Every plot event card has a unique identification number top left. This helps you or collaborators recognise the event even after its title and description have changed.
Some users do not need this number displayed permanently, or would prefer to know the number of the card in the respective sequences narrative and chronology. So Premium users can choose which numbers they want shown on their cards in the settings.
Many authors who plan their stories with report cards like to colour code them. We hear you, and with our next release Premium users will be able to assign colours to their cards.
Pitch like a pro!
The pitching categories in the Story Information section of the Step Outline are:
These fields are there to help you provide industry professionals with the information they need in order to decide whether your story is of the kind they can invest in.
But even if you don’t want to pitch your project, it might help you understand your story better if you, for example, define your genre or consider your target audience, name the time period in which it is set, or think about other stories it might be compared with.
And by popular demand you can add, next to your logline, a story synopsis as well as a blurb to your step outline.
All of these information fields are fully exportable in the rtf text export as well as the PDF exports, for use in proposals or in a manuscript document.
If you are using Beemgee to create original content, then you may distinguish between the author (in the YOU field) and the copyright holder (which might for instance be a company you are working for), or between your pen-name (in the YOU field) and your real name in the copyright field.
If you are using the Beemgee tool to analyze the dramatic structure of a work that is not your own, and you share the Beemgee project per link, PDF or text file, then we recommend that you put the name of the original author and/or copyright holder in the appropriate field in the Beemgee project.
Also, remember that the year of the copyright is relevant. Beemgee will per default place the current year in the field.
Inciting Incident, Belly of the Whale, Love Scene … You may well have certain specific events in your story which might have names like crisis, the midpoint, the resolution, plot points, or campfire scene.
In a bunch of new attributes focusing on SCENE TYPES, you assign such scene types to each of your plot events.
This provides you with an overview of the dramaturgy of your story by allowing you to check the formal aspects of your plot structure. The terms used to describe the scene types are grouped according to category, which is particularly helpful if you work with a paradigm, such as The Hero’s Journey or Blake Snyder’s Save The Cat!
How ever you work, whichever is your favoured plotting process, you can therefore do it in Beemgee. The additional plot attributes which you can use to tag scene types are:
Each of these attributes features a list of scene types which you can assign to your individual plot events.
So whether you want to make a note of which scene is the midpoint and which the climax, etc., now you can. Or maybe you work with the hero’s journey, or like to use beat sheets? Now all this is included in Beemgee.
What’s more, all the plot attributes are fully searchable in the filter and highlight pull down.
Just a friendly pointer: You really do not need to use all of the attributes. Every author has a unique way of preparing and developing their material. We have included these new attributes so that you can choose the ones that most suit you. Our advice is to hide the ones you don’t need in the attribute overview:
Pass on your project link
If you work collaboratively with other authors, or if you want to show your project to editors, publishers, producers, etc., you can share your project.
In the top right corner you’ll see the share icon. Enter the recipient’s e-mail address to send them the project link.
If you have a Premium account, you’ll be able to set the project’s permission setting here to private, view only, or can edit.
Be aware that Beemgee always saves the newest version of the project. So if another person can edit your project, their changes will overwrite your project. We recommend you send project copies to collaborators (premium feature).
In the Character-Builder, you develop each character individually by considering diverse dramaturgically relevant attributes.
The Compare view allows you a unique way to compare your characters to each other. Here you are presented with all of the characters you have created next to each other. You can activate each specific character attribute (from external problem to appearance) individually and check how these attributes compare across your character ensemble. This is the perfect way to make sure there is contrast between your characters and a good way to recognise and grow potential conflicts. With this view you make sure that your character ensemble is lively and not samey, and that you draw the most out of each character.
You can edit each attribute across all the characters.
In Premium, there is a Grid View line height adjuster to accommodate long answers.
Especially when it comes to characterisation, authors have their own methods and processes to “find” their characters. With this feature, you can add your own character questions to the Character Developer and save your answers per character to appear in the Compare view, the detail view of each character sheet, and the PDF you export.
Many authors begin by developing the characters, because when you’ve nailed them, you’ve pretty much got your plot too. The challenge is transposing all that you have discovered about your characters into plot events.
The Premium function ATTRIBUTES is the bridge between characters and plot. It lists the dramaturgically relevant character attributes from the character builder so that you can tag your plot events with EXTERNAL PROBLEM, WANT, GOAL, and all the rest right up to CHOICE.
Tip: You might want to FILTER your main characters and then tag the plot events for one character at a time. Is there a plot event that conveys every character attribute? Have you created a plot that really brings across your hero or heroine as you conceived her?
