Save the Cat Breakdown Series - Part 1
Introduction to Save the Cat
I have a story idea, now what?
You’ve come up with a cool idea for a story, maybe even got a good idea on who the main characters and antagonists are, but then you’re stuck. You flounder around, not really knowing what to do from there to actually get this thing off the ground in a way that works. “Pantsing” it doesn’t work for you, it gets lots of scenes about nothing, but you don’t know where to even start when it comes to writing with structure and purpose.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Countless writers have struggled with the same thing, especially if they’re new to the idea of using a predefined plot structure, or a plot blueprint as I like to call it. Much like a blueprint for a house, a plot blueprint is the rough sketch of what the whole thing looks like so you can see at a glance how it will all play out.
One of the arguments against using a plot structure is that it will make your story too boring and predictable. And sometimes this can be the case. It’s seen most often with Mills and Boon romance novels; a very exacting formula is followed again and again for every novel they put out. But for all that, they are wildly successful, publishing over 80 physical print books every month (not year, month), and even more in e-book form. Why is that? Because the formula works!
Okay, not everyone wants to be a Mills and Boon author. You want to write something with a little more variety, a bit more unique. But even then, if a story doesn’t hit predetermined points or beats, then the reader often instinctively feels as though it is missing something, or dragging, or not really going anywhere. The key is to still hit these set beats, these essential story elements, while keeping your story unique through well thought out characters and how they react to each of the events in the structure.
There are quite literally hundreds of story structure variations you could choose, from the basic three act structure you probably learned in school (beginning, middle, and end), to the Hero’s Journey (12 steps or beats), all the way to the 27 Chapter Plotting Method.
What is Save the Cat?
Save the Cat is another common story structure. It was coined by Blake Snyder and was originally created as a way to write film scripts that sold well. Despite its original conception being with screen plays in mind, it is also a useful story structure for all forms of fiction, especially novels.
Save the Cat breaks a story down into 15 story beats, or pivotal moments in your plot. Unlike the Hero’s Journey which is worded in a way that makes it easiest for fantasy or science fiction stories (Star Wars is a common example of the Hero’s Journey), Save the Cat is broad enough that it can be for any genre. It also breaks a work down by percentages so, for this the sake of this series, we will pretend our novel length is 80,000 words, which is about average.