A flexible first choice
Works across novels, screenplays, and short fiction
Three-Act Structure
Setup, confrontation, and resolution on one map, loose enough for a short story or a doorstop.
01 · Templates
Free Interactive Story Structure Templates
Find the shape hiding inside your story.
Begin with a proven structure, see its turning points as a map, then bend it until the chain belongs to your characters.
9 beats
02 · Template library
A useful starting shape for every kind of stuck.
Each template shows its visual form, scope, and best use before explaining the rules. Choose the nearest shape—not the framework with the loudest reputation.
03 · Make it yours
Borrow the structure. Keep the story.
Scyn templates are editable maps, not prescriptions. Their job is to give your first decisions somewhere useful to land.
01
Start with the hinges
Place the turns that change what can happen next. Leave the smaller scenes alone until the spine holds.
02
Test the connections
Link pressure to choice, cause to consequence, and setup to payoff. A borrowed beat earns its place only when it moves your story.
03
Make the shape yours
Move, rename, add, or remove anything that does not belong. The template is a starting geometry, not a rulebook.
04 · Free structure resources
Learn the framework, then test it on the canvas.
Compare eight frameworks
Story structure guide
See where three-act, Save the Cat, the hero's journey, Kishotenketsu, and four other structures work best.
Read the guide
Plan all 15 beats
Save the Cat worksheet
Read the practical guide, calculate page targets, or print the free unofficial educational worksheet.
05 · Start with a shapeStart mapping free
Choose a structure. Change everything that does not belong.
Free: one novel up to 100 scenes · No credit card