Television · 5 beats
Best for: daytime soaps and telenovelas - daily serialized melodrama built to run and to bring viewers back tomorrow. One episode's grid: a teaser and four acts, each advancing several concurrent storylines and each ending on a hook, closing on the cliffhanger that sells the next episode. Emotion runs high and plots interweave; the long arc matters as much as today's scene.
Start a free story with Daytime Serial / Telenovela (Episode)Free account · every beat below becomes a slot in your outline
Percentages show roughly where each beat lands in the finished story — the midpoint of a 110-page screenplay is page 55. Write your version under each; it saves in your browser as you go.
Daytime Serial / Telenovela (Episode) is built into One More Draft — every beat above becomes a slot in your outline, with Quill, your story editor, coaching each one. Free to start.
Start a free story with Daytime Serial / Telenovela (Episode)Best for: half-hour TV episodes and short character arcs. An 8-step distillation of the Hero's Journey for episodic storytelling. Used in Community, Rick and Morty, and countless half-hour TV. Protagonist starts comfortable, breaks out, struggles, and returns changed.
Best for: hour-long network/cable drama and procedural TV. The multi-thread episode structure where an A-story (main plot), B-story (emotional thread), and C-story (comic/tertiary) interweave across the act breaks and converge at the climax.
Best for: single-camera 30-minute comedies (The Office, Ted Lasso, Abbott Elementary). Cold open, three acts of interweaving A/B/C stories, and a tag. Runs about 28-34 pages with standard screenplay spacing. For the sound-stage, studio-audience style, use the Multi-Cam Sitcom template with the Multi-cam format instead.
Best for: multi-camera, sound-stage sitcoms shot before a studio audience (The Big Bang Theory, Friends). The classic multi-cam grid - a teaser, two acts, and a tag. Runs longer than single-cam (about 40-55 pages) because dialogue is double-spaced; pair it with the Multi-cam format for that layout.
Best for: 60-minute network and cable drama - procedurals and serialized broadcast hours. The modern act grid nearly every network show now uses: a teaser plus six acts, each ending on a turn strong enough to hold the audience across a commercial break. Runs about 55-65 pages. Writing an older five-act hour? Merge the last two acts. Writing streaming? Use the One-Hour Serialized template for an actless draft.
Best for: premium and streaming hour-long drama written without commercial breaks (most prestige TV). One continuous act - no printed act dividers - with the reveals and reversals mapped to natural turns instead of ad breaks. Runs about 50-65 pages. Think of it as a one-act film for episodic TV; the momentum comes from the turns, not the breaks.
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