Save the Cat! Writes a Novel
Page 23
BREAK INTO 2: After Olly writes his email address on the window, Maddy makes the decision to email him, officially kicking off their relationship and moving Maddy into the world of Act 2 (her unpredictable life with Olly).
6–7. THEME STATED/B STORY: “Everything is a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It’s up to you” (page 68). Maddy’s nurse, Carla (also the B Story character), states the theme, pushing Maddy to learn her life lesson of finding the courage to take risks and claim the life she wants.
FUN AND GAMES: Fun and witty emails and instant messages between Maddy and Olly lead to a secret meeting (facilitated by Carla). Maddy realizes how dangerous the relationship is, but she can’t help falling in love with Olly.
MIDPOINT: A false victory when Maddy and Olly share their first (amazing) kiss. Soon afterward, Maddy witnesses a fight between Olly and his father and runs outside for the first time in years (stakes are raised).
BAD GUYS CLOSE IN: Maddy’s mom finds out about the secret visits and cuts off Maddy’s internet access and fires Carla, replacing her with a strict nurse. After another fight between Olly and his dad, Maddy buys airline tickets to Hawaii, and the two run away together.
ALL IS LOST: Their trip crashes to a halt when Maddy falls very sick and collapses. In a whiff of death, Maddy’s heart momentarily stops.
DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL: Maddy returns home to her “bubble” and is furthest from the theme when she breaks up with Olly and refuses to talk to him. Olly moves away, and soon afterward, Maddy receives an email from the doctor in Hawaii, claiming she doesn’t have SCID.
BREAK INTO 3: Maddy takes the biggest risk of all: learning the truth about herself. She asks Carla (B Story) to help her order a blood test.
FINALE: Maddy snoops through her mother’s files, finding no evidence that she was ever diagnosed with SCID, which the blood test confirms. Maddy realizes her mother convinced herself that Maddy had SCID so she could protect her from the same fate as Maddy’s father and brother (who died in a car crash). Maddy buys a plane ticket for New York to find Olly. Through text messages, Maddy leads Olly to a used bookstore to find her—again.
FINAL IMAGE: A drawing of the book Maddy left Olly, which offers a “reward if found.” The reward is Maddy.
Out of the Bottle
A Little Bit of Magic Goes a Long Way
WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING BOOKS:
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella
Wishing. Whether it be on a shooting star, on a birthday cake glowing with candles, on a wishbone, or maybe even as we fall asleep, we’ve all wished for something at some point in our lives, and we’ve all wondered, What if it actually came true? That’s why this genre, dubbed “Out of the Bottle” in honor of Aladdin and his magic wish-granting lamp, resonates so strongly with readers. It’s a story that gets told over and over again. A hero wishes for something that will make all of their problems go away, and poof! It comes true!
But this magical genre isn’t just about granting wishes. It’s also about bestowing curses, sending guardian angels, swapping bodies, and even transporting your hero into strange dimensions and parallel universes.
Regardless of the type of nature-bending you choose to do, all of the stories in the Out of the Bottle genre boil down to the same thing: a guy or gal is bestowed with some sort of magic, realizes that “reality” isn’t all that bad, and comes out in the end a changed person.
Presto!
The magic in Out of the Bottle tales is used as a vehicle—a convenient, clever, and thought-provoking way to illustrate a universal truth that we all could stand to learn: we are pretty dang great as we are. No magic required!
Because once the magic is bestowed upon our hero, they eventually have to learn that they didn’t need it after all! Which is why you don’t see a lot of “other world” fantasy or sci-fi novels in this genre. This genre isn’t about exploring a new, fantastical world like in the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings series, the Chronicles of Narnia, or a Song of Ice and Fire series (A Game of Thrones). Most of the heroes in the Out of the Bottle genre come from our world and are temporarily gifted (or cursed!) with magic. They’re like us! And that’s what makes them so much fun to read about.
Although this “touched by magic” genre is typically seen more in movies than in books (famous examples being The Nutty Professor; Big; 13 Going on 30; Freaky Friday; Bruce Almighty; The Mask; Liar, Liar; Shallow Hal; and Groundhog Day), it’s been done successfully in novels as well. And interestingly enough, the genre tends to be more popular in books for younger readers (like The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, The Swap by Megan Shull, 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, and If I Stay by Gayle Forman), namely because magic and granted wishes tends to appeal particularly to kids and teens. But that doesn’t mean adults can’t join in the fun as well. Because who doesn’t enjoy a little twist of magic, a little bending of the rules, or an answer to the universal question, “What if?”
Some favorites of this genre (of the nonkid variety) include Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, Landline by Rainbow Rowell, and of course one of the most beloved classics of all time, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Even Oscar Wilde dabbled in some Out of the Bottle-ness of his own when he penned his famed classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Regardless of the intended audience, Out of the Bottle stories all share three commonalities: (1) a hero deserving of the magic, (2) a spell (or touch of magic), and (3) a lesson. Let’s take a closer look at these.