You can also tag a plot event as conveying SETTING or THEME.
And that’s not all.
You can edit the text fields!
That means you can create and name your own attribute tags. So if you have your own system or process, go to it! Beemgee is adaptable.
We are introducing local project save for Premium accounts. With this feature you can save all your project inputs on your computer, giving you an extra local backup (next to the temporary backup on our servers and your PDF project exports).
The plot of a story consists of events the recipient perceives sequentially, one after the other (with a few exceptions such as split-screen). Filmmakers especially are used to drawing a horizontal line to represent their plot, divided by vertical lines to show the act breaks. If you use index cards that stand for your scenes and pin them to a wall, you would naturally keep the line horizontal, with scene one to the left and the final scene to the right. The main reason not to do so is probably because you might run out of wall.
Software that features cork boards with virtual index cards invariably has the problem that it runs out of wall. The screen is never wide enough. So when the cards reach the right-hand border, the next ones appear in a new line below. This makes it harder to perceive the structure of the narrative.
Not so with Beemgee’s timeline. Our cards stay in a horizontal line.
You simply grab the timeline to move it left or right, which is less fiddly than with the bottom scroll bar. You change the size of the timeline with the zoom slider. It’s like stepping back from the wall a bit to get the bigger picture, or stepping up close to read the details on a single card.
The horizontal timeline also makes it easier to set the CHRONOLOGY of the event cards – drag and drop the events with the oldest to the left. Once you’ve done that, set the switch to NARRATIVE and arrange the events into the order you intend the recipients, your readers of viewers, to experience them. See the difference in the sort order immediately whenever you click the switch.
Enter DESCRIPTIONS for each of the events – probably best done while they are set to the NARRATIVE order. These texts are displayed as continuous copy in the STEP OUTLINE.
All the above is FREE.
The heart of the PLOT area in Beemgee is the outliner. Here you create as many plot event cards as you need for your story. For most authors, each card represents one plot event. Some authors work with a beat sheet. The cards are like index cards on a cork board, with the added benefits that you can
Using these virtual cards to represent events is like pinning index cards to a wall. Clicking into the detail view of a plot event (Premium function) is like looking at a card up close and finding every single bit of information you ever needed about this plot event. Zooming out of the timeline is like taking a step back from the wall and seeing your entire story structure, particularly useful when you have the structure marker on (Premium function).
Better yet, in the sidebar you’ll find all the plot attributes, which when you click them turns on the grid below the plot event cards. Each line in the grid either shows the information you have entered for each attribute, for example storyline, point of view, or location. You can open the grid line for editing.
The grid principle allows you to quickly assign attributes to events. You can also compare the plot events by attribute. In combination with the highlight feature, you can check for instance the dispersal of your motifs, and much more.
The Beemgee tool is by now quite mighty. It’s three tools in one, the tools are linked, there are various views for each, and dozens of features and functions. Even Beemgee Free is powerful; Beemgee Premium even moreso.
While we’ve designed each view and feature to keep it minimal and easy to use, and made every effort to keep the tool uncluttered, we have found that some storytellers do not immediately recognise all the things you can do with Beemgee.
So we’ve built an introductory guided tour.
This free feature won’t get in the way of your working on your plot, characters or step outline – it will highlight some of the functions and allow you to check them out whenever you’re ready.
You can turn the guide on and off as you like in the global menu, in your profile if you have a Beemgee account.
The Beemgee Character Developer works by asking you a series of questions specifically designed to help you define those character attributes that determine the dramatic function of the characters in your story. Unlike other character sheets or checklists, the character developer does not focus on factors extrinsic to the dramaturgy of the plot, such as the color of the character’s eyes. Instead, your answers help you define those aspects of character that directly impact the story. This has a lot to do with the motivations of each character, and the decisions they take in reaction to problems and obstacles.
The attribute questions are posed in a carefully designed order. They help you
Define the key attributes of each main character and you’ll have composed your plot. Because you can know the action of your story only when you know what the characters do and why they do it.
What’s more, for trained professionals the resulting character sheets provide a highly on-point way of understanding the essence of your story in a very short time.
There are a number of FREE character attributes. Sign up to PREMIUM to go into greater depth.
You answer each question individually per character in the DEVELOP view. To compare and contrast the answers for all main characters, switch to the COMPARE view.
Whether you’re working out what your character wants, how that differs from the goal she sets herself, and the task she needs to achieve in order to get either, or whether you’re working on the dispersal of your motifs and the point of view in each subplot – there is a lot of knowledge about the craft of dramaturgy involved.
