Screenplay Writing - The Beat Sheet

I've been writing screenplays for over fifteen years. I've had a handful of features produced, and several short films and web series.

In the beginning, I wrote a lot of TV pilots and learning that format was fairly simple because not only is it a specifically timed format, but I also watched a lot of television so the act breaks always seemed to come to me naturally. I also won a few contests, so that was very encouraging.

However, when I realized how difficult it was to pitch TV shows in Hollywood unless you had one of the big 5 agents, I switched to features. It was also very satisfying to have a true beginning, middle and end to a storyline.

I also thought I could simply write a feature screenplay without an outline at first because with the first few, the stories told themselves and the act breaks and plot points seemed so natural.

Later, I really felt like crafting the screenplay with specific outlines, hero journeys, etc. was necessary, I followed several gurus including John August, Syd Field, Dov Simens, until finally I found the late, Blake Snyder and his beyond brilliant, "Save The Cat" books.

"Save The Cat" spoke to me. It still does. Could it be because I love cats? Maybe. But, seriously the formula in Snyder's 15 plot-point beat sheet makes it easy for writers to plan out their scripts. Of course, you can stray (like many cool cats do) from it and still have a great script.

Here is a link to the beat sheet: http://www.savethecat.com/tools/the-blake-snyder-beat-sheet-the-bs2

The original white book, "Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need" is the one to get since it will go into much more detail than the beat sheet shows. Blake breaks down familiar screenplays so you can see the beats for yourself. It's an easy read and a great book to keep around as a reference for if you ever get stuck while writing.

Personally, I have a template, I copied from the book into a Word document and start my outlining that way. I will then usually copy and paste everything into Final Draft and flesh it out some more.

When I'm writing with someone else, we use Google docs for the outline. It works great.

If you are a beginner, please let me know if you have any questions about outlining or screenwriting, and maybe I can help.

Copyright 2018 Linda Andersson/The Grid Zom, LLC

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