This is the B-story, otherwise thought of as moral of the story or what the story is really about. It is the exciting problem that the reader is hoping will be solved by the end of the story. This is the A story or the story’s premise. They can be intrinsic flaws (a source of conflict from within the hero) or extrinsic flaws (a setback forced upon the hero). These are the aspects about them that will transform during the arc of a character’s development.

Wait… Every good story needs a good hero!īefore diving into the Save the Cat! Beat sheet, Jessica Brody encourages writers to take some time to flesh out the hero of the story. Jessica Brody then came along and decided to take the same concept and adapt it to novel writing (because why fix what isn’t broken?). In case you aren’t familiar, Blake Snyder created The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet as a template of the 15 plot points that compose every great screenplay. While studying structure, I have found that both of these examples have very close similarities that I felt it warranted a side by side comparison. Please keep in mind that these are not the only two ways to plot a novel. The Save the Cat! beat sheet is invaluable to me as a checklist to ensure I’m setting my story up for success.īoth of these approaches utilize a three act structure. I had previously mapped out my writing process of how I craft a novel from concept to creation. Despite the title of this post, and the fact that I use Save the Cat!, I’m not declaring it the winner.

And whenever my outlining process begins, I know I need to dust off my copy of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. I recently began outlining book two of the Uprising trilogy.

The cat writes a novel