Need to brush up a little?
Beemgee offers you information and discreet advice every step of the way. Whatever you’re doing, whether it is plotting your events or developing your characters, free contextual on-site help will slide open when you click the | ? | question mark.
And if the on-site tip is not enough for you, click the “More about …” button in the help slider. That will lead you directly to an article in our blog where you’ll learn more about this specific aspect of storytelling.
Ideally, a narrative has a wave pattern. What keeps the audience emotionally involved is accompanying the characters on their journeys, which are full of ups and downs. Things may seem to be going well at the end of one scene – a plot event might bode well or end on an optimistic note. But then a reversal may occur, something doesn’t work out as the character intended, and the next plot event or scene ends on a pessimistic or downbeat note. Set how each plot event ends, positive or negative, upwards or downwards, with this PREMIUM function. This will make each card move up or down a little while the function is active. If the resulting timeline is wavy, going up and down, then that is a good indicator that your narrative will be emotionally gripping. If longer stretches of your narrative are all up or all down, you might want to consider bringing more emotional variation into your plot. Because if everything goes too well and easily for your characters, the audience may lose interest. On the other hand, if there is never a sign of hope, your audience may become to depressed to continue.
While you’re plotting and developing your material, parts of the story might still seem like a skeleton, a little bare. Yet you probably have a vision for each scene you’re planning; you know what you want to achieve with each plot event. But there are risks. While you are outlining, you may become aware of some of the things that might go awry.
Use this PREMIUM function to make notes to yourself, warning yourself what to look out for when you get to actually writing the scene. These might be simple messages such as, “Keep this short” or “Increase the pace here”. Or they might be cautions such as, “Watch out, this could get tacky if you don’t handle it right,”or “See how Orson Welles did this in Citizen Kane, but don’t copy exactly!”
What is the heart or core of each scene? If you’re strict about your story, each plot event will have a reason. Any plot event that does not serve a function within the entire construct of the narrative may fairly be considered redundant. Since a narrative is built on the principle of cause and effect, it follows that each plot event is the effect of a preceding event, while at the same time being the cause of a succeding event.
Use this PREMIUM function to make a note to yourself or your collaborators, explaining why this scene is absolutely necessary and what essential information and emotion it must convey to the reader or viewer.
Beemgee presents plot event cards on a HORIZONTAL TIMELINE deliberately: so that you can see the structure of your narrative, get an easy overview of the various attributes of your plot in the grid, and see how they are dispersed across the timeline with the HIGHLIGHTer. You adjust the view size by zooming in and out, and you move the timeline by just grabbing it and pulling it left or right.
Nonetheless, some of you have suggested that the more familiar way of presenting cards – that they fill the screen by being presented not in one line but in several – might be easier for you.
To keep things simple and not clutter the screen, we offer the option to fill the screen with cards, which breaks the timeline and lets the cards run onto a next line as soon as the right-hand edge of the screen has been reached. We present this view with the attributes (CHARACTERS taking part, LOCATION, MOTIFS, STORYLINES, etc.) turned off, so no further information is visible other than the card titles.
You can, of course, still drag and drop cards in both the sort orders, CHRONOLOGY and NARRATIVE.
This view of your cards is a FREE feature.
You want to show someone your outline, but you don’t want that person to be able to change anything? Just assign the recipient view-only rights when you share your project with them. That way you share projects without risk of others making changes you don’t want.
You’ll find this Premium function in your ALL STORIES view in the global menu and when you click the share icon. There are three possible settings for a project:
See also VERSIONS.
STEP OUTLINE text view shows you in the narrative order all the texts you write per individual card in the DESCRIPTION fields of the plot outliner – as one continuous, editable text. This is a FREE feature.
The premium feature step outline detail view shows you the cards themselves in a column to the left of the text, as well as the plot attributes you have entered per plot event to the right.
Furthermore, the detail view also features key story questions, and gives you the option to include your answers in the PDF of your STEP OUTLINE.
The Step Outline is particularly fetching as a PDF print out, and really useful as an RTF text document.
Within the STEP OUTLINE detail view you will find key questions concerning your story as a whole, such as
Figuring out your answers will help you find your story.
Furthermore, you can also work on pitch information such as your logline, synopsis, blurb.
Your input will help the people you are pitching to – your editor or your producer – to understand your narrative quickly, and be able to evaluate it more accurately. That’s why we give you the option to include the information in your STEP OUTLINE PDF.
