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Fifteen-beat sheet template

A fifteen-beat sheet names every stretch of a story, from the opening image to a closing image that answers it. Between them come the setup, the inciting incident, the turn into act two, a midpoint, the lowest point, and the finale, each at a set proportion of the whole.

Fifteen scene cards trace a story from its opening image through conflict to a changed closing image.

When to use it

  • You write commercial fiction and want every stretch of the book accounted for.
  • Pacing is your problem. Fifteen marks show exactly where a draft drags.
  • You are adapting between a script and a novel and want one sheet for both.

Blake Snyder set out a fifteen-beat sheet for screenplays in 2005, and novelists adopted it. The beat names here are our own.

The 3 acts

  • Act One. The world as it is, and the thing that ends it.
  • Act Two. The new world: the promise of the premise, then the bill for it.
  • Act Three. What they do with what they learned.

The 15 beats at 75,000 words

The marks assume 75,000 words, because commercial novels commonly run 70,000 to 90,000 words. Each beat keeps its percentage at any length, so scale the marks to your own. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. Opening Image 1% · word 1,000 The first picture of the world, before anything has moved. It is there to be answered by the last one.
  2. Theme Introduced 5% · word 4,000 Someone says what the story is about, usually in passing, and usually without knowing it.
  3. Setup 9% · word 7,000 The ordinary life, drawn well enough that losing it will cost something.
  4. Inciting Incident 11% · word 8,500 The thing that happens to them. Not chosen, and not undoable.
  5. Hesitation 16% · word 12,000 They argue with it — refuse, delay, look for another way out. The last of the old life.
  6. First Turning Point 23% · word 17,500 They choose to go. The door closes behind them and the story proper begins.
  7. Second Thread Opens 27% · word 20,500 A second line opens — a relationship, a rival, a subplot — that will carry the theme.
  8. Rising Complications 41% · word 30,500 The stretch the story was sold on: the new world worked through, before the cost arrives.
  9. Midpoint 50% · word 37,500 The middle turns. A false victory or a false defeat, and from here the pressure only rises.
  10. Forces Close In 61% · word 46,000 Everything that opposes them tightens at once, inside and out.
  11. Lowest Point 69% · word 51,500 They lose the thing that mattered. Often someone dies, or something does.
  12. The Long Night 72% · word 54,000 The stillness after the loss, where they face what they have been avoiding the whole way.
  13. Second Turning Point 77% · word 58,000 What they learned in the dark gives them the answer. They go back in, changed.
  14. Finale 88% · word 66,000 They act on it, and the opposition is beaten for real this time.
  15. Closing Image 99% · word 74,500 The opening image again, and different. This is the proof that the change was real.

In a 110-page screenplay

The same beats, timed for a feature script, because a feature script runs 90 to 120 pages. A script page runs about a minute on screen.

  1. Opening Image page 1
  2. Theme Introduced page 6
  3. Setup page 10
  4. Inciting Incident page 12
  5. Hesitation page 18
  6. First Turning Point page 25
  7. Second Thread Opens page 30
  8. Rising Complications page 45
  9. Midpoint page 55
  10. Forces Close In page 67
  11. Lowest Point page 76
  12. The Long Night page 79
  13. Second Turning Point page 85
  14. Finale page 97
  15. Closing Image page 109

A worked example

Jonah sings at other people's weddings and has not written a song of his own in ten years.

  1. Opening Image. Jonah, in a rented tux, singing someone else's first-dance song to a room that isn't listening.
  2. Theme Introduced. The bride's grandmother tells him covers are for people who are scared.
  3. Setup. A van, a bad knee, a sister who books his gigs and wants to quit.
  4. Inciting Incident. A clip of him humming his own tune at a reception goes viral.
  5. Hesitation. A label calls. He tells them he only does covers.
  6. First Turning Point. His sister quits, and the label is the only paying work left.
  7. Second Thread Opens. The producer they pair him with is the grandmother's granddaughter.
  8. Rising Complications. Writing again is miserable and thrilling in equal parts.
  9. Midpoint. The single charts, and the label wants an album of covers.
  10. Forces Close In. His old songs are owned by a former partner who wants a cut.
  11. Lowest Point. He signs the covers deal, and the producer walks out.
  12. The Long Night. Back at a wedding, he can't get through the first-dance song.
  13. Second Turning Point. He buys his old songs back with the advance.
  14. Finale. He plays his own set at his sister's wedding, which she books herself.
  15. Closing Image. The same kind of room, and this time it is listening.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Fifteen-Beat Sheet shape: its acts and a chapter for each beat, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 75,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every beat with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word