Fuck the beatsheets.  Come up with a concept.  Come up with a story/plot.  Come up with characters.  Plan out script in head.  Get started writing.  Reread and check everything you write before you began writing each day.

Don't be boxed in by all the BS you hear.  Never save the cat, as cats are smart and cool and can save themselves.

I don't know. Beat sheets come naturally if you have a solid, fully-formed idea, but I always have a hell of a time articulating them, once I've written something.

I use beat sheets as a guide so I could find out where I want the story to go. Writing out a beat sheet is like writing a draft of a script.  

Granted it changes on me when I actually start writing the script, nevertheless it helps me keep organized.

You sometimes need a little structure in your life.

I'm kidding for the most part.  I don't use them and never will, but if some need or like dong it this way, more power to ya!  

Quoted from Dreamscale Fuck the beatsheets.

Yeah! f1ck 'em b1tch!

Quoted from Dreamscale I'm kidding for the most part.  I don't use them and never will, but if some need or like dong it this way, more power to ya!

I agree with moderated Jeff. Most sensible.

I sometimes do scene outlines when I start a new feature.

Make a list of the slugs, a couple of lines about what happens in each scene, etc. it helps

I somewhat agree with Dreamscale, but I def agree with Mr. Ripley.  In the opening stages of planning your screenplay it would probably be helpful to beat it out, and come up with the story and structure, from beginning to end, using the beat sheet, i.e., notecards or something like that.  Use it as an outline for your story.  Use it to organize your scenes.  I think the seeing your script as a movie starts right there.

If you watch a lot of movies, I believe you'll find that you can write your story and the proper beats will already be there whether you know it or not.  That's something that cannot be taught.  Either you have it or you don't.

And I guess that a "proper" beat sheet should be written once you finish for when an agent comes along and asks for them.

Maybe I'm doing this backwards.  I don't know.  But whatever works best for each individual...

Steve

Just wrote a beat sheet:

THIS IS FOR BLEAK FALLS (A comic-mystery thriller):

INTRODUCTION - Bert and Gertrude rob the convenience store. Haley stops them.
Mick reports Jake missing. Haley investigates. Salazar and company plot in secrecy.
Haley discovers her mother having an affair with John the Plumber in her house.

INCITING INCIDENT - Skeletal kills Henrique Glass. The two Dudes talk to Adam about it
as cops do nothing about the dismembered body parts. Haley arrives and discovers kids
kicking Henrique’s head like a soccer ball. Haley conducts interviews with the citizens
with hilarious results.

ACT 2 START - Haley discovers the killer is someone in the town. Skeletal strikes again
and kills the Dude. Henrietta hits Jimmy. Mick kills Father Maggle for Jake’s death and
frees Timmy the choirboy only to use him as a horse himself. Haley must stop Gertrude
and Bert again. She goes to Selina’s house and they watch Supernatural. Talk about
Jensen and Jared for a bit. Selina wants to have sex with Haley only for Angela and John
to suddenly appear in the room with hilarious results.

MIDPOINT - Skeletal strikes Chastity. She baits him and pretends to act for a movie
tryout. Skeletal does not want to kill her as she is pissing him off. She breast-impales
on a rail and he goes to the police station to wipe off the rotten milk thrown at him
earlier.
Bert and Gertrude find themselves stuck inside the care home and the Warden on the
verge of causing them some severe punishment. Haley talks with Jim after leaving her
house and tells him he will never amount to anything. So Jim decides to join Salazar and
his organization as they plot to kidnap the Mascot.

LOW POINT - Haley discovers that Skeletal knows where she lives so she conducts an
investigation and puts pictures of Jared Padelecki on her wall. She sets up devious traps
and sits in the chair waiting for him when all of a sudden DAVE comes home and gets
impaled on the kitchen-board knife trap.
Dave dies a few times. Skeletal arrives and scares Haley. He says they should go
somewhere different. Dave wakes up and Skeletal pounds him with several kitchen
objects but Dave will just not die. Salazar and co kidnap the Mascot and leave Jimmy,
wielding a broken arm, to fend for himself. Jim is left for the cops to pick up as the bad
guys seem to have the upper hand.

CLIMAX - Jim goes Rambo on Salazar and company. Haley and Skeletal romantically
dance at the park overlooking the ravine. Jim takes down Salazar and co. Henrietta
humiliates Dude #2 and Geek in her basement. Geek manages to escape. Haley takes
off Skeletal’s mask and uncovers that he is a hideous old man. She throws him into the
ravine.

CONCLUSION - The citizens of Bleak Falls are now safe. Skeletal is dead. Haley is proud.
Jim slaps Henrietta for treating him like shit. Cops host a barbeque in the street. Adam
holds up a Party Baby. Angela narrates. Haley shoots her in the head.

Personally, I prefer to go by the Hero's Journey for a "beat sheet". Mostly, I use Vogler's 'writer's journey' format, but I'm attempting to read through Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces and get a better grasp of that.

I was taught to use both beat sheets and the hero's journey in school and I've mainly stuck with HJ. Actually, I kind of forgot all about beat sheets. With HJ, I just think it's more time-tested. Since it's been the backbone of a lot of great stories throughout the ages, I figure it's instant insight into what humans like and what works as a story. I'm not saying I want to stick to it like glue, but it's a good place to start.

A beat sheet kind of tells you how to plot out the presentation of the big moments, but I feel like it's better to feel that out on your own, through trial and error. Different stories require different dynamics and beat sheets don't really teach you how to develop a sense for that. The Hero's Journey, on the other hand, only teaches you the logical progression of a story, rather than a scatter-shot approach to both progression and presentation.

One thing I'll say about the hero's journey is that it is kind of hard to make a premise fit every step of that journey. Less so with the writer's journey, though. But that's why I like it. Often, not knowing how to improvise can lead to disaster. A few times, it might. But other times, I think it can improve your abilities and make you think outside the box and really consider the logic of a story and a premise. The more you do that, the more you can master both presentation and progression, the master of both worlds.

But to each their own, I suppose.