Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/34119
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### Why this Question is Being asked

In a previous question it was suggested that I write a **treatment** to assist with revising & cutting. A **treatment** is essentially a multi-page, spoilerific summary of exactly what happens in a written work; but, the term comes not from the Novel, but from screenplay writing and is made up of **beats**. A **beat** is not standardly defined across the writing community and it is used in multiple ways.

### Known Deficient Definitions/Examples/Uses of Beats/Treatments

At the time that question was asked, I had seen a couple examples of **treatments** or **beat-sheets** and I found the documents compelling and likely useful for revision process, but did not know how to convert an active work into one, which meant finding the beats and collecting them all in one place. That's because most of the places you read on the internet are going to contain partial or limited versions of one or two of the following:

- an example of a beat sheet
- an example of a treatment
- a loose definition of a beat as the smallest unit of any action (essentially every action in the movie)
- a loose definition of a beat as the smallest unit of plot (once every five minutes in a movie; a turning point for characters; or every swing of momentum within a scene, this could literally be nearly every second of staging)
- a very detailed definition of a beat: all of the character considerations backing any action in a scene of the film which is great for directing a movie or play, but not good as a summary for revision purposes if you're going for a smaller document.

This is further complicated because a script is a very different thing than a novel. A script is usually shorter (only providing dialogue and very minimal setting/action descriptions) and, due to the medium, is often simpler, in terms of complexity, than a book.

So the question is, which of these definitions is most useful when writing a **treatment** for revision of a **novel**? And once I've picked the definition I want to target, what is the right way to construct said **beats**? Which moments in the book should qualify for **beat status** and which should be discarded as superfluous? And the next level, even if it qualifies as a beat for the treatment, how do you know you need to cut it from the work anyways? The definition of a beat within the context of a revision treatment should make it obvious why you'd want to use beats & treatments for revision; and based on previous discussions I'd expect (but here's an opportunity to correct me) that the act of summarizing the important and/or extraneous moments in a novel lets you focus the book on what it is about and cut the superfluous chunks of text; but you can only get there if you can differentiate "superfulous-but-recordable" beats from "additional-details/happenings-that-aren't-beats."

### And why this is different from other questions.

A good answer to this question will provide actionable steps to create useful beats and a useful treatment for the revision process; it will define the components to assist in the actionable desired end result result; and it will be clear how the construction and use of this document will lead to a **better novel**. An unhelpful answer would simply list examples or one of the myriad definitions without talking about why this is important and how its helpful in the revision process.

Original score: 7