"I've Got a Plan!"

Part 3 of breaking down the Julia Has Notes Beat Sheet

In this week’s Tuesday post, I talked about how the recent Screenwriting Twitter topic du jour was on the importance of plot. But in reading through some of the responses and quote tweets, I had an epiphany.

The way so many writers think about plot is limiting.

By definition, a script’s plot is the sequence of events. The big beats. But I think so often, writers frame about these plot points in terms of story moments.

“This happens and then this happens and then this happens.”

But, over the course of my professional career, my conception of plot has completely changed.

Instead of filling in the beats with story points, I allow my characters to create the beats for me.

This is the key aspect of the Julia Has Notes Beat Sheet, the template I use to plot out all of my feature scripts before I even open that very first Final Draft document.

In the last couple of Friday posts, I’ve outlined the other components of my template: the Save the Cat Beat Sheet and the 8 Sequence Method.

But in today’s post, we’re going to dive into how to create plot out of your protagonist’s goals and their plans to achieve them.

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