A story's structural skeleton — its landmark moments listed in order, before or alongside drafting.
A beat sheet lists a story's structural landmarks — inciting incident, act turns, midpoint, low point, climax — in order, each with a line or two about what changes. Frameworks like Save the Cat! or the Hero's Journey are pre-built beat sheets: named beats with expected placements.
The value isn't filling in boxes; it's seeing the spine before committing months to a draft. A sagging second act is an afternoon's fix on a beat sheet and a brutal one at page ninety.
Go deeper: Save the Cat! — beat sheet
In One More Draft: Plan with 20+ frameworks
