Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

by Jessica Brody

We’re forcing the hero into a new course of action that will inevitably lead to the change they so desperately require.

So, how do we raise the stakes? Well, that’s up to you. But here are some common stakes-raising methods that you’ll often find in popular novels:

LOVE STORIES RAMP UP: This usually happens in the form of a kiss (or more!), a declaration of love, a marriage, a proposal, anything that ups the ante of a relationship and makes it even more difficult for the hero to go back to their old way of life.

TIME CLOCKS APPEAR: Nothing raises stakes and refocuses your story faster than a ticking clock.

A MAJOR GAME-CHANGING PLOT TWIST: This is one of my favorite ways to raise the stakes in a novel, because I love writing plot twists.

BIG PARTY, CELEBRATION, OR PUBLIC “OUTING”: If you look at some of your favorite novels, you’ll often find that some kind of big party or celebration with lots of people happens right around the middle of the book.

In all of these Midpoint examples, you might have noticed a subtle shift from wants to needs. This is no coincidence. The third essential Midpoint element is the intersection of the A and B stories, when your hero starts to let go of what they want in lieu of figuring out what they need. Now, granted that’s not all going to happen on the very next page or even in the very next chapter. Your hero still has quite a ways to get there. A whole three more beats, to be exact. But it’s at this moment, when the stakes are raised, that your hero begins to realize they can’t keep going the way they’ve been going. Because either it hasn’t worked (false defeat!) or it has worked (false victory!), but they still feel like they’re missing something.

Remember, your A Story is the external story—the whole flashy premise of your novel that you’ve been setting up and paying off since Act 1. And the B Story is the internal story, the spiritual journey that’s represented by the B Story character.

Often at the Midpoint the A and B stories cross, meaning A Story characters and B Story character(s) intertwine or cross paths in some way.

This, too, is no coincidence. A great story is a continual raising of the stakes. It’s one plot device after another that keeps your hero moving forward. Because each time you raise the stakes, you make it that much harder for them to move backward.

The good news is, you’ve already gotten the longest beat of the novel out of the way (the Fun and Games). The bad news is, this is the second longest beat of the novel. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. Act 2 is a beast. It’s more than 50 percent of the story! By the time you finish the Midpoint and reach the Bad Guys Close In, you think you’re nearly to the end of Act 2. But

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

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

By this, I mean your hero’s flaws. Those pesky things you set up all the way back in Act 1 that you promised (via your Theme Stated) that your hero would eventually deal with.

Because until your hero learns the theme and fixes their life the right way, those internal bad guys are going to keep wreaking havoc, pushing your hero toward that lowest-of-the-low point.

So before our heroes can find that true path to real transformation, we have to bring them so low, so far into despair, that they have no other choice but to change. Change the right way. No matter which direction your hero was headed in the Bad Guys Close In beat (upward or downward), all heroes must eventually fall. And fall they will! That’s the function of the All Is Lost. It’s a single-scene beat (one scene or one chapter), approximately 75 percent of the way through the novel, in which something happens to your hero that tosses them deep, deep down into defeat.

So how do we make sure this beat is as epic and moving and transformative as it needs to be? We insert something called the whiff of death. Nothing spells despair more than death itself. So this is the point in stories where a lot of characters die or almost

Just look at some of your favorite books, find the All Is Lost, and see for yourself. So many characters die in this beat. Particularly mentors.

And even if there’s not an actual death in this beat, there’s a hint at death. There’s a whiff of it. Like a dead plant in the corner, a dead fish in the fish bowl, maybe even the death of an idea or project or relationship or business.

The hero must be in some way responsible. Otherwise, there’s no lesson to be learned. And that is the whole point of the All Is Lost. Now your hero has nothing else to do but wallow in their defeat and reflect upon their choices and their life. Little do they know that it’ll be the most powerful, life-changing reflection they’ve ever done.