A single moment in your story where something shifts, whether it is an action, a decision, or an emotional change.
A story beat is the smallest meaningful unit of change in a narrative. Think of it like a heartbeat for your story: each one represents a moment where something happens that pushes the narrative forward. That 'something' can be an event, a decision, a revelation, or even a subtle emotional shift. Beats are the building blocks that scenes are made of, and scenes are the building blocks of chapters. If nothing changes in a moment, it is not a beat.
Understanding beats gives you x-ray vision for your own writing. When a scene feels flat or draggy, it is almost always because the beats are missing or muddled. Once you can identify the beats in a scene, you can diagnose pacing problems, cut dead weight, and make every moment on the page earn its place. It is the difference between writing scenes that meander and scenes that move.
The scene where Gatsby throws shirts across the room and Daisy cries is a master-class in emotional beats. Nothing plot-critical happens, but everything emotional shifts.
Rooney's novels are built almost entirely on micro-beats: a glance, a pause, a text message left unanswered. Each tiny moment recalibrates the power dynamic between Connell and Marianne.
The moment Amir watches Hassan's assault from behind a wall is a single devastating beat that drives the entire rest of the novel.
After you draft a scene, list every moment where something changes. If you cannot find at least two or three distinct beats, the scene probably needs more tension or should be cut.
A character making coffee is activity. A character making coffee and noticing their partner's mug is gone is a beat. The difference is change.
If a character learns their mother is dying, gets fired, and discovers a betrayal all in one paragraph, none of those beats land. Give significant beats room to breathe.
Pick a scene from your current project and break it down into individual beats. Write each beat on its own line as a simple sentence: 'She notices the letter. She reads it. She decides to lie.' Then look at your list. Are there dead spots where nothing changes? Are there beats missing that would make the emotional arc clearer? Rewrite the scene using your revised beat list as a guide.