Save the Cat Breakdown Series, Part 11
Bad Guys Close In
In the previous article, we explored the Save the Cat story beat of the Midpoint, and how this is that is the climax or the culmination of the Fun and Games section, and that it normally results in a false victory, or a false defeat. In this article, we are exploring the story beat of the Bad Guys Close In. It’s also known as the second pinch point.
What is the Bad Guys Close In story beat?
The Bad Guys Close In is where things are growing particularly dire for the protagonist. As the beat’s name suggests, the antagonist or the antagonist force appears to be unstoppable at this point. Maybe they get a new weapon that the protagonist doesn’t know how to defend against, or they turn an ally against them, or they win a major battle in a war. Whatever your plot calls for, this is where things begin to seem impossible to overcome.
In addition to this external Bad Guys Close In, there’s an internal Bad Guys Close In that occurs at the same time. This is where your character’s misbelief and their fear collide. Until this point, they were still clinging to the last shreds of their misbelief. It may have been taken down a notch in previous beats, but it was still hanging around and influencing how your protagonist acted and what they believed about themself and the world. Now, with everything crumbling around them, they can no longer turn a blind eye to this weakness of theirs. It has destroyed them.
These two forces, the external and the internal, serve as a one-two punch to your protagonist, crashing into the next story beat of All Is Lost (see the next Save the Cat article for more details).
This beat occurs at around 50 - 75%, or 40,000 - 60,000 words in a typical 80,000 word novel.
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