Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

by Jessica Brody

  The point is, the beats are all there. In almost every great story ever told. Because, again, these beats do not create a formula. These beats are what make stories work, because they’re what makes humans work. Without a Catalyst, your hero would be stuck in their ho-hum Act 1 world forever. Without a Midpoint that raises the stakes, your hero would continue to meander around in the Fun and Games, never knowing that there’s more important stuff to be dealt with out there. Without an All Is Lost rock bottom moment, your hero would never really change the right way.

  This is story, folks.

  Because this is life.

  If you’re having trouble visualizing how the beats fit together, or if you’re just more of a visual learner, check out “Help! I Need More Structure!” in chapter 15 (this page) for another look at the beat sheet in action.

  EXERCISE: THE TRANSFORMATION TEST

  Is your hero’s transformation as big as it can be? Have you hit all the beats hard enough?

  Use this handy Self-Workshop Checklist to make sure your beats pass the transformation test!

  Opening Image

  ❏ Is your Opening Image one scene or one group of interconnected scenes?

  ❏ Is your Opening Image visual? (Are you showing, not telling?)

  ❏ Is one or more of your hero’s flaws evident in this scene?

  Theme Stated

  ❏ Does your theme directly relate to your hero’s need or spiritual lesson?

  ❏ Is your theme stated by someone (or something!) other than the hero?

  ❏ Can your hero easily and believably dismiss this theme?

  Setup

  ❏ Have you shown at least one thing that needs fixing in your hero’s life?

  ❏ Have you introduced at least one A Story character?

  ❏ Did you clearly establish your hero’s want or external goal somewhere in this beat?

  ❏ Have you shown your hero in more than one area of their life (such as home, work, and/or play)?

  ❏ Are your hero’s flaws evident in this beat?

  ❏ Have you created a sense of urgency that imminent change is vital (stasis = death)?

  Catalyst

  ❏ Does the Catalyst happen to the hero?

  ❏ Is it an action beat? (No revelations allowed here!)

  ❏ Is it impossible for the hero to go back to their normal life after this?

  ❏ Is the Catalyst big enough to break the status quo?

  Debate

  ❏ Can you sum up your Debate with a question? Or if it’s a preparation Debate, have you clearly defined what your hero is preparing for and why?

  ❏ Have you created a sense of hesitation in your hero?

  ❏ Have you shown your hero debating in more than one area of their life (such as home, work, and/or play)?

  Break Into 2

  ❏ Is your hero leaving an old world behind and entering a new one?

  ❏ If your hero isn’t physically going somewhere, are they trying something new?

  ❏ Is your Act 2 world the opposite of your Act 1 world?

  ❏ Is the break between Act 1 and Act 2 clear and distinct?

  ❏ Does your hero make a proactive move or decision to enter Act 2?

  ❏ Is your hero making a decision based on what they want?

  ❏ Can you identify why this is the wrong way to change?

  B Story

  ❏ Have you introduced a new love interest, mentor, friend, or nemesis character?

  ❏ Can you identify how your B Story character (or characters!) represents the theme?

  ❏ Is your new character in some way a product of the upside-down Act 2 world? (Would they stick out like a sore thumb in the Act 1 world?)

  Fun and Games

  ❏ Do you clearly show your hero either floundering or succeeding in the new world?

  ❏ Does your Fun and Games deliver on the promise of your premise?

  ❏ Does your Fun and Games visibly illustrate how your Act 2 world is the upside-down version of your Act 1 world?

  Midpoint

  ❏ Can you clearly identify either a false victory or a false defeat?

  ❏ Have you raised the stakes of the story?

  ❏ Do your A (external) and B (internal) stories cross in some way?

  ❏ Can you identify a shift from the wants to the needs (even if it’s subtle)?

  Bad Guys Close In

  ❏ Is the path of this beat a direct opposite of your Fun and Games? (That is, if your hero was succeeding in your Fun and Games, are they floundering here? And vice versa?)

  ❏ Have you shown or identified how the internal bad guys (flaws) are working against your hero?

  All Is Lost

  ❏ Does something happen to the hero in this beat?

  ❏ Is your All Is Lost big enough to push your hero into Act 3? (That is, have they really hit rock bottom?)

  ❏ Have you inserted a whiff of death?

  ❏ Does this beat feel like another Catalyst for change?

  Dark Night of the Soul

  ❏ Is your hero reflecting on something in this beat?

  ❏ Is this beat leading your hero toward an epiphany?

  ❏ Does your hero’s life seem worse off than it did at the beginning of the book?

  Break Into 3

  ❏ Does your hero learn a valuable universal lesson (theme) here?

  ❏ Does your hero make a proactive decision to fix something?

  ❏ Is the decision based on what your hero needs?

  ❏ Can you identify why this is the right way to change?

  ❏ Is your Act 3 world a synthesis of Act 1 and Act 2?