Sometimes you want to save your work offline – or pass it on to someone else who needs it offline. Create PDFs of:
With each of these you can choose the level of detail you want to see on the PDF. Include all the character attributes, or just the ones you have filled out. See all plot attributes, or only characters and storylines. Want to head your step outline with your logline and send it out as a complete treatment? No problem. Just hit the Export button.
What’s more, you can now make a backup of your entire project with just two clicks.
We particularly recommend you try out the PDF of your step outline with details and attributes turned on. If you’ve filled in the DESCRIPTIONs to your plot event cards, this print out is rather satisfying.
When you’ve done planning, you’ll want to start executing. The analogy: you’ve got all your note cards stuck to the wall above your desk, so you know how your narrative is structured. Now you roll the first sheet of paper into the typewriter and start writing.
Export the texts out of your Beemgee project in as an .rtf document and open it in the writing software of your choice, probably some form of word processing text editor such as Word or Scrivener.
Choose between exporting the event DESCRIPTIONs, i.e. the STEP OUTLINE only, in order to use this text as the basis for your treatment.
Or export the DESCRIPTIONs along with all the plot details such as which characters take part in this scene, what’s the location, and what writing cautions did I note. This document provides the perfect basis for your manuscript. You won’t even need to look at the “wall above your desk”, because all the information is already there in the document. All you have to do now is start writing!
The other export format we offer is PDF.
All your projects at a glance.
Also set your billing address and your user profile, including preferred language.
You may have noticed the magnifying glass icon above the plot event cards. These lead to a detail view of each card, containing in one sheet all the information you have added to this card.
Furthermore, each character has a similar detail view sheet.
The detail views are printable and savable as PDFs.
There is also a Step Outline detail view.
You’ve perfected your outline, and now you’re busy writing the story. You’ll be consulting your Beemgee project regularly. Right now, you can keep track of your writing progress by tagging each completed plot event as “written”.
Some of you have suggested that this is not enough. So we will be improving the feature presently to give you the freedom to include the draft structure you want. You’ll be able to mark each event with whatever state you feel it is in. Sketched, argument, first draft, finalised, edited, proofread – whichever terms you work with.
It’s a great motivator to see how much you’ve achieved – so long as you keep writing!
The many attributes in the Character Builder are carefully arranged into categories. There are several categories in the tool to better guide you through the process of finding your characters’ dramatic functions in the story and working on their characterisation.
Your Step Outline is the scene by scene breakdown of your entire story as copy text. It is a complete synopsis of the narrative, and includes each plot event.
Writing a summary of a story such as a treatment can be harder than writing the story itself. Yet publishers and producers often require it. With our nifty STEP OUTLINE feature we make creating a synopsis or treatment much easier. What you do is write one or two sentences per plot event in the DESCRIPTION modus of the plot outlining tool – in the plot outliner you can concentrate on each event, one card at a time, and see each in context, to get the description just right.
The STEP OUTLINE function puts all of the texts you write per individual event card in the DESCRIPTION function together in the narrative order as one continuous text. You can edit the copy text in STEP OUTLINE and the changes you make will automatically be carried over to each DESCRIPTION text in the particular card.
With a PREMIUM account, you can set the STEP OUTLINE to detail view.
Read more about step outlines here.
When you work with plot event cards, you give each card a name or title that is as short as possible, probably less than ten words. These few words represent what happens in a particular scene or plot event – they stand for the event as an identifier or scene title.
The DESCRIPTION function gives you more space. Use it to describe in one or two full sentences (usually in the present tense) the action of each event. If you share your project with somebody – a co-author, an editor or producer – these descriptions will convey how each plot event moves the story along.
Better yet, the STEP OUTLINE feature puts all the sentences in each DESCRIPTION text together in the narrative order of events as one continuous copy text. That gives you a complete synopsis of your entire story, scene by scene, beat by beat.
Every story has two timelines, the order in which the author chooses to relate the events, and the order in which they happen in time. Even in stories that appear to be chronological, the characters are likely to be affected by events that have occurred much earlier, prior to the opening scene. Often, certain long-past incidents are revealed at key moments in the narrative.
So the author needs to control both timelines. That’s why Beemgee has a narrative/chronology switch.
Read background information on Narrative vs. Chronology here.
In any story, every event is related to the readers or audience through a particular point of view (PoV). It might be any of the characters’ perspective, or the narrator’s. Many stories have several points of view. Select the PoV from which each of your plot events is related.
Then check the dispersal of your PoV across your whole narrative with the FILTER.