Whether your hero is an underdog in desperate need of some magical intervention, like in Twenties Girl, or an unlikable grouch or arrogant jerk who needs to be taught a lesson with a nice little curse, like in A Christmas Carol, the hero must deserve this magic. And our Out of the Bottle hero must be properly matched with their bottle.
We readers need to immediately grasp and understand why this hero is getting this magic. And not only do we need to understand, we need to root for it! After the amazing job that Charles Dickens does setting up the awful miser Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, there’s no way we’re not totally on board when those three Christmas ghosts turn up and show that old grouch what’s what. Conversely, when the poor, down-on-her-luck, recently dumped Lara Lington in Twenties Girl gets visited by the ghost of her 105-year-old Aunt Sadie, who helps Lara sort out her life, we get it. We’re there, cheering her on. We want this for Lara just as much as she does.
So that’s your first question when penning an Out of the Bottle: Why does this hero deserve this magic in their life? Are they a tread-upon Cinderella type who just can’t catch a break (also called an empowerment story)? Or do they more resemble one of the wicked stepsisters who desperately needs a reality check (also called a comeuppance story)? Either way, make sure the reader gets it. Set up your hero so that when the magic strikes (usually at the Catalyst beat), we are saying, “Oh yeah, they totally deserve this!”
A word of caution, however: comeuppance stories can be harder to pull off than empowerment stories. When you have an unlikable hero, it’s much easier for a reader to get prematurely turned off by the character and put the book down before the fun stuff even begins. Even though this meanie is eventually going to get what’s coming to them, you don’t want to lose your reader before you have a chance to give your character their much-needed kick in the booty. This is where a save-the-cat moment can really save your novel (see what I did there?). Give your hero something that is redeemable up front, ideally before the Catalyst beat and preferably within the first ten to twenty pages. Even the biggest nitwits on the planet have something about them that’s worth saving. Show us why we should invest our precious time watching this hero transform. Prove to us early on that even though they don’t look like much now, just you wait; they�
�ve got hidden depth. They’re worth the pages.
Next up, in our Out of the Bottle checklist, you’ll need a little bit of magic, of course! This is called the spell or the touch of magic. What exactly is the magic of this magical tale? Is it a flapper-dressed, Charleston-dancing ghost (Twenties Girl)? Is it an out-of-body experience (If I Stay)? Is it a magic landline phone that can call the past (Landline)? Or maybe it’s a day that keeps repeating itself over and over (11 Birthdays and Before I Fall). Whatever it is, make sure it’s front and center in Act 2 of your novel. After all, it’s the whole premise of the story. This magical thang is probably going to be promised to readers on the back of the book or in the online description, so make sure you deliver on that promise!
Whether your hero wishes for the magic themselves or the magic is thrust upon them, make sure the spell itself is unique! Make it interesting, and fun, and exciting. This will be your novel’s hook.
It’s important to note that you don’t have to spend a lot of time on how the magic works. The why is important (Why is this hero being bestowed with this magic?); the how (that is, the mechanics) less so. These stories are not really about the magic itself, but more what the hero gets out of that magic. So don’t waste pages explaining the ins and outs of the spell or taking us down long-winded rabbit holes of explanation. In Twenties Girl the magic is simply introduced and dealt with quickly. “I don’t know how it works!” says Lara’s Great-Aunt Sadie. “I just think about where I want to be and I’m there” (page 73). And in The Indian in the Cupboard, we simply know that the cupboard is magic and it brings Little Bear, Omri’s toy Indian figure, to life. Lynne Reid Banks doesn’t go into much more detail than that!
More important than the how are the rules of the magic. Yes, even though it’s magic, and even though it goes against the laws of nature, you still have to have rules. And you have stick to them, no matter how tempting it might be to play around and change things up at will to suit your plot. Remember that readers are going to have to willingly suspend disbelief in order to be pulled into your fantastical tale. They’re going to have to say, “Well, that’s impossible, but what the hey! Sounds like a good read!” But you only get one chance to do that. And if you cheat your readers by establishing the rules of the magic up front and then changing them further down the road, your readers will feel betrayed, and you will lose them. Readers of the Out of the Bottle genre dive into the novel knowing it’s not going to follow the basic laws of nature, but they trust you to do it well. So don’t betray that trust.
And finally, the third thing you’ll need when crafting your out-of-this-world Out of the Bottle is a lesson. How is the hero transformed by this magic?
In the end, all heroes of this genre must realize something very important: that it’s not the magic that will fix their lives for good. It’s the heroes themselves who need to do that. The magic just showed them what needed to be fixed. That is the essence of the Out of the Bottle genre.
Although it’s always nice to get a little shortcut in life—use magic to sweep all your problems under the rug—in the end, we all know it’s cheating. And if the magic were the ultimate solution to the problems, what would we readers have to resonate with? We know that magic is never going to happen to us. Which is why most Out of the Bottle stories include some kind of moral or lesson about reality and humanity. Basically, that they’re both pretty awesome. Being human has its advantages, too. And it turns out magic doesn’t solve the real life problems. It was just a fun distraction for a while.
