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Plot Wizard

The Plot Wizard turns a rough idea into a fully structured story. You provide a concept — a single sentence, a paragraph, a genre, a theme — and ACT3 AI builds a complete story architecture around it: acts, scenes, character arcs, key dramatic beats, and a scene-by-scene outline. The result is a project that is production-ready, with a stronger plot structure than most writers can produce alone in a first pass.

When to Use the Plot Wizard​

Choose the Plot Wizard when:

  • You have an idea but are not sure how to structure the story
  • You want AI to generate options for story structure that you can react to and refine
  • You are blocked on plot development and need a starting framework
  • You are producing content at scale and need stories built quickly from concepts
  • You want to explore multiple plot structures for the same concept before committing

If you have a finished screenplay already, use Import Script. If you want to write entirely from scratch with no AI assistance, use Empty Project.

Step 1 — Create the Project​

  1. From the Dashboard, click New Project
  2. Enter a Project Name (can be tentative — you can change it after)
  3. Select Plot Wizard as the starting point
  4. Click Create Project

The project opens to the Plot Wizard interface.

Step 2 — Enter Your Concept​

The first screen asks for your story concept. You can enter:

  • A logline — "A disgraced detective discovers the serial killer she's hunting is her long-lost twin sister."
  • A premise — "A found-footage horror story about a documentary crew that vanishes on an island with no people."
  • A genre + setting — "Sci-fi, generation ship, crew wakes from stasis to find 200 years have passed and the ship is off course."
  • A theme — "A story about the price of ambition — when does drive become something darker?"
  • A rough paragraph — Anything from a few sentences to several paragraphs. More detail produces more tailored output.

The more specific you are, the more accurately the Wizard builds to your vision. Vague input produces a more generic structure that you will need to shape further.

Step 3 — Configure Story Parameters​

Before generating, set:

Format

  • Feature Film (90–120 minute structure)
  • Short Film (10–30 minutes)
  • TV Episode (single 40–60 minute episode)
  • Mini-Series (3–6 episodes)
  • Web Series (short episodes)

Structure Model

  • Three-Act (Setup, Confrontation, Resolution)
  • Five-Act (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Denouement)
  • Hero's Journey (12-stage Campbell structure)
  • Save the Cat (Blake Snyder beat sheet — 15 beats)
  • Freytag Pyramid (5-act dramatic arc)
  • Free Form (AI determines structure from your concept)

Tone

  • Dramatic / Serious
  • Thriller / Suspense
  • Horror
  • Comedy
  • Action / Adventure
  • Romantic
  • Sci-Fi / Speculative
  • Family

Number of Main Characters Enter how many protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters you want the Wizard to build arcs for.

Step 4 — Generate the Plot​

Click Generate Plot. ACT3 AI processes your concept and parameters and produces:

  • Act breakdown — each act with a summary of what happens and what dramatic question it answers
  • Scene list — a full list of scenes across all acts, with one-line descriptions of each
  • Character list — main characters with role, motivation, and arc summary
  • Key beats — the 8–15 most important dramatic moments in the story (see story structure)
  • Logline — a refined logline based on what was generated

Generation takes 15–45 seconds depending on project complexity.

Step 5 — Review and Iterate​

The Plot Wizard shows you the generated structure in an interactive outline. At this stage you are reviewing, not committing — nothing has been applied to the project yet.

Options at this stage:

  • Accept all — Apply the full structure to the project and proceed to writing
  • Edit manually — Click into any act, scene, or character to edit the description directly before applying
  • Regenerate — Generate a completely different plot structure from the same inputs
  • Regenerate section — Regenerate only a specific act or scene while keeping the rest
  • Add / remove scenes — Manually add scenes the Wizard did not include, or delete ones you do not want
  • Swap structure — Change the structure model (e.g., try Hero's Journey instead of Three-Act) and regenerate

You can iterate on the structure as many times as you want before applying. Credit is not charged for plot generation — only for video rendering.

Step 6 — Apply to Project​

When the structure looks right, click Apply to Project. ACT3 AI creates:

  • All act divisions with names and summaries
  • All scene cards, each pre-populated with the one-line description from the Wizard
  • All character entries in the Actor Library (empty profiles — you fill in appearance, voice, and wardrobe)
  • A Story Arc view showing the character arcs across the project timeline

The project moves to the Script view with the full scene outline visible in the sidebar.

Step 7 — Expand into Script​

With the structure applied, expand each scene into a full script:

  1. Click into any scene card
  2. Click Write Scene — the AI drafts dialogue and action for that scene based on the one-line description
  3. Review and edit the draft — the AI output is a starting point, not a final draft
  4. Continue scene by scene until the full script is written

You can also write scenes manually by typing directly in the Script view. The Wizard structure and the manual script editor work together.

Plot Wizard and Story Arc​

When you apply a Wizard-generated structure, the Story Arc system is automatically populated with character arcs and key beats. You can open the Story Arc view immediately after applying the structure and see:

  • Each character's emotional arc plotted against the scene timeline
  • Key beats marked on the timeline
  • Proposed profound arcs and dramatic turning points

Edit these arc assignments as the script develops. The Story Arc and the script stay in sync.

Using Multiple Wizard Runs​

You can run the Plot Wizard multiple times on the same concept to get different structural interpretations:

  1. In the Wizard interface, click Regenerate to get a completely different structure
  2. The new structure is shown alongside the previous one for comparison
  3. You can mix and match: keep Act 1 from Run 1, take Act 2 from Run 2
  4. Only the version you apply becomes the project structure

This makes the Wizard useful for exploring narrative options before locking a direction.

Other Ways to Start a Project​

  • Empty Project — build from scratch without AI structure assistance
  • Import Script — bring in an existing screenplay or outline