Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

by Jessica Brody

Don’t let the problem stay contained to just one area of your hero’s life.

And don’t we writers just love to manipulate?

In the Setup is where you’ll introduce everyone who exists within your hero’s Act 1, status quo world.

Finally, the Setup is where you show your hero’s flaws in all of their glory.

This means you may want to take time in your Setup to show your hero at home (with family, with spouse, with kids, or maybe alone in their apartment), at work (in the workplace, at their job, or at school), and at play (how your hero unwinds with friends or by themselves).

This is called the stasis = death moment. It’s the moment that comes somewhere in the Setup beat that shows the reader that change is imperative; otherwise, things are going south. Fast.

impart a general sense of urgency,

Enter…the Catalyst.

Catalysts often come in the form of bad news

Essentially, it’s a wake-up call. Or a call to action.

Can my hero easily return to their normal life and continue doing what they were doing after this happens?

20%

Nope. Heroes drag their feet. They hem and haw. They debate.

So, what does your hero do in these situations? They prepare

You make sure the choice to Break Into 2 belongs to your hero.

If you’ve set up your wants and needs correctly, your hero’s external goal (want) is not what will inevitably fix their life. They think it is. They’d bet their life on it! But in the end, it’s their internal or spiritual goal (need) that will make them a better person.

That’s why I like to call Act 2 fixing things the wrong way.

Act 1. Even the people. In the Setup, we introduced the A Story characters. These are people who come from the hero’s status quo world.

The B Story character is a helper character—the person who’s ultimately going to somehow help your hero learn the theme.

Your B Story character can be the embodiment of the theme.

Or your B Story character can be someone who, by their very nature, brings out the theme in the hero.

Or your B Story character could be someone who suffers from the same flaws as your hero, but in an even more exaggerated way, thus holding up a mirror to your hero’s flaws and allowing them to see the truth for themselves.

This can happen in the form of a love interest and a mentor. Or a love interest and a new friend.

And make sure they’re fulfilling it in different ways.

The key to figuring out the Fun and Games beat is realizing that this part of the story might be fun only for the reader. Not necessarily for the hero.

a multi-scene beat in which your hero either shines in their new upside-down world or flounders in it.

the bouncing ball narrative.

all, fun! But despite how many times your ball bounces, in the end there should be a general direction

Huzzah! We’ve reached the Midpoint! The very aptly named middle of the book.

The hero experiences either a false victory or a false defeat. The stakes of the story are raised. The A and B stories intersect in some way.

Because your hero still hasn’t learned the theme.

Maybe they’ve gotten what they want

to raise the stakes of the story.

makes it even more difficult for the hero to go back to their old way of life.

Once you’re in love, you’re in love.

ticking clock.

what I call a Midpoint party

And by putting these two worlds in the same room together,

subtle shift from wants to needs.

A great story is a continual raising of the stakes.

with your Midpoint. If your Midpoint was a false victory (your hero seemingly “won”), then yes, your Bad Guys Close In is going to be a steady downward

On the other hand, if your Midpoint was a false defeat (your hero seemingly “lost”), your Bad Guys Close In beat is actually going to have a steady, upward path.

internal bad guys—those

approximately 75 percent of the way through the novel, in which something happens to your hero that tosses them deep, deep down into defeat.

Your hero must be worse off than they were at the start of the book.

We insert something called the whiff of death.

Particularly mentors.

And even if there’s not an actual death in this beat, there’s a hint at death.

Basically, something must end here. Because the All Is Lost is where the old world/character/way of thinking finally dies so a new world/character/way of thinking can be born.

it should be, at least somewhat, your hero’s fault.