SCREENPLAY OUTLINE TEMPLATE
Break the film on cards,
not on page sixty.
An outline is where a feature is actually broken, and where the expensive problems are still cheap to fix. Lay scenes out as cards across three acts, drag them until the shape works, and keep the page targets in view. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $9.99 a month, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Plans from $9.99/mo
Free plan coming late 2026
Works in your browser
Used by creative professionals at:
Artlist
Pixar
Nike
Red Bull
The North Face
Porsche
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board to see what you can build, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
Story Plan
Outline your plot, characters, and world in one connected view, then expand each thread as the story grows.
What is a screenplay outline template?
A screenplay outline template is a structure you hang scenes on before you write pages. It names the acts, the turns, and often the page numbers those turns are supposed to land on, and it gives you somewhere to put every scene so the shape of the film is visible in one sitting. The template is not the film. It is a diagnostic instrument that tells you where the film is not yet working.
The reason outlining matters is economics. A scene that is in the wrong place costs a minute to move on a card, an afternoon to move in a draft, and a full rewrite to move once the surrounding forty pages depend on it. Almost every structural failure in a feature, an act two with no escalation, a protagonist who stops making choices at the midpoint, a climax the setups never earned, is visible in the outline and invisible on page one. Breaking the story is where professional screenwriters spend their real time, and pages are the easy part afterwards.
Storyflow is an AI-native infinite canvas built for that stage. An outline template here is a spatial object rather than a form to fill in. Scene cards sit in columns for act one, act two, and act three, you drag them between acts and watch the balance change, and the page-count target for each section stays visible so you can see the moment act two starts running long. Describe your logline and the AI lays out a first outline against whichever structure you pick, using the whole board as context, then you rearrange it until it is yours.
A working feature outline is really six connected parts: the logline and premise (the one-sentence engine the whole film has to serve), the act structure with its two act breaks and the midpoint (roughly page 25 to 30, page 55, and page 85 to 90 in a 110-page feature), the sequences (the eight ten-to-fifteen-page units that give each stretch its own small beginning, middle, and end), the scene cards themselves (each one carrying a goal, a conflict, and an outcome that changes something), the character arc laid against the plot (what the protagonist believes at the start, which beat breaks it, and what they believe by the final image), and the setups and payoffs (what is planted, on what page, and where it detonates). Storyflow keeps all six on the same canvas, which is the only way the mismatches between them become findable.
HOW IT WORKS
From a logline to a broken story.
No template to download, no spreadsheet of beats. Describe the film and start moving cards.
01
Open a canvas
Sign up in seconds, from $9.99 a month. No download and no install. Your infinite outlining canvas opens in the browser.
02
Pick a structure, or none
Choose three-act, Save the Cat's fifteen beats, the eight-sequence method, Story Circle, or a blank corkboard. The AI lays the chosen template out with its page targets already marked.
03
Break the story on cards
Write one card per scene with a goal, a conflict, and an outcome. Drag cards between acts until the escalation works, run the character arc as a track underneath, and connect every setup to its payoff.
04
Take it to pages
Draft scenes in the built-in document editor beside the board, export the outline as an image or PDF for a producer or a writing partner, and write the formatted script in Final Draft or whatever you already use.
Every template, as cards you can actually move.
Three-act, Save the Cat, the sequence method, and Story Circle on one infinite canvas.
Save the Cat's fifteen beats with the page targets marked
Start from a beat sheet, not a blank page
Opening image on page one, theme stated by page five, catalyst around page twelve, break into two at twenty-five, midpoint at fifty-five, all is lost at seventy-five, break into three at eighty-five. The AI lays the beats out with those targets attached so you can see which one you are twenty pages late for.
Try the AI beat sheet generator →
Index cards on a corkboard, which is what the practice actually is
Reordering is where the film gets broken
Working screenwriters have always done this with index cards and a wall, because the job is arrangement. Cards on an infinite canvas move with a drag, so you can pull the reveal ten pages earlier and immediately see what it does to the middle, instead of rewriting to find out.
Explore the story planning tool →
AI that reads your logline and your whole board
A first outline in the structure you chose
Give it the logline, the genre, and the target length, and the AI lays out a full outline against three-act, Save the Cat, or the sequence method. It sees the cards you have already written, so what it adds fits the film in front of it rather than a generic one.
See the AI screenwriting tool →
Arcs, references, and boards beside the outline
Keep the whole film on one canvas
Pin character profiles beside the arcs they drive, drop in tone references and location photos, and grow the outline into a lookbook or a storyboard when the script is ready. Nothing has to move to a different file to stay useful.
See the AI storyboard generator →Unlimited outlines. No card limit.
Open a canvas, pick a structure, and start breaking the story. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $9.99 a month, and a Free plan launches before the end of 2026.
Unlimited outline boards on an infinite canvas
Basic AI usage to build outlines from a logline
Three-act, Save the Cat, and sequence templates built in
Share view-only links with a writing partner or producer
BUILT FOR BREAKING STORY
More than a list of beats in a document.
A document shows you one page. Structural problems in a feature only appear when all 110 pages are visible at once.
