Prewrite for writers

Make pages turn and screens scroll.

Outline, write and rewrite your screenplay or novel in one place, with the structure in view the whole time.

Structure
Beats you can see. Threads you can follow.
Lay the story out as acts, beats and scenes on one timeline. Plot threads run through it, so you can tell at a glance where a subplot goes quiet and which scenes are carrying the load.
Page
A real screenplay page, on the outline.
Write in proper screenplay format: sluglines, action, dialogue. Every scene on the page is the scene on the timeline, so there is no second document to keep in sync.
Characters
Know your cast as well as your story.
Give every character a face, a file and a place in each scene. Then see who carries an act, and who disappears for thirty pages.
Stats
Rewrite with the shape in front of you.
Scene length, tone from scene to scene, who appears where, how the locations spread. Not a verdict — a map of the draft you actually wrote, so the rewrite starts in the right place.

Import it and see it whole.

Drop in a Final Draft file, a Fountain file or a PDF. Prewrite finds the acts, builds the cast and lays the script out on a timeline — so the first thing you see is where the structure holds and where it sags. Rewrite here, or send a clean .fdx back to Final Draft with your summaries and script notes intact.

For novelists

Chapters instead of scenes. Parts instead of acts.

Rename the structure to match the book and it stays renamed everywhere — timeline, cards, page and stats. When the manuscript is ready, export a .docx.

Every structure you've read about, ready to write in.

Three acts, a beat sheet, a hero's journey, a story circle — pick the one the story wants and change it as you go. Or build your own and keep it for the next one.

Browse templates

See how the pros built it.

Browse breakdowns of produced films and pilots, copy one and study it scene by scene.

More examples

Praise for Prewrite

David Wappel
Screenwriter - Long Gone By
“Allows me to transition from development to drafting to pitching.”
Kabir Chopra
Writer • Filmmaker
“I wouldn't have been able to write my last feature without it.”
Angela Bourassa
Founder, LA Screenwriter
“Prewrite worked very well with my style of outlining, allowing me to work the way I like while offering additional tools to supplement my outlining and organization process.”