Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

by Jessica Brody

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.

Bringing to life a realistic world that your reader can really sink their teeth into.

The Catalyst will crash land in your hero’s life and create so much destruction, your hero will have no choice but to do something different. Try something new. Go somewhere else.

The Catalyst is a single-scene beat in which something happens to the hero to send their life in an entirely new direction. Notice that I emphasize the word “to.”

Essentially, it’s a wake-up call. Or a call to action. Time to open your eyes and start looking at the world in a new way.

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

For every breakup, firing, disease diagnosis, arrest, dead body, and phone call with bad news, there is a period in which the hero of the story sits down with a huge sigh and goes, What now? It is a reaction beat, and it usually comes in the form of a question. Like What do I do? Should I go? Should I stay? How will I survive? What happens next?

And along with the hero, readers will be asking the same Debate questions:

The Debate is the time in your story for your hero to take a step back and decide how they’re going to proceed after this life-altering Catalyst has knocked them down.

It’s a multi-scene beat in which you visibly show us how resistant your hero is to accept the change that’s been thrown at them. An effective way to do this is to take your hero back to home, work, and play. Show them struggling to decide what to do next in all aspects of their life. Because if they decide too quickly, you risk losing credibility with your reader.

They prepare for the big journey. They gather supplies. They train. They prep mentally, physically, and emotionally. The question in this type of Debate is usually something like, I know I’m going, but am I ready?

Whether your Debate is a decision or a preparation, all Debates are designed to do one thing: get your hero and your reader ready for what they’re about to encounter in Act 2. Because trust me, it’s going to be unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.

Act 2 is the opposite of Act 1.

The antithesis.

Brings the hero into the upside-down world of Act 2, where they will fix things the wrong way.

It’s important to note that heroes don’t have to physically go anywhere in order to Break Into 2. But they do have to try something new.

It’s a single-scene beat.

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

They must be proactive about it. The decision can be put before them by someone else, but the actual choice to act must be theirs and theirs alone.

But in the end, it’s their internal or spiritual goal (need) that will make them a better person.

they are still being motivated by what they want.

Act 2 fixing things the wrong way.

At this point in the story, your hero is making an effort. They’re getting off their butt. They’re rallying. They’re doing what they think has to be done to solve whatever problems you’ve set up in Act 1, and we have to give them credit for that. They’re trying.

That shard of glass, which has made them who they are, is still buried.

That’s not an insult to your hero. It’s just part of the master plot manipulation. Because you can’t figure out the right way until you’ve first tried the wrong way.

They must in some way represent the upside-down Act 2 world. They must in some way help guide the hero toward their life lesson or theme.

But why should the B Story character be a product of the new world? Because—remember?—the hero can’t learn the theme and complete their transformation in their Act 1, status quo life. That’s why we gave them their Catalyst to kick them into Act 2. Therefore, the person who’s helping them learn that theme should exist in this new world.

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.

The B Story character will appear all throughout the second and even third act of the novel, but here’s where they first come into the story. Either in the form of a new love interest, new friend, new mentor, or new enemy. It can really be anyone. Just as long as they can effectively bring out your hero’s flaws, and make them want to change.

It’s also called the promise of the premise.

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

They’re either loving it or hating it. They’re either grateful they made this leap of faith and went on this adventure, or they’re severely missing their old way of life.

struggle or all success. In fact, I recommend it not be. The Fun and Games is nearly 30 percent of your novel.

have to vary the action. I call this the bouncing ball narrative.

hero is up, your hero is down. Things are going swimmingly, things are going horribly. The hero succeeds at something, then fails at something. The girl gets the boy, the girl loses the boy. The detective makes a breakthrough on the case, only to discover it’s a false lead. The king wins a battle, then loses a battle. Up, down, up, down, and so on and so forth. Thi...

I’ve heard many authors refer to the middle of a novel as the muddle.

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.

The Midpoint is the culmination of whatever path you chose for your Fun and Games. Because essentially, the whole goal of the Fun and Games is to drive the story toward the Midpoint, and to give the Midpoint definition.

But unbeknownst to them, their victory is incomplete. Because they have not yet changed the right way.

By creating a Midpoint in which your hero fails to get what they want (fails to achieve their external goal), you are also shining a giant spotlight on the bigger issues. You’re saying to the reader, “Hey! Look! My hero thinks their life is over because they didn’t get this thing that they thought would fix everything.” But obviously that thing wasn’t that important if there’s still half a novel to go. Obviously, there’s a bigger story here.

For this reason, I like to call the Midpoint the “sh*t just got real” beat. In other words, it’s no longer Fun and Games (literally). It’s time to get serious.

LOVE STORIES RAMP UP:

BIG PARTY, CELEBRATION, OR PUBLIC “OUTING”:

In all of these Midpoint examples, you might have noticed a subtle shift from wants to needs.

intersection of the A and B stories,

A and B stories cross,

To sum it up, the Midpoint changes the direction of your story, making it (yet again!) harder for the hero to go back to who they were before. Does this sound familiar? It should. Because it’s exactly what you did with the Catalyst. You raised the stakes so it was more difficult for your hero to turn around and run back to the safety of their status quo Act 1 world.

Like the Fun and Games, the Bad Guys Close In is a multi-scene beat, and it spans a fairly large chunk of pages (approximately 25 percent of your novel). But if done right, these can be some of the most exciting pages of the story.

your Midpoint was a false victory (your hero seemingly “won”), then yes, your Bad Guys Close In is going to be a steady downward path to the All Is Lost, meaning things are getting progressively worse for your hero, and more and more bad things are happening (with a few bouncing balls thrown in there to keep things interesting and unpredictable!).

But regardless of whether your Bad Guys Close In beat is a downward path or an upward path, whether there are literal bad guys or just bad things are happening to the hero, there is one kind of bad guy that does exist in all stories.