The $26B Industry Runs on One Story System
This free 6-step workbook gives you the exact framework behind 15,000+ vertical episodes. Six steps. One worked example. A story engine that makes your series impossible to stop watching.
6 Steps Inside
Guy Chachkes
15,000+ episodes produced | CEO, Reelarc
Get the Free Story Map
Enter your info and we'll send the workbook straight to your inbox.
From the Set
Real productions by Guy Chachkes & the Reelarc team.
The Problem
Most creators start with plot. That's why most vertical series fail.
You have an idea. Maybe even a script. But something feels off. The story doesn't hook. The episodes don't build. Viewers watch one and never come back. The problem isn't your talent. It's that nobody taught you the mechanics that make vertical series addictive.
Traditional screenwriting doesn't work here. The pacing is different. The stakes have to escalate faster. Every episode ending has to be engineered to make the viewer physically unable to stop. This is a different craft, and it has a system.
Your Guide
Guy Chachkes
CEO and Co-Founder of Reelarc, the leading vertical content production company in the US. Over 15,000 scenes produced since 2014. Studios in NYC and LA.
He built this workbook because he kept seeing the same pattern: creators with great ideas writing stories that didn't hook. The Story Map is the exact system his team uses to develop every vertical series, distilled into 6 steps you can work through on your own.
The 6-Step Framework
Build a story engine, not just an idea
Each step includes a worked example using a JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette micro-drama, so you can see exactly how the framework applies before using it on your own concept.
The Hook
You have three seconds. Not three minutes. Choose from five hook types (Threat, Secret, Shock, Temptation, Betrayal) and design the opening collision that forces viewers to stay.
Core Engine
Every addictive story runs on three forces colliding: Love, Health, and Wealth. All three must be present and in conflict simultaneously. That is what makes it serializable.
Character War
Two characters who want fundamentally incompatible things. If both can win, there is no show. The incompatibility must be structural, not solvable by compromise.
Stakes Ladder
Map escalating consequences across three levels: Personal (identity, self-worth), Relational (the relationship breaks), and Irreversible (something that cannot be undone).
Momentum Question
One specific, urgent, unresolved question that lives in the viewer's mind between episodes. If they can comfortably close the app, you don't have one.
Cliffhanger Design
Four types: Power Shift, Secret Drop, Threat Appears, Decision Forced. Every episode must end with at least one. If none apply, it is not a cliffhanger. It is a scene that stops.
Who This Is For
Built for creators who are serious about shipping
Writers with a concept
You have an idea but need a structured system to develop it into something bingeable.
Filmmakers going vertical
You know how to shoot, but the vertical format has different rules. This maps them out.
Content creators leveling up
You've built an audience and want to create serialized content that keeps them coming back.
Producers exploring micro-drama
You want to understand the story mechanics before committing budget and resources.
Stop Guessing
Your story is one system away from being addictive.
The workbook is free. The system is proven on 15,000+ episodes. Work through the 6 steps and build a concept that audiences can't stop watching.