Series Bible (Click to view PDF)

Since that time, we've been working on a new product called PlotRocket, which at first was intended to be an automation of that original experiment, essentially doing the same thing, just through the API.

Along the way, we realized that there was a workflow with distinct phases to be considered, whether you are consulting the AI collaborator or not.

Building your world, populating it with characters and lore, plotting arcs for characters, relationships, and anything else that changes, breaking seasons into episodes, episodes into acts and scenes... it's a lot of context switching between discrete aspects of the project.

The workflow has a concrete goal: A Series Bible and Episode Outlines.

These documents give you the series world and its stories. Everything is a means to that end. From there you can storyboard, write scripts, etc.

Episode Outline (Click to view PDF)

Workflow Components

Going from an initial idea to a pilot episode outline (much less multiple seasons) can seem like a daunting process. It needs to be broken down into manageable components.

Series Igniter

Initially, you may have a general idea for a series, but not much more. A name, genre, tone, logline. Essentially, the stuff you see on a streaming app's page for a show that convinces you to click play.

World Builder

From there, you begin world-building: thinking of characters, settings, and lore about your show's world.

Arc Plotter

Next, you think about arcs for those characters across the whole series. What do they need, how will they get it (or try), how will they change.

Story Breaker

Then you begin breaking an episode, figuring out its plotlines; usually there are several stories being told, their separate beats woven together.

AI Is Optional

We built the system with the ability to provide AI suggestions for every story element, but in the end it was apparent that the workflow components themselves were extremely powerful all on their own.

For the new wave of content producers using AI video and speech products to create shows, but who may not have the experience in crafting engaging stories, this could be a boon. This revolution is already unfolding and will probably change the way content is created in the future in profound ways.

However, given the fact that the Writers' Guild is justifiably opposed to the use of AI in the story creation process (let's not put actual paid screenwriters out of work, please), it was obvious that we needed to make the AI part optional.

As a result, you can set up an account with or without AI. If you choose the "Go Humans, Beat the Robots" plan, all traces of the AI collaborator are removed from the interface and your Series Bible and Episode Outlines are clearly marked in the page footers as having NO AI.