How to Use LM Script: From First Scene to a Production-Ready Draft

You will leave with a saved script project that is organized for writing now and structured to hand useful story facts into production later.

Before you start

LM Script is project-based. Sign in to your LM account, open LM Script, and name the project before you begin. Your project autosaves after changes and also gives you version history, collaborative review, tasks, and recovery tools.

Step 1: Create the script project

Open LM Script from the app page, create a new project, and give it the working title you will recognize later. Keep the project private while you are drafting unless you intentionally invite collaborators.

Step 2: Clarify the story foundation

Capture the logline, protagonist, want, obstacle, stakes, and thematic question in plain language. These are thinking prompts, not a formula, and LM Assistant stays out of the way unless you explicitly ask to brainstorm.

Step 3: Explore an outline

Open Outline and choose a Save the Cat-style beat sheet, Hero’s Journey, Seven-Point Story Structure, or a custom sequence. Add your own notes, link existing scenes, or create outline scenes directly from beats without destroying another framework experiment.

Step 4: Choose the script format and title information

Set the format you are writing, then fill in the title-page information that belongs with the project. Do this early enough that exports do not become a last-minute scavenger hunt.

Step 5: Build scenes in story order

Use the scene workspace to create scene headings, action, dialogue, and the story flow. Treat the scene list as a navigation map, not as a second screenplay you must maintain by hand.

Step 6: Build the Story Bible

Use Story Bible to deepen characters, relationships, locations, props, and world rules only as far as the story needs. Each entry stays linked to the scenes where it appears, so continuity can be checked without maintaining a separate document.

Step 7: Run a focused review pass

Open Review, name the pass, tell reviewers what you want them to focus on, and ask specific questions. Use the private review room for view-only feedback, then accept, decline, resolve, or convert useful notes into assigned Team + Tasks work without giving reviewers edit access.

Step 8: Revise without fear

Use save history and versions before major rewrites. Keep reviewer comments separate from revision decisions so the screenplay only changes when the writer chooses to change it.

Step 9: Break scenes for production

Open Production and work scene by scene. Cast, location, props, and wardrobe come from the screenplay automatically; add extras, set dressing, vehicles, stunts and safety, VFX, practical FX, hair and makeup, animals, sound or music, special equipment, and other requirements only where the scene needs them. Mark a scene Ready when the script-side breakdown is complete enough to hand off.

Step 10: Generate sides and production handouts

Open Reports → Sides + Production Handouts. Select individual scenes, select all active scenes, or choose a character to gather every active scene that character appears in. Print the sides packet to PDF and export one-line, cast, and location CSV reports when production needs portable handouts.

Step 11: Carry the story into Film Studio

When the project is ready for production planning, connect it to LM Film Studio. Script sends the structured scene breakdown forward while Film Studio owns schedules, vendors, owners, costs, dailies, and execution. Resyncing the screenplay should preserve those production decisions.

Make the workflow better

• Write the scene before overbuilding metadata.

• Use Story Bible for continuity and dramatic meaning, not as homework.

• Open scene backlinks when a character, prop, or location detail needs verification in context.

• Create a version before a major structural rewrite.

• Ask reviewers specific questions instead of “What do you think?”

• Turn accepted feedback into assigned tasks when another collaborator owns the follow-through.

• Let the screenplay generate production facts automatically before manually adding department needs.

• Use sides and one-line reports as snapshots; keep LM Script itself as the source of truth.

• On desktop, use keyboard and mouse; on tablets and phones, use the horizontal scene/beat rails and touch-sized controls rather than trying to reproduce a desktop layout.

• Before release, open Reports → Jerry QA and clear the operational issues. A 100 score means technical checks are clear; it never claims the story itself is creatively perfect.

• Use Cmd/Ctrl+F for LM Script Find + Replace, and Alt+Up / Alt+Down outside text fields to move between scenes quickly.

Questions people ask

Does LM Script automatically save?

The current studio saves changes after a short pause when you are online and also provides a manual Save control and project history.

Will syncing to Film Studio erase production work?

The connected workflow is designed so Script owns story facts while Film Studio owns production decisions. Script updates should not erase downstream production work.