Write a TV series: one folder per season, one file per episode

In one line: how to organise a twelve-episode series now that one episode is one file — folders and naming, a cast and a planted thread that both run across episodes, and where a whole season's progress lives.

The four-level hierarchy is gone. There is a file tree instead.

If you are arriving from Script Studio, this is the first thing to unlearn:

Losing the season record costs you two things: nothing numbers your episodes for you, and there is no season-level settings page. What you get back is that an episode is just a file — you can drag it, duplicate it, rename it — and it sits on the same tree as your prose, your relationship map and your timeline.

One folder per season

1. Make the folder. Right-click empty space in the file tree (or an existing folder) → New Folder. For a single run, call it Screenplay; across seasons, Season 1 and Season 2.
2. Make an episode. Right-click that folder → New Script. It sits on the first level of the menu, next to New Manuscript, New Reference and New Folder.
3. Rename it. The file arrives called Untitled Script and opens straight into a tab. Go back to the tree, right-click it → Rename. The tree hides the .script extension, so whatever you type is exactly what you see.

Screenplay/
  Episode 01 - The Copyist Girl
  Episode 02 - The Word Bureau
  Episode 03 - Her Father's Letter
  …
Characters/
  Shen Yan
  Pei Zhao
Places/
  You'an Scriptorium
Story Skeleton.beats

The episode number and the credit live at the top of the page

At the top of the paper card in edit mode there are four fields you can click straight into: the episode number (above the title), the title, a subtitle, and the name under Written by. All four are printed on the exported title page, so they are not decoration.

A cast that runs across episodes

There is no character bible record in 4.0. The cast list is every name you have typed on a character line in any .script in this book, recomputed live.

• Start a character line and the autocomplete offers every name in the book, most dialogue first. When Shen Yan speaks in episode 7 you don't have to go back and check the spelling you used in episode 1.
• Type / on an empty line for the slash palette. Its quick-insert section is book-wide too: your top five characters and top five locations. That's how episode 2 picks up the You'an Scriptorium from episode 1.
• Click a character name to open a small card: how many scenes and how many lines of dialogue across the whole book, plus a per-episode breakdown — one bar per episode, sized by that episode's dialogue lines. The bars only appear once the character shows up in more than one file.
• If a same-named .md exists in the book (say Characters/Shen Yan), the name in the screenplay picks up a dashed underline and Ctrl/⌘-click opens it. Aliases count too — put them in that file's frontmatter.
• Scene-heading locations work the same way: every location used in the book feeds the autocomplete, and a same-named .md links up.

What isn't there, plainly: no character-by-episode appearance matrix. Those per-episode bars are the closest thing, one character at a time.

The thread you plant in episode 2 and pay off in episode 8

Cross-episode setups are notes, paired two at a time.

Planted in episode 2, paid off in episode 8

Right-click the line in episode 2 Add note → Add Setup (Foreshadow) Hit "Link payoff" on the card Pick the payoff note on episode 8, or "Create payoff & link"

The pairing is two-way, and it crosses files: clicking the badge opens the other episode first.

Right-click any line in a screenplay and the Add note group offers Add Note / Add Todo / Add Setup (Foreshadow) / Add Payoff (Resolve); the note anchors to that line. Once paired, both cards carry an amber badge naming the other one. Click it and Slima opens episode 8, then scrolls that card into view and highlights it.

The lightbulb beside the notes panel title counts paired / total setups. It counts what you wrote down — nothing is scanning your twelve episodes for threads you forgot.

The full method is in Tracking foreshadowing with notes: setup to payoff; the panel itself is The notes panel: what you keep beside the manuscript.

Where a whole season's progress lives

Two places, answering two different questions.

The manuscript table — how many minutes this season runs. There's a table icon in the Explorer's header; it opens a Manuscript Table tab in the centre. One row per episode, and screenplay rows are measured in minutes, not words: target, estimate, percentage. At the bottom sits a Total (screenplay) row.

One episode is one row in the Manuscript Table

Column	What a screenplay row gives you
Title	The file name. Click it to jump to that episode
Target	The target minutes you typed, shown as "25 min"; "Not set" when empty
Actual	The estimated running time, shown as "~23 min"
Progress	A thin bar plus the percentage, capped at 100%
Status	Drafting / Completed
Updated	Relative time
Total (screenplay)	The footer row — it sums only the episodes that have a target

One table, two units: manuscripts count words and screenplays count minutes, so the footer always splits into Total (manuscript) and Total (screenplay).

A beat board — the shape of the season. Add a .beats file and drag all twelve episode files onto it as cards. Each screenplay card shows how many scenes it currently holds, and expands to list them. Use the act columns as first three / middle six / last three. This is the only place that puts a whole season on one screen.

How it works: What a beat board is, and when to use one, and four ready-made three-act templates in Choosing one of the four structure templates.

To find which episode a line is in, use Search in the sidebar — full-text search reads screenplay text, so dialogue, action and scene headings are all in scope.

Where you choose the range when you hand it over

One file per episode pays off most at delivery.

• One episode: open it and press Export Screenplay in the toolbar.
• A whole season: right-click that folder → Export. Merged into one PDF, or one file per episode bundled as a zip.
• The whole book: the download icon in the Explorer header adds a What to export choice — Manuscript (episodes only, no character or place reference files), Everything (manuscript + reference), or Custom.
• A handful of episodes: multi-select in the tree and right-click Export selected (N); the export dialog opens with those already ticked.

A folder per season earns its keep a second time here: a merge export covers exactly one folder. The details, and which format suits which recipient, are in Handing the screenplay over: one episode, one season, or the whole book.

Making twelve episodes look the same

The format switch (Taiwan / Hollywood) belongs to the file, not the book. Flipping episode 1 to Hollywood leaves episode 2 alone. That is deliberate: real writers converting from the old shell had scene numbers switched off on some episodes and not others.

The format's details though — the △ prefix, the scene grid, page size, font size — offer to apply to every other screenplay file in the book once you change them. That's where you make twelve episodes match. Choosing a format: Format switch: Taiwan and Hollywood.

When not to do it this way

• Don't put two seasons in one folder. A merged PDF export covers "the other screenplay files in this folder", so two seasons in one folder can't be separated.
• Don't split an episode into three act files. One episode, one file is the unit here; split it and the runtime estimate, the outline panel and the episode-number field each start counting separately.
• Don't expect the app to number your episodes. "Episode 3" is text you typed. Renaming the file, moving it, or deleting the episode before it will not touch it.
• You can write on a phone, but don't lay out a season there. On a phone you tap a line to edit it, Enter moves to the next line, and character names have a quick-pick. Tidying the tree and reading a six-column table are both less painful on a desktop.

Related

• Docs: Opening a screenplay file: layout, toolbar, status bar
• Docs: Scene heading: interior/exterior, location, time
• Docs: Enter and Tab: the element flow
• Docs: Handing the screenplay over: one episode, one season, or the whole book
• Docs: Ask the AI to rework a scene, and review what it did
• Docs: What a beat board is, and when to use one