Every story is a journey through time. How you arrange that journey determines everything.
Story Beats
Arc Type
Duration
Emotional Register
Section 02 — Story Structure Analyzer
Narrative Architecture
Three foundational story structures from different traditions. Click to activate, then draw your own tension curve.
Draw Your Story: Click and drag on the canvas above to sketch your own tension curve. It will overlay on the selected structure template.
Different cultures structure stories differently. Western cinema defaults to 3-act. Anime often uses Kishōtenketsu. Neither is inherently superior.
Section 03 — Emotional Arc Designer
The Emotional Journey
Click to place beat nodes, label them, and build a Bézier emotional arc. Load famous film presets to study their emotional architecture.
EMOTION:FILM:
Instructions: Click anywhere on the canvas to place an emotional beat node.
Y-axis = intensity (bottom = despair, top = euphoria). X-axis = story time (left = opening, right = ending).
After 4+ nodes, a smooth curve connects them. Place 4+ nodes to see the Bézier arc emerge.
Section 04 — Branching Timeline Builder
Fork in the Story
Click on the timeline spine to add branch points. Play the animation to see a story dot navigate the forks.
REFERENCE:
Amber = main path · Cyan = alternative ·
White = flashback · Dim = path not taken.
At branch points, the story dot pauses and chooses a direction.
Section 05 — Montage Pacing Studio
The Rhythm of Cuts
Build a shot-length timeline. Each block = one shot. Width = duration. Color = emotional register. Drag edges to resize.
COLOR:
0
SHOTS
0.0s
AVG LENGTH
0
CUTS/MIN
—
ASSESSMENT
Section 06 — Narrative Space Map
Where the Story Lives
Click to place locations. Then click two locations to draw a movement path. Animate the protagonist's journey through space.
Place mode: Click empty canvas = new location node.
Connect mode: Click two nodes to draw a movement path between them.
The Wizard of Oz traces a circle — Dorothy never truly goes linear.
Section 07 — Time Manipulation Tools
Bending the Clock
Three cinematic techniques for non-linear time — each demonstrated with an interactive canvas.
Flashback Machine
PAST ←→ PRESENT
Slide left to enter the flashback — desaturated, warm-vignetted, soft-edged past.
The Godfather II uses cold/warm tones to distinguish past from present timelines.
Parallel Timeline Viewer
CONVERGENCE:
Drag to move the convergence point where two parallel timelines merge.
Dunkirk runs land/sea/air stories at different time scales until they converge.
Time Compression / Expansion
SPEED:1×
Drag the speed dial from 0.1× (ultra slow) → 1× (normal) → 100× (time-lapse).
Time compression/expansion is a directorial choice, not just an editing trick.
A sunrise can take 3 minutes or 3 seconds depending on what the story needs.
Section 08 — Screenwriting Structure + Artists
The Craft Layer
The Save the Cat beat sheet and eight directors/writers who mastered narrative time.
The 15-Beat Sheet — Blake Snyder's Save the Cat framework.
Check off each beat as you plan or analyze a story. Each beat has a suggested story position.
Master Storytellers
Eight directors and writers who reshaped how we think about narrative time.
Section 09 — Glossary
The Language of Story
22 essential terms in narrative theory and screenwriting craft.