I’m a writer, so I want to understand the plot points and beats as a means toward manipulating reader desires.
Gail Carriger, The Heroine’s Journey (2020, p. 85)
A beat is an exchange of behavior in action/reaction. Beat by beat these changing behaviors shape the turning of a scene.
Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (2010, p. 33)
Subplots should have at least three “beats” or scenes distributed throughout the story, one in each act. All the subplots should be acknowledged or resolved in the Return.
Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (2020, p. 259)
The word “beats” can be confusing because it is also used in screenwriting literature to describe pacing elements similar to scene breakdowns with an action and a reaction, and also a momentary pause in the dialogue. Here, the term “beat” is strictly used to describe plot points, which are the key events, decisions, or discoveries made by the Virgin, or Hero, that move the protagonist along on her/his journey.
Kim Hudson, The Virgin’s Promise: Writing Stories of Feminine Creative, Spiritual and Sexual Awakening (2010, p. xxiii)
This exchange of action is a beat. [For example], as long as it continues, Character A is “Groveling at her feet” but Character B is “ignoring the plea,” it’s one beat. Even if their exchange repeats a number of times, it’s all one and the same beat. A new beat doesn’t occur until behavior clearly changes.
Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting (2010, p. 259)