Three-act, Save the Cat, sequences, and Story Circle
The templates screenwriters actually use
Three-act with the two act breaks and the midpoint: The most general template and the hardest to misuse. Act one ends when the protagonist commits and cannot go back, somewhere around page 25 to 30. The midpoint near page 55 flips the situation or raises the stakes. Act two breaks around page 85 to 90 with the lowest point behind you.
Save the Cat's fifteen beats, with page targets: Blake Snyder's beat sheet is a checklist against a 110-page feature, from opening image through catalyst, break into two, fun and games, midpoint, bad guys close in, all is lost, break into three, and final image. Useful precisely because the page numbers make lateness measurable.
The sequence method, eight sequences: Break the feature into eight units of roughly ten to fifteen pages, each with its own goal, complication, and resolution. Two sequences carry act one, four carry act two, two carry act three. It is the best cure for a middle that sags, because each sequence has to work on its own.
Story Circle and the frameworks beyond: Dan Harmon's eight-step circle, the hero's journey, and over 200 other frameworks are built in. The AI can lay any of them out, and you can ignore all of them and use a blank corkboard instead.
Page targets that stay visible while you rearrange
See act two running long before you write it
Estimated pages on every card: Give each scene card a page estimate and the acts add up in front of you. An act one that has quietly grown to forty pages is a note you would otherwise get from a reader three months later.
The turns land where you can check them: Mark the act breaks and the midpoint on the canvas and drag scenes past them. When the midpoint has slid to page seventy, you can see it, which is the entire reason page targets exist in these templates.
Balance the acts by dragging, not rewriting: Move a scene from act two into act one and both columns re-balance immediately. Testing an arrangement costs a drag, so you test far more arrangements than you would in a document.
Colour-code by storyline: The old corkboard trick, one colour per storyline, works here too. A stretch of cards that is all one colour is a stretch where a thread has gone missing.
AI that has read the logline and the board
Outline with an AI that knows the film
A first pass from your logline: Type the logline, the genre, and the length you are aiming at, and the AI lays out an outline against the structure you chose. Starting from a rough skeleton is much faster than starting from nothing, and everything on it is yours to tear up.
It structures, it does not write the film: No template writes a screenplay and neither does this. The AI is there to help you see and arrange the story, which is the genuinely hard part. The judgment about what the film should be stays with you.
Check an existing outline against a template: Often the useful move is the reverse one. Break the story your own way first, then ask the AI to lay your cards against Save the Cat or the sequence method and tell you which beats have nothing in them.
Share with a writing partner, a manager, or a producer
Hand the structure over before the draft
View-only links: Send a link and they open the whole outline in a browser with no account. A structural note on an outline is worth more than the same note on a finished draft, and it arrives months earlier.
Break the story together: Writing partners and co-writers can work on the same canvas, so a shared feature has one outline instead of two sets of notes that have to be reconciled.
Export for a meeting: Export the board as a high-quality image or PDF to take into a general, a development meeting, or a table read. It reads far better than a beat list pasted into an email.
Explore templates for your project
Every template opens as a real, editable board on the infinite canvas. Pick the closest fit and make it your own.
Story Plan
Outline your plot, characters, and world in one connected view, then expand each thread as the story grows.
HOW WE COMPARE
Storyflow vs Final Draft, Celtx, and Scrivener.
Final Draft owns industry-standard screenplay formatting and you will still write the pages there or in something like it. Storyflow is the outlining and structure layer that comes before that.
Storyflow
Recommended
Infinite visual canvas for the outline
AI builds the outline from your logline
AI uses your whole board as context
Templates with page targets on the beats
References and moodboards on the same canvas
Industry-standard screenplay formatting
Final Draft
Infinite visual canvas for the outline
AI builds the outline from your logline
AI uses your whole board as context
Templates with page targets on the beats
References and moodboards on the same canvas
Industry-standard screenplay formatting
Celtx
Infinite visual canvas for the outline
AI builds the outline from your logline
AI uses your whole board as context
Templates with page targets on the beats
References and moodboards on the same canvas
Industry-standard screenplay formatting
Scrivener
Infinite visual canvas for the outline
AI builds the outline from your logline
AI uses your whole board as context
Templates with page targets on the beats
References and moodboards on the same canvas
Industry-standard screenplay formatting
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Screenplay outlining questions, answered.
What goes in an outline, which template to use, how long it should be, and what you still need Final Draft for.
A screenplay outline is a scene-by-scene map of a feature film written before the script pages. Each entry names a scene, where it happens, whose scene it is, what that character wants, what stands in the way, and how the scene changes the situation. Laid end to end, those entries show the causal chain of the film and where the acts turn. Its purpose is diagnostic rather than descriptive: an outline exists so that structural failures, a passive protagonist or a climax with no setup, are visible while they still cost an afternoon to fix instead of a full rewrite.
Break the story while it is still cheap to change.
Open a canvas, give it your logline, and let AI lay out the first outline in the structure you pick. Plans from $9.99/month, no download, and a Free plan is coming before the end of 2026.