Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

by Jessica Brody

Having your hero ignore the theme makes your hero realistic. People rarely change because someone tells them to change. People change only when they can see their flaws for themselves.

When they’ve been through some sort of transformative journey and come out on the other side havin...

So our job as writers is to create that believable transformative journey that will allow our heroes to see the truth, recognize their flaws, and take action to fix them.

Remember in the last chapter, when, before anything else, I forced you to think about who your hero is, why they’re flawed, and what they need to learn by the end of the story? Well, that need you came up with? That life lesson I made you brainstorm? That is your theme. You already have it. Huzzah! Now you just need to figure out how the theme is stated and who states it.

In the Opening Image, you gave the reader a glimpse of what to expect in this story. A small sliver of the hero’s life.

Now it’s time to show us the rest of the hero’s world. The Setup is a multi-scene beat. Meaning you get several scenes or chapters to accomplish all that you need to accomplish in the Setup. And get ready, because it’s a lot.

First and foremost, you need to set up your hero. What kind of person are they? What kind of character tics do they have? What do they want? It’s v...

We talked about wants and goals in chapter 1. Your hero has to be actively pursuing something when the book begins. Even if it’s not something they’ll pursue throughout the entire story, something has to be there from the start. This is the thing you...

Of course not! Because it’s their want, not their need. And, as I explained in the Theme Stated beat, the need (or life lesson) is what will really fix the hero’s ...

In the Setup is where you’ll introduce everyone who exists within you...

quo w...

Basically anyone who is important when the story begins, before your hero’s life changes. These are also called the A Story characters, because they represent the A Story (or external story) of the novel. (As opposed to the B Story character[s]—we’ll meet them later.)

Finally, the Setup is where you show your hero’s flaws in all of their glory. How do these flaws affect all aspects of the hero’s life? A hero who is greedy and selfish isn’t only greedy and selfish at work. They’re greedy and selfish at home too.

Not only are her finances a mess because of her shopping addiction, but she hates her job (work), she’s just broken up with her boyfriend (play), and she lies to her roommate and her parents about her money situation (home). The more we see your hero in different aspects of their life, the better we will understand them as people.

Your hero’s world needs to be riddled with problems. In the world of Save the Cat!, these problems are referred to as the things that need fixing.

The possibilities are endless, but the objective is the same: to make the reader understand why this person needs to go on a journey of transformation. Because clearly things aren’t working out in this status quo world of Act 1.

The things that need fixing all will reappear throughout the rest of the story.

They will serve as checkpoints along the journey to demarcate change. As we move through the story, we check in on these things and ask, What about now? Does he still hate his job? Is she still being bullied? Is his family still hungry? If some of these things don’t start changing along the w...

If you’ve done your job well, you’ve already been hinting at the need for change. And your reader is already getting the sense that if something doesn’t happen soon to bring about that change, this hero is pretty much doomed.

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.

without the obvious need for change in the hero’s life, it’s difficult to get your reader to continue on the rest of the journey with you.

So it’s your job, in the Setup, to plant the seed in the reader’s mind that change is crucial. That staying in this status quo world for much longer just isn’t an option.

Something needs to happen. Enter…...

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.

The Catalyst always happens to your hero. It’s something active that will bust through the status quo and send them on the road toward change.

Don’t wimp out on me with a weak little Catalyst. I see this happen all the time in my workshops. Students will pitch a Catalyst for their story and the rest of us will go, “Yeah? So?”

Your reader’s response to your Catalyst should be Whoa! I didn’t see that coming! How are they ever going to recover from that?

So how do you know if your Catalyst is big enough? Ask yourself the following question: Can my hero easily return to their normal life and continue doing what they were doing after this happens? If your answer is yes, your Catalyst isn’t big enough. If your answer is Heck no! then you’re on the right track.