# A feature screenplay’s bible — beats, scenes, characters and the notes between drafts

Recipe No. 8, Books and writing. From The know.sh Cookbook: https://know.sh/cookbook/screenplay

Why the catalyst lands on page 14 and not 12. What the projectionist wants in act one and needs by the end. Your assistant reads your draft, lays out the beat sheet, the scene cards and a page per character, and charts each beat against the page, so you see at once that act two is where the pages went.

- For: a screenwriter between the outline and the third draft
- You get: a beat sheet charted against the page, and scene cards per sequence
- Time: an evening, then an hour a draft
- Made with: Shelf, Document, Your AI assistant, Elements, Proposed notes, Revisions

## How it works

1. **Have your assistant read the draft.** Give it the latest draft as a PDF or Fountain file and ask for a section per beat, with the page you meant it to land on and the page it lands on.
2. **Chart the beats against the page.** Ask for a dot plot chart element at the top of the beat sheet: your target page against this draft's page. The gap between the two dots is the whole diagnosis.
3. **Put each sequence on scene cards.** Ask for a table element per sequence: a row per scene with its page, its heading and one sentence naming what changes. A scene where nothing changes is one to cut.
4. **Check the cards against each new draft.** Give it the new draft and the notes you have had. It files each note as a *Suggestion* and leaves a proposed note wherever a card and the pages disagree.

## Try this prompt

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

> Using know.sh, read the beat sections in *Changeover — beat sheet and scene cards* on my Changeover shelf and add a chart element to the top of its overview: a dot plot, one category per beat in story order, with two series, “Target page” and “Draft 2 page”, taken from each beat section. Change nothing else, and tell me any beat with no page number.

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

> Using know.sh, compare the scene cards in *Changeover — beat sheet and scene cards* with the draft 3 file I have given you. Leave a proposed note on each scene card whose scene was cut, moved more than two pages or renamed, and on any character section where a character now learns something before the scene that tells them. Do not change any section.

## Elements in the specimens

Written as your assistant writes them through the know.sh MCP server. Each reads as plain words until you turn elements on (Account → Elements).

Chart, specimen 1:

```element chart
{
  "type": "dot-plot",
  "caption": "Changeover, draft 2: the page each beat should land on, and the page it lands on",
  "dimension": "Beat",
  "labels": [
    {
      "label": "Opening image"
    },
    {
      "label": "Catalyst"
    },
    {
      "label": "Break into two"
    },
    {
      "label": "Midpoint"
    },
    {
      "label": "All is lost"
    },
    {
      "label": "Break into three"
    },
    {
      "label": "Climax"
    },
    {
      "label": "Final image"
    }
  ],
  "series": [
    {
      "name": "Target page",
      "values": "1, 12, 25, 55, 75, 85, 100, 110"
    },
    {
      "name": "Draft 2 page",
      "values": "1, 14, 31, 57, 84, 92, 109, 118"
    }
  ],
  "measure": "Page",
  "source": "Draft 2, 19 September, paginated in the screenwriting app. Target pages are the writer’s own, for a 110-page script."
}
```

Table, specimen 2:

```element table
{
  "caption": "Sequence 1 in draft 2: seven scenes, pages 1–31",
  "columns": [
    {
      "label": "Scene, page",
      "align": "left"
    },
    {
      "label": "Heading, and what changes",
      "align": "left"
    }
  ],
  "rows": [
    [
      "1, p. 1",
      "*INT. RIALTO BOOTH — NIGHT.* Dell watches for the cue marks and makes the changeover to the frame, as she has for thirty years."
    ],
    [
      "2, p. 4",
      "*INT. RIALTO LOBBY — DAY.* Marcus uncrates the digital projector. Saturday is the last film show."
    ],
    [
      "3, p. 9",
      "*EXT. LOADING DOCK — DAY.* A courier leaves a rusted can with no label, addressed only to “Projectionist”."
    ],
    [
      "4, p. 14",
      "*INT. RIALTO BOOTH — NIGHT.* Catalyst. The film does not smell of vinegar, like old safety stock. It smells sharp. Nitrate."
    ],
    [
      "5, p. 19",
      "*INT. DELL’S KITCHEN — NIGHT.* The leader, read under a lamp: “Movies of local people, 1938”. This town."
    ],
    [
      "6, p. 24",
      "*INT. UNIVERSITY FILM ARCHIVE — DAY.* Ines tells her nitrate must never go near a projector lamp. It belongs in a vault."
    ],
    [
      "7, p. 31",
      "*INT. RIALTO BOOTH — NIGHT.* Dell locks the can in the booth’s old fireproof cabinet and tells no one."
    ]
  ],
  "notes": "Scenes 6 and 7 each end with Dell deciding to keep the can. One decision, two scenes: merge them and act one ends near page 26."
}
```

Card, specimen 3:

```element card
{
  "label": "Dell Pruitt",
  "aside": "Lead, every sequence",
  "rows": [
    {
      "term": "Age",
      "value": "58. Projectionist at the Rialto since 1983"
    },
    {
      "term": "Wants",
      "value": "One more Saturday of film, run properly, before the booth goes digital"
    },
    {
      "term": "Needs",
      "value": "To let the town see what it was, even at the cost of the booth she loves"
    },
    {
      "term": "First seen",
      "value": "Page 1, threading a projector in the dark"
    },
    {
      "term": "Arc in a line",
      "value": "From keeping the last reel safe to letting it be seen"
    },
    {
      "term": "Research",
      "value": "Changeovers and nitrate: *Research*, sections 2 and 4"
    }
  ],
  "note": "Her need is not on the page until page 92. Draft 3 has to plant it in act one."
}
```