Romance beat sheet
The usual shape of a love story, in four parts: meet, fall, pull apart, come back together.
Use it with your book's length
How it works
Romance readers expect certain beats, the way mystery readers expect a body. The two leads meet, they fall for each other, something pulls them apart, and they come back together for a happy ending. The last part isn't optional. Without it, the book isn't a romance.
This shape follows the common four quarters that romance writers use. Gwen Hayes's book Romancing the Beat is a popular, more detailed guide to the same idea.
Good for: Romance of every kind, and any story with a love story at its heart.
Watch out: The breakup has to come from who they are, not a simple misunderstanding one talk would fix. Readers notice.
The 11 beats, and where they fall
| Beat | Where | In 80,000 words |
|---|---|---|
| BeforeEach lead's life, and why they aren't ready for love. | 0% | 0 |
| MeetThe leads meet. Sparks, or friction, or both. | 5% to 10% | 4,000 to 8,000 |
| No wayReasons this can never work. | 12% to 20% | 9,600 to 16,000 |
| Forced togetherSomething keeps them close, like a job, a trip or a deal. | 20% to 25% | 16,000 to 20,000 |
| FallingFun, banter and moments of real closeness. | 25% to 50% | 20,000 to 40,000 |
| MidpointA big step, like a first kiss or a first night. Now it's real. | 50% | 40,000 |
| DoubtsOld wounds and secrets push them apart. | 50% to 75% | 40,000 to 60,000 |
| BreakupThe thing they feared happens. They split. | 75% | 60,000 |
| ApartEach one faces what they did wrong. | 75% to 85% | 60,000 to 68,000 |
| Grand gestureOne or both risk everything to win the other back. | 85% to 95% | 68,000 to 76,000 |
| Happily ever afterTogether, and changed. Readers expect this ending. | 95% to 100% | 76,000 to 80,000 |
The places are rough guides, not rules. Plenty of good books move a beat by a chapter or two. Put in your own word count and chapters to see your book's numbers.
Other story shapes
- Three acts beat sheetThe classic shape. Act 1 sets things up, act 2 is the long middle, act 3 is the end.
- Four acts beat sheetThree acts with the long middle cut in two at the midpoint.
- Five acts beat sheetRising action to a turning point in the middle, then the fall to the end. The shape of Shakespeare's plays.
- Save the Cat beat sheetBlake Snyder's screenwriting beats, as Jessica Brody laid them out for novels.
- Hero's journeyJoseph Campbell's journey, in Christopher Vogler's 12 steps. A good fit for quests and fantasy.
- Heroine's journeyA journey where the lead wins by building a team, not by fighting alone. After Gail Carriger's book.
- Story CircleDan Harmon's eight steps around a circle: you, need, go, search, find, take, return, change.
- Seven-point story beat sheetDan Wells's plan: decide the ending first, then build back to the start.
- 27-chapter methodThree acts, each cut into three blocks of three chapters. Fill in 27 chapters and you have a plan.
- Fichtean curveStart in trouble and never let up. One crisis after another, climbing to the climax.
- KishōtenketsuA four-part shape from China and Japan with no fight at its center: introduce, develop, twist, bring together.
- Mystery beat sheetThe usual shape of a whodunit: crime, clues, a wrong answer, then the truth.
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