🧪

Experimental drafts – 3 minutes

In Arc Studio, you can quickly try something in a separate draft, and then have full control over what you keep and what you discard. This is also great for working in parallel with a co-writer, then picking-and-choosing which changes you want to keep.

In Final Draft, this would entail manually copy/pasting from two different copies to produce the final, combined copy. In Arc Studio, separate copies stay connect in the background, so that:

  • You can easily see what has changed between the versions
  • Can choose the changes you like with a simple click

How it works:

  1. Open up a script where you want to experiment or import a new one
  2. In the sidebar, select “Drafts”, then click “Primary Draft”, then “Save as alternate working draft”
    3. image
  3. Give it a name such as “Susi’s experimental draft” (or leave it empty)
    4. 💡
    Good to know: This draft is private, only you can see it.
  4. Rewrite a piece of dialogue or some ending – it doesn’t need to make sense, you can curate your changes later.
    1. Bonus mission 1: if you like, click “Primary draft” in the sidebar to jump back to the original copy. You will see that it is unaffected. (Jump back now to the new alternate copy you just made.)
    2. Bonus mission 2: Change a few paragraphs in the Primary draft that you also changed in the alternate draft, just to see what happens. (Jump back now to the new alternate copy you just made.)
  5. When you’re done editing the alternate draft, click it in the sidebar and select “Compare to primary draft”.
    6. image
  6. You should see the changes side-by-side, color coded as below:
    7. image
  7. Select a change you want to discard. Click “Discard all paragraph changes”, or “Undo deletion”.
    8. image
  8. If you did Bonus mission 2, select the flash – indicating a conflict – and choose how you want to resolve it. Try keeping one side around as an alternate.
    9. image
  9. When you feel happy about the resulting document, click “Accept changes”.
    10. image
  10. You should now see the combined document. (Take a look at the alternate, indicated to the right of the paragraph with the conflict.)
    11. image
icon
Arc Studio Showrunner Edition is the best way to run a writers’ room

Reach us at showrunners -at- arcstudiopro.com or use the chat on this page.

Showrunner Edition Guide | Showrunner Edition Home | Arc Studio Home | Help Center