Skrib
Start writing - it's free

Before it is a sentence, it is a feeling.

Skrib is one studio. A canvas, an editor, and a library that keeps all of it.

Start writing - it's free

A reference scene on YouTube. An audio clip of the accent you keep hearing. Sound carries as much of a world as a picture does.

A writer alone at a lamp-lit desk

A story has a texture before it has sentences. The green light in the hallway. The coat she wears in every scene that matters. The song that plays in your head every time you write him.

None of that survives in a paragraph of notes. It survives as pictures.

A figure on a rooftop above the city
#C61212Skrib Red
#7A7161Ink Muted
#EDE7DAPaper Cream

Drop color swatches for the light in a section, then color-code the scenes that belong to it.

Structure on a canvas, not in your head.

The Plan is an infinite canvas beside your Draft. Lay out the whole timeline, not the next chapter. Give a character a page of their own and fill it until they have a history, a want, and something they will not say out loud. Move a beat and the act break moves with it.

Featuring

  • A yellow Sticky on the Plan canvas, placed from the toolbar

    Sticky Card

  • A Scene Card with fields for the scene heading, the description, the emotional change and the conflict

    Scene Card

  • A Note opening as a full page, offering a logline, synopsis, treatment, characters or beat sheet to start from

    Note

  • A Folder holding three items: a Scene Card, a Sticky and a colour swatch

    Folder

  • Large text set straight onto the Plan canvas

    Text

  • The line, arrow and shape menu open, with arrows and shapes drawn on the canvas

    Shapes and Arrows

  • Two colour swatches on the canvas, each showing its hex value and name

    Color

  • The upload menu open, offering a file, a web link, a YouTube link or an audio embed, beside an embedded video

    Upload

Everything you have written, one search away.

Manuscripts, screenplays, notes, transcripts, spreadsheets. Word, PDF, OpenDocument, Markdown, plain text and Final Draft all land in your Library and open ready to work. No conversion step, no reformatting, nothing left behind on the old machine.

Everything in one tab.

Put any two things side by side and work in both, without leaving the page you are on.

Never start on empty paper.

Every template comes as a Plan you can move around and a Draft already shaped for the work. Pick one and read both at once, the way it opens in your studio.

See all templates
This template includes both a Plan and a Draft
3-ACT STRUCTURE
A working scaffold for screenwriters
Written by [Your Name]
HOW TO USE THIS SCAFFOLD: Each act below carries its purpose. Each beat gives you the job it must do, the emotional change it should deliver, and a placeholder scene to write into. Delete the guidance notes as you fill each scene. Your manuscript lives here in the Draft; the Plan beside it holds this same structure as cards.
ACT I - SETUP:
PURPOSE: Establish the world, introduce the protagonist, and disrupt normalcy. By the end, the character is locked into the story's central problem.
NOTE - BEAT 1 - EXPOSITION
JOB: Establish the world, the protagonist, and the status quo. Show what ordinary life looks like so the audience feels the break when it comes. EMOTIONAL CHANGE TO AIM FOR: calm, routine, grounded.
INT. LOCATION - DAY
[Show ordinary life. Ground the audience in the protagonist's normal world before anything breaks.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[Opening line that reveals who they are in their ordinary world.]
NOTE - BEAT 2 - INCITING INCIDENT
JOB: The event that disrupts the status quo. Something happens the protagonist cannot ignore, and the story's central question is born. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: calm to unsettled.
INT. LOCATION - DAY
[Something arrives, breaks, or is revealed that the protagonist cannot ignore. The central question is born here.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[A line that registers the disruption. Something is wrong now.]
NOTE - BEAT 3 - FIRST TURNING POINT
JOB: The protagonist commits. They cross a threshold, voluntarily or forced, and the old world is no longer available. Act II begins. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: unsettled to determined.
EXT. LOCATION - DAY
[The protagonist crosses the threshold. The old world closes behind them.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[The line of commitment. There is no going back.]
ACT II - CONFRONTATION:
PURPOSE: The longest stretch. The protagonist pursues their goal against rising opposition. Each attempt costs more. The midpoint reframes the problem; the low point strips away every safety net.
NOTE - BEAT 4 - RISING ACTION
JOB: Escalate the stakes. Each attempt the protagonist makes should cost more and yield less. The world tightens around them. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: determined to strained.
INT. LOCATION - DAY
[An attempt that costs more and yields less. Tighten the world around the protagonist.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[A line under mounting pressure. The strain is showing.]
NOTE - BEAT 5 - MIDPOINT
JOB: A revelation or reversal that reframes the problem. The protagonist's understanding of the conflict deepens or inverts. The stakes shift from external to internal. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: strained to shaken.
INT. LOCATION - NIGHT
[The revelation or reversal. The problem is not what the protagonist thought it was.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[A line that lands the new truth. Everything just changed shape.]
NOTE - BEAT 6 - SECOND TURNING POINT
JOB: The lowest point, or a forced decision. The protagonist loses their safety net, or a truth emerges that makes the old strategy impossible. They must choose a new path into Act III. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: shaken to cornered.
INT. LOCATION - NIGHT
[The safety net falls away. The old strategy is now impossible. A new path must be chosen.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[A line spoken from the corner. There is only one way through now.]
ACT III - RESOLUTION:
PURPOSE: The protagonist faces the final test with everything on the line. The question posed in Act I is answered, not always happily, but completely. The new world settles.
NOTE - BEAT 7 - PRE-CLIMAX
JOB: The final preparation. The protagonist gathers what they need, courage, allies, a plan, and moves toward the decisive confrontation. Tension at its highest before the break. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: cornered to resolved.
EXT. LOCATION - NIGHT
[The protagonist gathers courage, allies, or a plan and moves toward the confrontation. Tension at its peak.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[A line of resolve. They are ready for what comes.]
NOTE - BEAT 8 - STORY CLIMAX
JOB: The irreversible action. The protagonist makes the choice they have been building toward. Win or lose, this is the moment the story has been asking for since the inciting incident. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: resolved to released.
INT. LOCATION - NIGHT
[The irreversible action. The protagonist makes the choice the whole story has been building toward.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[The line at the point of no return. It is done.]
NOTE - BEAT 9 - RESOLUTION
JOB: The new normal. Show how the world and the protagonist have changed. The question posed at the inciting incident is answered, not always happily, but completely. EMOTIONAL CHANGE: released to quiet.
EXT. LOCATION - DAY
[The new normal. Show how the world and the protagonist have changed. Answer the question from the inciting incident.]
[CHARACTER NAME]
[A closing line that settles the changed world.]

It suggests. You author every change.

Ask the Companion for a note on the scene. It marks what it would change into the Draft itself, a few words at a time, and then waits. Accept what earns its place, reject the rest. Nothing in your script moves until you say so.

INSIDE THE CHIP SHOP, NIGHT

Rain runs down the window. ADA, forties, wipes the counter slowly, watching the last ferry in.

Ada

without looking up

You know, you're pretty much always the last one off, aren't you?

MARTIN, sixties, the doorway, dripping onto the mat.

Martin

Somebody has to be.

He looks at the counter, then at the clock.

Ada

Sit down. I'll do you a fresh one.

CUT TO:

1/4

Ask the Companion

Ask for a shape. Keep what holds.

Ask the Companion for a shape and it works on the Plan you already have. Beats proposed where they belong, Stickies moved into an order that holds, connections drawn between the ones you left loose. Every proposal arrives pending. Keep what earns its place, reject the rest, and nothing on your Plan moves until you say so.

1/3

Break this into beats: 3 proposals waiting on you

Ask the Companion

Write like you mean it.

Start writing - it's free