How to use ScripTao

The app follows how television is actually written: develop → bible → break → outline → draft → revise, then storyboard and prep. You don't have to go in order. The Overview shows your next suggested step.

The stages

Develop: Find the idea: logline, genre, tone, comps, the series engine. Produces: Logline, Pitch one-pager.
Bible: Characters with want/need/wound, the world and its places, season arcs. Produces: Series bible, Character sheets, Location list.
Break story: The room: episodes as columns, beats as index cards across acts. Produces: Season board, Episode beat sheets.
Outline: Scene-by-scene: place, who, goal, conflict, turn. Produces: Scene outline, Step outline.
Draft: Write pages in screenplay format. Produces: Writers' draft.
Notes & revise: Notes rounds (showrunner, studio, network), coloured revision pages. Produces: Notes log, Revision sets.
Visualize: Storyboard / comic panels: shots, angles, blocking. Produces: Storyboard, Shot list.
Production prep: Lock pages, breakdown by scene: cast, places, day/night. Produces: Locked script, Breakdown, One-liner.

Three ways to start

Guided setup: answer a few questions and get a bible, episodes and a board.
Blank page: skip the wizard and start writing immediately.
Import: paste or upload a Fountain script, a play or a public-domain novel. The original is kept, and anything we couldn't place is listed.

Fountain cheat sheet

The script editor uses Fountain, plain text that any screenwriting app can open.

Title: Low Tide
Credit: Written by
Author: You

INT. HARBOUR OFFICE - NIGHT          ← scene heading (INT./EXT.)

Nora counts the ledgers twice.        ← action

NORA                                  ← character (ALL CAPS)
(quietly)                             ← parenthetical
It doesn't add up.                    ← dialogue

.FLASHBACK                            ← forced heading
> CUT TO:                             ← transition
# ACT ONE                             ← section (not printed)
= Nora finds the gap.                 ← synopsis (not printed)
[[check tide tables]]                 ← note (not printed)
===                                   ← page break

The assistant

Click ✦ Assistant in the top bar and ask in plain words. For example: “Make Nora more sarcastic.” “Rewrite this so it's tenser.” “What does Inés want from Nora?” It reads your bible and your newest drafts. Every change comes back as a card showing exactly what would change. Tick the parts you want, then click Apply. Revert takes it back. You can also start a question from Ask about this character on a character, or select lines in the script and click Ask about selection. You can also type a question into search (Ctrl K) and pick “Ask”. Locked drafts and older drafts can't be edited. There's a daily message limit. What gets sent.

Keyboard

Ctrl K search everything
Ctrl Z / Ctrl Shift Z undo / redo outside text fields
Story board: every card has ◀ ▶ ▲ ▼ buttons, so you don't need to drag

Revision colours

whitebluepinkyellowgreengoldenrodbuffsalmoncherry

Glossary

Logline: One or two sentences: who wants what, what's in the way, and why it's a series rather than a movie.
Series engine: The repeatable situation that generates episodes: a case of the week, a family business, a heist crew.
Bible: The reference document for the show: world, characters (want / need / wound), places, season arcs, tone.
Breaking story: Working out an episode's beats as a group or alone, usually on cards on a board, before any outline is written.
A / B / C story: Parallel storylines in an episode. A carries the most weight; B and C echo or counterpoint its theme.
Beat: One unit of story change. A card on the board.
Outline: A scene-by-scene prose plan of the episode, written after the break and before the script.
Reverse outline: An outline written from a finished draft, one line per scene saying what it actually does. It exposes scenes where nothing changes.
Setup / payoff: Something planted early that matters later. An open setup at the end of a season is a promise you broke, or a hook you meant.
Dramatic irony: The audience knows something a character doesn't. The knowledge matrix shows where it happens.
Coverage: A reader's report: logline, synopsis, ratings, and a pass / consider / recommend verdict.
Revision colours: Production drafts are re-issued on coloured pages so everyone knows which version they hold.
Locked: In production, a script whose page numbers no longer change; later changes become A-pages. In ScripTao, locking freezes a draft version; page-locking is not in ScripTao yet.
Breakdown: The list of cast, places and elements per scene that production uses to schedule and budget.

Worked example

Open Projects → Try the sample. Low Tide has a full bible, a broken episode, a draft with reader notes, coverage, a writers' room session and the process timeline.