Want to see your chapter breaks? No problem with this STRUCTURAL MARKERS function. But it can do more. Beats, scenes, sequences, acts – you choose the terms. Divide your plot timeline into sections and see your story structure in the NARRATIVE view. When you switch to CHRONOLOGY, you’ll know which section each plot event card belongs to.
So you can see at a glance if there’s an imbalance in your act structure, for example.
With one click, see the event cards move apart from each other if they are temporally separate, or stick to one another if they are subsequent.
It’s all very well to have a zoomable horizontal timeline. But what time is it, exactly? Set times and dates for each event. The benefit? Well, you’d notice if Fred managed to cross the Atlantic in only half an hour.
Never leave a leitmotif dangling halfway through a story again with the MOTIFS modus. Set as many motifs as you like and assign them to event cards, then check their overall dispersal across your whole story with the highlight function. A great help in maintaining consistency for symbolism and other artistic effects throughout your narrative.
See how the function works – click here.
Want to see what happens to your plot when you change the outcome of a key event? Need to save two or more different drafts in order to test which works best? Of course you do. Copy your project and save as many versions of each of your stories as you want with this new VERSIONS premium feature.
For instance, you can create a version to send to your editor. Set it to View Only and any changes or suggestions she makes will not effect your master version.
You have enriched your plot event cards with all sorts of information, for instance which CHARACTERS take part or what STORYLINE this event is a part of. Now click the FILTER button in the tool bar, and select for instance one of the characters or a storyline. This highlights each plot event card that matches your selection in the timeline, giving you an overview of the distribution of that particular character or storyline. You’ll notice if your B-plot is bunching, or your protagonist disappears in the second half of the story.
And should you want to work, for example, solely on one character or one storyline at a time, all you have to do is set the switch from highlight to filter. You will then see only the cards that match your selection. Perfect for working out the dramaturgy of a single storyline, one subplot at a time, or the arc of each character individually.
You can highlight and filter CHARACTERS, LOCATION, and STORYLINES in FREE. With a PREMIUM subscription you get more features, such as POINT OF VIEW, MOTIFS, and your WRITING PROGRESS.
How has your protagonist developed? Where does her or his learning curve start and end? See the arc of your story from the initial state to the resolution state, and set the arcs for each act too.
You have a publishing house or film production company? You run a writers’ room or creative writing classes? Then you want to be able to manage who works on which projects, and who gets view only rights. Specify how many people will be working on your business’ or institution’s stories and narratives, and Bob’s your uncle.
Have you ever noticed how much stories are about different states of awareness or knowledge, either between characters, or between characters and the audience or readers? Keep track of what characters know and what the audience knows, event by event. But beware – if Shakespeare had had this function, neither Juliet nor Romeo would have had to die.
One work, but several stories? Intertwined storylines that are somewhat more independent of each other than regular subplots? Think Pulp Fiction or Prêt-à-Porter, and you see what a multiplot story is. For an author, it is much harder to plan and organise a multiplot narrative than a story with a subplot or two. But don’t worry, we’re working on a cool tool to help you keep control, however many protagonists you’re dealing with.
Call them storylines, main plot and subplots, or central plot and B-Plot, C-Plot. Whatever you call them, the chances are that your story actually consists of several threads. In the STORYLINES modus, assign each event in your story to one or more storylines, and then check the dispersal within your entire narrative with the Highlight function. Or choose the filter function to see only the event cards of one storyline and hide all the others, in order to concentrate on structuring this particular thread.
Read background information on Storylines here.
Writing historical fiction? Then you’ll be very interested to note what is happening on the great canvas of history at exactly the moment the princess is waiting for her beau to arrive.
Sure, you know what each character involved in each scene is doing at that moment. But what is everyone else in the story up to at the same time? Create a timeline for each character – and make sure Fred isn’t in Albuquerque as well as Seattle at one and the same moment.
Beemgee started in English. But since we are based in Berlin, Germany, and have many friends, partners and customers in this country, we think it only proper to provide a German language version of our author tool.
In our website, you’ll find the language switch in the top menu.
In the guest mode of the author tool, you choose your preferred language in your Global Menu (top left). As a registered FREE or PREMIUM user, you set the preferred language in your profile.
Keep track of how many locations you create and keep tabs on where your story actually takes place. Assign a location to each plot event easily with this standard free feature.
Read background information on Location here.
Almost all plot events feature characters. The actions of the characters comprise the plot. With this standard free function, you assign your characters to each plot event.
Read background information on Characters here.
