What is the difference from the plot point mapper?

The mapper attaches your story's event to every beat and reports coverage; this builder tracks which beats are drafted with a tick and points at the next one. They share the same four structures.

Why do the ticks reset when I change structure?

Because the beats belong to the structure: Save the Cat's fifteen beats and the three-act structure's seven are different lists, so a tick against one does not mean anything in the other.

Which beat sheets are included?

The three-act and four-act structures, Blake Snyder's Save the Cat sheet of fifteen beats, and the hero's journey's twelve stages, each with placements and a short description of what the beat does.

Does it score how well my story follows a structure?

No. It records the beats you say are drafted and counts them. It does not read a manuscript, does not judge structural fit, and keeps no record of when each beat was ticked.

Story Beat Builder

Beat sheet

StructureSetup, confrontation, resolution — the shape most stories share even when nobody names it.

Tick each beat once its scene or chapter is drafted. The tracker resets when you switch sheets, because the beats change with the structure.

Progress

Beats drafted

0/7

0% of the sheet

next: Hook (0%)

Beats

Three-act structure

Hook · 0%
Open on the character in motion; the reader's first question is raised.
Inciting incident · 10%
Something happens that the character cannot ignore.
First plot point · 25%
The character commits to the journey; the door closes behind them.
Midpoint · 50%
A reversal or revelation that changes what the story is about.
Second plot point · 75%
The last piece of information arrives; the final push begins.
Climax · 90%
The character faces the story's central conflict head on.
Resolution · 100%
The new normal is shown; the story's promise is answered.

Drafted sheet

Three-act structure — 0/7 beats drafted (0%)
Next: Hook at 0%

[ ] Hook (0%) — Open on the character in motion; the reader's first question is raised.
[ ] Inciting incident (10%) — Something happens that the character cannot ignore.
[ ] First plot point (25%) — The character commits to the journey; the door closes behind them.
[ ] Midpoint (50%) — A reversal or revelation that changes what the story is about.
[ ] Second plot point (75%) — The last piece of information arrives; the final push begins.
[ ] Climax (90%) — The character faces the story's central conflict head on.
[ ] Resolution (100%) — The new normal is shown; the story's promise is answered.

Scope and limits

Each structure carries the beats and typical placements from the tradition it names. Ticking a beat records your own judgement that it is drafted; the tool never infers progress from a manuscript.

Ticks are kept only in this browser and are reset when you change structure. There is no account, no upload and no sync between devices, so download the sheet if you want to keep it.

The story beat builder is a progress board over a beat sheet: tick the beats you have drafted and see how far through the structure the draft has reached, and which beat is next.

What is Story Beat Builder?

The story beat builder is the companion to planning a story: where a mapper attaches an event to every beat, this tool tracks which beats are actually drafted. Pick a beat sheet — three-act, four-act, Save the Cat or the hero's journey — and the tool lays out its beats with their conventional placements and a checkbox each. Tick a beat once its scene or chapter exists, and the board reports the count, a percentage and the next beat in placement order.

That next-beat pointer is the whole point. A long draft can stall not because the writing is hard but because the next move is unclear, and naming the next beat with its percentage and description removes a decision from the start of a session. It is a small thing that changes how a writing day begins: instead of reopening the manuscript to find your place, you look at the board and see which beat is open.

That pointer is also a record of drafting progress rather than of planning. Ticking a beat says a scene exists, so the percentage counts work done rather than work intended, and the gap between a mapped structure and a drafted one becomes visible as the two numbers diverge. When a draft is stalled, the clearest question is often simply which beat is open, and the board answers it without opening the manuscript. The ticks are yours alone: the tool never guesses that a beat is written, so the progress figure stays a statement about the draft rather than a friendly estimate.

The beat sheets themselves are the conventional ones. Save the Cat's fifteen beats are the most granular and the most familiar to genre writers; the hero's journey's twelve stages suit mythic and epic stories; the three-act and four-act structures are the broadest. Each beat carries a short description of what it does, so the board doubles as a reference: you can read what "dark night of the soul" means without leaving the page, and the same reference underlies the plot point mapper.

Ticking a beat records your own judgement that it is drafted. The tool never infers progress from a manuscript, because it never reads one — there is no upload and no parsing, and the ticks live only in this browser. Switching beat sheets clears the ticks, since the beats change with the structure, and the whole sheet with its ticks exports as plain text for a notes app or a project file.

What it does not do is as clear as what it does. It does not generate beats or write scenes, does not score how well a draft follows a structure, and keeps no history of when a beat was ticked. It is a checklist with placements and descriptions attached — a small tool for the specific problem of knowing what to write next, and honest about being nothing more than that. Kept beside the draft, it turns a large, vague task into a short, named next step. It is deliberately small, and it does that one job well.

How to use Story Beat Builder

Choose a beat sheet: three-act, four-act, Save the Cat or the hero's journey.
Read the beats with their placements and descriptions.
Tick each beat once its scene or chapter is drafted.
Watch the progress bar and the next-beat pointer.
Copy or download the sheet with its ticks for your notes.

When to use Story Beat Builder vs related tools

Use the story beat builder when a beat sheet is your working plan and you want to track how much of it is drafted. When every beat needs an event attached rather than a tick, the Plot Point Mapper maps your story onto the same structures.

For planning that is headings rather than story beats, the Outline Builder numbers a nested outline, and when the draft's overall length is the thing being tracked, the Draft Versioning Tool keeps a version timeline.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.