  Finale

  ❏ Does your hero struggle to enact their plan? (That is, does your Finale have conflict?)

  ❏ Is there a Dig Deep Down moment when your hero proves they’ve really learned their theme?

  ❏ Do the A Story and B Story somehow intertwine in this beat?

  Final Image

  ❏ Is your Final Image one scene or collection of interconnected scenes?

  ❏ Is your Final Image visual? (Are you showing, not telling?)

  ❏ Is it evident how your hero has transformed?

  ❏ Does your “after” snapshot somehow mirror your “before” snapshot (Opening Image)?

  * Page counts calculated from word count using Times New Roman, 12 point font, double spaced, based on an industry standard of 250 words per manuscript page.

  Not Your Mother’s Genres

  Ten Genres to Fit Any Story (Yes, Even Yours)

  This should come as no surprise: if you want to write a good story, you have to know what good stories are made of. Along the same lines, if you want to write a successful novel, you have to read successful novels. You have to study how they work, what makes them successful, why they resonate with so many people. You have to break them open, peek inside, and study their inner mechanics, the way a medical student would study the inner workings of the human body.

  How do the pieces fit together?

  Why does this part go there?

  How are certain stories similar and how are they different?

  In short, the first step to being a successful writer is being a reader.

  There’s just one teeensy problem.

  There are quite a few novels out there. Like, tens of millions of them. There’s no possible way to read them all. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to!

  What if we could sort every great novel ever written into one of ten categories and study the categories instead? What if we could group similar stories together into story types, figure out what elements each type has in common, and then design a template to follow when writing our
own novel within that same category?

  You’ve probably guessed what I’m going to say next.

  We can.

  Actually, we already have.

  They’re called the Save the Cat! story genres.

  In the last chapter about the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet, we studied the mechanics of story in general. Now it’s time to dig deeper and study the mechanics of different types of stories, so that when you sit down to write your own novel, you have solid blueprints to help you craft a successful, compelling story.

  As the chapter title suggests, don’t be fooled by the word “genre.” I’m not talking about comedies, dramas, horrors, mysteries, or thrillers. Those are categories of tone. I’m talking about categories of story.

  What kind of story are you setting out to tell?

  What type of transformation does your hero undergo?

  What central theme or question does your novel set out to tackle?

  These questions are much more useful to us as we develop our novels. And they are exactly the kinds of questions that the Save the Cat! story genres were designed to answer.

  And here’s the best news about the Save the Cat! story genres: there are only ten of them. If you look back to the dawn of storytelling, from epics like The Odyssey by Homer to classics like Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen to modern-day blockbusters like The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, all can be sorted into one of ten story genres.

  And as you study the genres, you’ll start to see that, in almost all of the novels included in that genre, certain elements or conventions appear over and over again.

  Now before you go throwing the “F” word around (formula), I’ll tell you exactly why: for the same reason the fifteen beats appear in almost all great novels.

  It’s what makes these types of stories work.

  As human beings, we are hardwired to respond to certain types of storytelling elements. And when they are strung together in the right order, these stories make our hearts sing, our souls cry out, our inner humanity vibrate like a tuning fork. If we study the elements of each story genre, and the patterns that make those elements successful, we can easily see why the novels in each genre are successful. And why these elements and patterns appear over and over again, in novels as old as The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and as new as Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (which, by the way, are in the same story genre).

  Just like the fifteen beats, the Save the Cat! story genres are a codification of the ten story types. These genres distill thousands of years’ worth of literature into ten easy-to-follow templates.

  No more tearing your hair out, wondering Why is my story not working? Figure out what genre your novel belongs in, make sure your novel has all the required elements, and your story will work.

  Don’t believe me? Just look at the centuries’ worth of novel titles I’ve included as examples of each genre. All of those famous authors have made it work using the same templates I’m giving you in this book. Whether they actually knew they were doing it is another story. But they did it.

  And so can you.

  In the next ten chapters, we’ll be diving into each genre in great detail. But first, here is a quick overview of the ten Save the Cat! story genres.

  WHYDUNIT: A mystery must be solved by a hero (who may or may not be a detective) during which something shocking is revealed about the dark side of human nature. (See chapter 4.)

  RITES OF PASSAGE: A hero must endure the pain and torment brought about by life’s common challenges (death, separation, loss, divorce, addiction, coming of age, and so on). (See chapter 5.)

  INSTITUTIONALIZED: A hero enters or is already entrenched inside a certain group, institution, establishment, or family and must make a choice to join, escape, or destroy it. (See chapter 6.)

  SUPERHERO: An extraordinary hero finds themselves in an ordinary world and must come to terms with being special or destined for greatness. (See chapter 7.)

  DUDE WITH A PROBLEM: An innocent, ordinary hero suddenly finds themselves in the midst of extraordinary circumstances and must rise to the challenge. (See chapter 8.)

  FOOL TRIUMPHANT: An underestimated, underdog hero is pitted against some kind of “establishment” and proves a hidden worth to society. (See chapter 9.)

