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A story is more than a list of scenes. Map

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its turns, its rhythm and the journeys of your characters.

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View, then Story Timeline (Command or Control plus Alt plus

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4) lays the scenes as cards on a line, in

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story order. Every card shows number, heading, storyline and the

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start of the text. “Open” jumps to the text, “Beat”

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edits the beat note, “Act / Storyline” assigns. Independent of

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the large timeline there is the narrow bar at the

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bottom edge of the window, which you show and hide

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with “Timeline” in the status bar. Every bar is a

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scene; its width corresponds to the text length. The black

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dot shows where in the screenplay you are currently reading

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and moves along as you scroll. The pinboard for ideas

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is called “Story Planning” in the program. You open it

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from the tool palette or the command search (Command or

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Control plus K, then type “Story Planning”). Note: the menu

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item Screenplay, then Beat Board does not open this pinboard

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but the index cards from chapter 11. The “Story Map”

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button in the beat board (or the command search) arranges

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the same cards differently: by character or by storyline, each

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along the acts. So you see whether a character disappears

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in the second act or whether a storyline ends too

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early. The character arc is the development of a character

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across the cards; the arc stages you entered on the

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cards make it visible. “Page Planning” (command search or button

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in the beat board) shows a page counter from 1

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to the planned length and places the cards with their

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page targets on it. A slider zooms the scale. Page

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targets are intentions: “The turning point should be around page

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60.” They do not move real pages. In the Beat

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Board, “Story Profile” opens the project’s central dramatic questions. The

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information is stored with the project, Undo and named drafts.

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A scene can belong to several storylines. Separate names with

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commas while editing. “Storyline View” displays all related scenes and

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beats together and links back to the screenplay. Try these

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tools on a copy of your screenplay. Keep what helps

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your writing, and return to the guide whenever you need

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the details.