That’s also why most Out of the Bottle heroes eventually have an Act 3 beat in which they have to do it without the magic. This is usually some big Finale moment when the hero proves, once and for all, that they didn’t need that silly old magic to complete their transformation. They’ve got that part covered all on their own.
Because in the end, the true magic lies inside of us.
To recap: If you’re thinking of writing an Out of the Bottle novel, make sure your story includes these three essential ingredients:
A HERO DESERVING OF THE MAGIC: Whether you’re empowering an underdog or delivering a comeuppance to a worthy recipient, make sure it’s clear to the reader that this hero needs this specific supernatural boost.
A SPELL OR TOUCH OF MAGIC: Regardless of how the magic comes to be (via a person, place, thing, or other), make sure you’re setting up this illogical thing with logical rules that you stick to, lest you risk betraying your reader’s trust.
A LESSON: What does your hero learn from this magic and how do they ultimately fix things the right way (without the magic)?
Popular Out of the Bottle Novels Through Time:
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
Airhead by Meg Cabot
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (beat sheet following)
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
The Swap by Megan Shull
Parallel by Lauren Miller
Twenties Girl
BY: Sophie Kinsella
STC GENRE: Out of the Bottle
BOOK GENRE: General fiction
TOTAL PAGES: 435 (Dial Press Trade Paperback, 2009)
Made famous by her hilarious best-selling Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella is a modern queen of comedy in the book world. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. Twenties Girl, about a twentysomething girl hilariously haunted by the twenties-girl ghost of her great-aunt Sadie, is (thus far) Kinsella’s first novel to include a supernatural twist. The ghostly “curse” that hero Lara experiences and the unexpected life lessons acquired from said curse place this tale in the Out of the Bottle genre.
1. Opening Image (pages 1–10)
Twentysomething Lara Lington and her parents are preparing to go to a funeral for a 105-year-old great-aunt whom no one in the family really knew. But Lara is far more preoccupied by the list of lies she’s recently told her parents. Like how her new start-up business is going extremely well and how her new business partner is super reliable and trustworthy. In reality, the opposite is true.
This list tells us a lot about Lara and the things that need fixing in her life. She also lies to her parents about being completely over her ex-boyfriend, Josh, who has just dumped her, when actually she’s secretly praying they’ll get back together (wants).
Lara’s fibs tell us a lot about our hero and her flaws: she’s the kind of girl who can’t move on from her mistakes but instead tries to hide them from her family.
2. Theme Stated (page 8)
When Lara is talking (and lying) to her parents about her ex-boyfriend, her dad kindly tells her, “When you break up with someone, it’s easy to look backward and think life would be perfect if you got back together” (page 8).
Lara’s transformative journey is all about moving on. Rejecting the delusions she has about what her life should look like, and starting to enjoy what life does look like. To do that, she’ll need more self-confidence. She’ll need to become bolder and more courageous.
3. Setup (pages 10–25)
The family attends the funeral of Sadie Lancaster, Lara’s 105-year-old great-aunt. Outside the funeral parlor, Lara bumps into her Uncle Bill, who is well known for founding Lington’s Coffee, a massively successful company that he famously created from twenty pence he found in his pocket when he was broke. Now he does seminars called “Two Little Coins,” teaching other entrepreneurs how to emulate his success.
Lara
tries to ask him for help with her new head-hunting company (that’s been failing miserably since her business partner, Natalie, left), but Bill shuts her down.
Then, after embarrassingly going into the wrong funeral, Lara finds her way into the right room, only to find there’s hardly anyone there and no one even brought any photographs of Sadie. It seems no one knew Sadie Lancaster at all.
4. Catalyst (pages 25–28)
During the funeral, Lara hears an unfamiliar voice asking where her necklace is. Then she sees a girl, around the same age as Lara, sitting in the chair in front of her. Who is that?
When the girl tries to poke Lara, her finger goes through her. Freaky! The girl introduces herself as Sadie Lancaster, Lara’s dead great-aunt.
5. Debate (pages 29–72)
Like most Out of the Bottle stories, the Debate is a reality check. Am I dreaming? Is this real? Lara is convinced she’s hallucinating a twentysomething version of her great-aunt. But as hard as she tries to rid herself of the vision, Sadie just won’t go away. In fact, she’s really annoying. She keeps screaming for Lara to stop the funeral. She can’t be buried until she finds a missing necklace. Lara finally complies, quickly making up an excuse to postpone the funeral: she has reason to believe Sadie was murdered and the police still need to investigate. Everyone thinks Lara has gone crazy—including Lara.
The next day, Lara convinces herself that Sadie is a figment of her subconscious. But then at lunch, Sadie teaches Lara how to properly eat an oyster, and Lara realizes her subconscious doesn’t know how to eat an oyster. Sadie might actually be a real ghost!
6. Break Into 2 (pages 73–74)
Sadie continues to hound Lara about her missing necklace, claiming that she can’t “rest” until she’s found it and she needs Lara to help her look for it. Lara makes her a deal: “If I find your necklace for you, will you go away and leave me in peace?” (page 73).