  BUDDY LOVE: A hero is transformed by meeting someone else, including (but not limited to) love stories, friendship stories, and pet stories. (See chapter 10.)

  OUT OF THE BOTTLE: An ordinary hero is temporarily “touched by magic,” usually involving a wish fulfilled or a curse bestowed, and the hero learns an important lesson about appreciating and making the most of “reality.” (See chapter 11.)

  GOLDEN FLEECE: A hero (or group) goes on a “road trip” of some type (even if there’s no actual road), in search of one thing and winds up discovering something else—themselves. (See chapter 12.)

  MONSTER IN THE HOUSE: A hero (or group of heroes) must overcome some kind of monster (supernatural or not), in some kind of enclosed setting (or limited circumstances), and someone is usually responsible for bringing the monster into being. (See chapter 13.)

  Give Me the Same Thing…Only Different

  Have you ever heard someone say there’s no such thing as an original story? Well, as you’ll see throughout the next ten chapters, it’s true. Original is not an achievable goal in novel-writing. So just throw that word out the window right now.

  What is achievable is fresh.

  A fresh “take” on an ancient story type is what readers and publishers are looking for. What’s your personal spin on a story that’s been told over and over again? How will you make this story archetype different? Our job, as writers, is to tell a new version of a familiar story that we already know readers are hardwired to respond to.

  Basically, readers want the same thing…only different. Readers want to read something they know they will like, told in a way they’ve never heard before.

  For instance, did you know that The Help by Kathryn Stockett and 1984 by George Orwell are actually the same Institutionalized story? Or that The Martian by Andy Weir and Misery by Stephen King share the same Dude with a Problem genre elements?

  Writing a novel is a lot like baking. Whatever you make, you know there are certain ingredients you must include to get the outcome you want. If you’re baking a cake, for example, you know you’re going to need butter, eggs, flour, and sugar. Otherwise, you won’t end up with a cake, you’ll end up with a salty cracker. But once we have our basic cake formula—once we learn how a cake is properly made—we can start adding our own flavors and embellishments to the recipe, like chocolate and sprinkles and blueberries and orange glaze.

  Is anyone else suddenly getting hungry?

  Think of the following chapters as your cookbook, the ten story genres as your recipes, and the elements of each genre as your ingredients. Learn the recipes, study the genres, choose the right basic dish, and then give us your own twist on it. After all, you can’t bend the rules until you know what the rules are. You need to learn how story works before you can start getting all fancy with it.

  Why We Need the Genres

  Studying your story genre can help you not only structure your own story but also break free from writing and plotting blockages. Whenever I get stuck on a certain part of my story, I always bust out the old Save the Cat! genre breakdowns, find novels and movies that are in my chosen genre, and get studying. Seeing how my predecessors tackled the same genre elements inspires me with new ideas and almost always busts me out of my blockage.

  And at some point you’re going to have to pitch your book to someone else. Whether it be to an agent, editor, or movie producer, or directly to the reader, you’re going to have to quickly sum up what your book is about and why this person simply has to read it. And nothing gets this job done faster
and more effectively than telling them what your book is similar to.

  When someone asks you what your book is about, what they’re really asking is this:

  What is it most like? And how is it different from that?

  They’re asking about the story genre—without even knowing it!

  Now, of course, you’re probably not going to start off saying, “Well, it’s a Dude with a Problem story…” because unless the other person has read this book, they’re going to give you a very funny look. But you are going to use what the publishing industry calls “comparable titles,” or “comps” for short.

  And where will you find those comparable titles? You got it. You’ll go straight to your story genre.

  So the Save the Cat! story genres will not only help you write your novel, they might eventually help you sell your novel, too.

  Final Note: Bleeding Genres

  But let’s face it. Novels are complex. They don’t always fit neatly into just one category. Take Les Misérables by Victor Hugo; as you’ll soon see, I placed it in the Institutionalized genre because it focuses on the lives of many as they pertain to the “institution” of post-revolutionary France. However, there’s an equally compelling argument for Les Misérables being a Superhero story, given that Jean Valjean, the hero, is imbued with a power (a mission to be good); is challenged by a self-made nemesis, Javert; and has to overcome the “curse” of being a convict in nineteenth-century French society. But in the end, the true genre of this epic doesn’t really matter. Victor Hugo is not going to haunt us from beyond the grave until we get it right. (Although what a cool Monster in the House novel that would be!)

  We can debate the genres until we’re blue in the face, but ultimately, the genres are here to help us focus our own stories and make sure we are including all the right elements.

  So as you set out to plot and write your own novel, try not to stress too much about finding the exact perfect genre match for your story. You might find that your story exemplifies several genres. Your job is to pick the genre that your book is most like. Nothing is black or white. Many things in life are fifty shades of gray (which, by the way, in case you’re wondering, is a Buddy Love).