat. Right-click a card and choose Delete to delete a specific beat. |
| β€ Compact | Toggles compact card mode β cards shrink vertically to show only the title and status stripe. |
| + Act / β Act | Adds or removes a horizontal act lane. You can name each lane anything you like. |
| π Script Sync | Toggles automatic scene-heading import from the Script Editor (runs every 3 seconds when on). |
| π₯ From Script | One-shot import: immediately reads the Script Editor and creates a beat card for every scene heading found. |
| 𦴠Skeleton | Imports beats from a Screenplay Skeleton preset. |
| π Structure | Opens the Structure Template dialog to populate the board from a story structure framework. |
| β¦ Highlight | Opens the Storyline Highlight tool to colour-code cards by character or tag. |
| π€ Writers Room | Sends all beats to the Writers Room. |
| π€ Treatment | Sends all beats to the Treatment panel. |
| π¨ Print Board | Exports the board as a PDF grid of index cards. |
| π€ Screenplay | Sends all beats to the Script Editor as formatted scene headings. |
Action Bar
Below the top toolbar, the action bar provides secondary controls: File and Edit menus, Undo/Redo, Character Arcs, Stats, Outline, Characters, Cast List, Session timer, and a live session word count.
Filter Bar
The filter bar lets you search and filter cards without removing them from the board. Filtered-out cards are hidden in place β the board structure is unchanged. See the Search & Filters section below for details.
Beat Cards
What a beat card contains and how to work with it.
Card front face
The front of a card shows:
- Status stripe β a coloured left border indicating the beat's current status (Planned, Writing, Review, Final, Cut).
- Title β the beat's name. Kept short; one to five words.
- Document indicator β a π icon appears if scene text has been written for this beat.
- Purpose snippet β the first 80 characters of the purpose field, shown in a muted style below the title.
- Tag chips β up to three hashtag labels (e.g.
#villain,#flashback). - Progress bar β a thin coloured bar at the bottom of the card reflecting the 0β100% progress value.
- Status label β the status word in the bottom-left corner.
- Character and word count β character names tagged on the beat, and a word count if scene text exists.
Card back face
Click the β© button in the top-right corner of any card to flip it. The back face shows a scrollable preview of the scene text written in the card's Scene Document. Click β© again to return to the front.
Adding a beat
- Click β¨ Beat in the toolbar
A new card with the title "New Beat" appears in ACT I.
- Or click the οΌ button in any act lane header
The card is added directly to that lane.
- Double-click the card to open its Scene Document
Set the title, status, and write your scene notes or text.
Editing a beat's metadata
Right-click any card and choose β Edit Metadataβ¦ to open the metadata dialog. Fields available:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | The beat's headline name as shown on the card front. |
| Act | Which act lane the beat belongs to. Changing this moves the card to the correct lane. |
| Status | Planned / Writing / Review / Final / Cut. Controls the status stripe colour and filtering. |
| Progress | A 0β100% value shown as a progress bar on the card front. Drag the slider or type a number. |
| Scene ID | An optional link to a specific scene heading in the Script Editor. |
| Location | The location where this scene takes place (e.g. COFFEE SHOP). |
| Characters | Comma-separated character names. Populates the Character Tracker. |
| Tags | Comma-separated free-text labels. Used for filtering and Storyline Highlight. |
| Purpose | A short statement of what this beat accomplishes dramatically. |
| Notes | Free-form notes β research, ideas, reminders. |
| Image | An optional reference image displayed as a thumbnail on the card front. |
Moving beats between acts
Click and drag any card horizontally to a different act lane. As you drag, the target lane highlights. Release to drop the card at the position indicated by your mouse. Moving a card also updates its Act field automatically.
Reordering within an act
Drag a card left or right within the same lane to reorder it. The cards around it shift to make space as you drag.
Deleting a beat
Right-click the card and choose π Delete. The beat is removed from the board and from the saved data.
Act Lanes
The board starts with three lanes: ACT I, ACT II, and ACT III. You can add or remove lanes to match your format.
Adding a lane
Click + Act in the toolbar. A dialog asks for the lane name. The name can be anything β ACT IV, EPISODE 1, TEASER, EPILOGUE β the label is yours to define.
Removing a lane
Click β Act in the toolbar. A dropdown lists the current lanes; select the one to remove. The board must always contain at least one lane. Any beats in the removed lane are not deleted β they are orphaned in the data but do not appear on the board. Undo is not currently available for lane removal, so move beats out of a lane before removing it.
Scene Documents
Every beat card has a full scene document β a mini-editor where you write the actual content of the scene, beyond the summary metadata on the card front.
Opening the scene editor
Double-click any beat card to open its Scene Document dialog. The dialog contains:
- A title field and status selector at the top.
- A mini formatting toolbar with Bold, Italic, and Underline buttons.
- A full text editor for the scene content β action, dialogue, description.
- A live word count.
- Purpose and Notes fields at the bottom.
Click Save to confirm changes. The card front updates to show the document indicator and the new word count.
The scene document is a free-form notes editor, not a screenplay formatter. Write in plain prose or bullet points to capture the key beats within a scene. When you are ready to write the formatted screenplay scene, send the beat to the Script Editor.
Search & Filters
The filter bar below the action bar lets you narrow down which cards are visible without changing the board's structure.
| Filter | How it works |
|---|---|
| Text search | Type any text to hide cards whose title, purpose, notes, and scene content do not contain that text. |
| Status filter | Select a status from the dropdown to show only cards with that status (Planned, Writing, Review, Final, Cut). |
| #tag filter | Type a tag name to show only cards that carry that tag. |
| Character filter | Type a character name to show only beats that character appears in. |
| π Has Scene | Toggle to show only cards that have scene text written in their document. |
| β Clear | Resets all filters and makes all cards visible again. |
The filter bar shows a match count (X/Y beats) while any filter is active so you always know how many cards are visible.
Structure Templates
Click π Structure in the toolbar to open the Structure Templates dialog. This lets you populate the entire board from an industry-standard story framework.
Available templates include: Save the Cat! (Blake Snyder), Dan Harmon's Story Circle, Hero's Journey (Campbell), Five-Act TV Drama, Three-Act Feature (Classic), and KishΕtenketsu (Japanese four-act structure).
Each template lists its beats with a title and a purpose description. Selecting a template and clicking Apply Template creates a beat card for every beat in the template, placed in the correct act lane. A checkbox lets you choose whether to clear existing beats first or add the template beats alongside them.
After applying a template, every card is fully editable. Change the titles, reorder the cards, add your own beats, and delete any template beats that do not fit your story. The template gives you a populated structure to react to, not a mould to fill.
Script Sync
Script Sync creates beat cards from scene headings in the Script Editor β either automatically (when the sync toggle is on) or on demand with a single click.
One-shot import: π₯ From Script
Click π₯ From Script in the toolbar. Thenema Writer reads the Script Editor, finds every scene heading (INT. / EXT.), creates a beat card for each, and populates the card's scene document with the action and dialogue text from that scene. Cards for headings already on the board are skipped (or their scene document is updated if it was empty).
Automatic sync: π Script Sync toggle
When toggled on, Thenema Writer checks the Script Editor every three seconds and creates new beat cards for any scene headings not yet on the board. This is useful when you are actively writing the script and want the board to stay current. Toggle it off when you do not need live sync.
Script Sync will not delete beat cards when you delete scenes from the script. If you delete a scene from the script, manually delete its card from the board.
Storyline Highlight
Click β¦ Highlight to open the Storyline Highlight tool. Choose whether to highlight by Character or by Tag, select a value from the dropdown (or type one), pick a highlight colour, and click Apply Highlight.
Cards that match the selected character or tag glow with your chosen colour. Cards that do not match are dimmed to 32% opacity, making the highlighted storyline stand out clearly against the rest of the board. Click β Clear All to remove all highlights and restore normal card opacity.
Stats, Outline & Character Tracker
π Stats
Opens a statistics panel showing total beats, how many have scene text, total word count across all scene documents, and breakdowns by status and by act. A tag frequency chart shows the most-used tags across the board.
π Outline
Generates a text outline of all beats, grouped by act, with status markers (β Final, β Cut, β Other), purpose snippets, character names, and word counts. Copy it to the clipboard with one click.
π€ Character Tracker
Shows a card for each character tagged on any beat, listing which acts they appear in and which specific beats include them. Use this to check that supporting characters appear consistently across the story, that protagonists are present in the right acts, and that no character disappears without explanation.
π Cast List
A simplified scene-level cast list showing, for each beat, which characters appear and what location is set. Useful for production planning and cross-referencing with the Pre-Production panel.
β± Session Stats
Shows the total words written in scene documents during the current working session, the session duration, and a comparison against the total word count at session start. The session counter in the action bar updates every 30 seconds.
File Operations
| Action | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Save Board | .bboard | Saves all beat data, act structure, scene documents, metadata, and board layout as a JSON file. |
| Open Board | .bboard | Loads a previously saved board, replacing the current one. |
| Open Text/PDF | .txt, .pdf | Imports a plain-text beat list. Each line becomes a card; act headers (ACT I etc.) create lane dividers. |
| Save Text | .txt | Exports all beats as a structured text file with act headings and beat fields. |
| Save PDF | .pdf | Exports the text outline as a formatted PDF document. |
| π¨ Print Board as Index Cards | .pdf | Renders all cards as a printable index card grid β three cards per row, with status colour, title, act badge, and purpose text. Correct for physical corkboard-style production. |
Sending to Other Panels
How panels connect to and from the Beat Sheet:
| Direction | Button | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| Beat Sheet β Treatment | π€ Treatment | Beats grouped by act, distributed into the correct Treatment act tabs. |
| Beat Sheet β Writers Room | π€ Writers Room | Beats grouped by act, sent as a structured text outline for the Writers Room. |
| Beat Sheet β Script Editor | π€ Screenplay | All beats sent as formatted scene headings and action lines, grouped by act with a Transition header. |
| Mind Map β Beat Sheet | π€ To Beat Sheet (in Mind Map) | Each node becomes a beat card in ACT I. |
| Skeleton β Beat Sheet | Send β Beat Sheet (in Skeleton) | Outline lines become cards; act headers become lane markers. |
| Synopsis β Beat Sheet | π€ Send to Beat Sheet (in Synopsis) | Synopsis lines become cards in ACT I. |
| Script Editor β Beat Sheet | π₯ From Script (in Beat Sheet) | Scene headings and scene body text become cards with scene documents. |
Tips & Best Practices
Name beats as events, not descriptions
"Maya discovers the body" is a better beat title than "Discovery Scene." The more specific and active the title, the clearer the board reads at a glance.
Use the Purpose field consistently
Every beat should have a Purpose: what it accomplishes in the story. If you cannot write a purpose for a beat, the beat may not need to exist.
Save the board regularly
There is no auto-save. Save after every significant editing session.
Use Compact mode for overview work
Toggle Compact mode when you want to see many beats at once and assess the board's overall shape. Switch back to full mode when working on individual cards.
Apply a structure template early, not late
Apply a template before you have written many beats. It is much harder to fit existing beats into a new structure than to adapt a template structure to fit your existing ideas.