Outline Your Book Using SAVE THE CAT WRITES A NOVEL w/ Snyder Jessica Brody | Hopefullhappenings

hi everybody my name is Melissa and welcome back to my writing channel hopeful happenings today we're talking about how to plot your novel using save the cat in the movies Hollywood makes it seem like authors write an idea down and then they get the entire story out in like one long night and then by the end it's done publishable book yeah it doesn't work that way you'll have to go through multiple rewrites but if you plot you'll save time because you'll require less rewrites platin also ensures you'll get all your target moments to garner a good story now in school you probably learned that all stories have an arc this is a great skeleton for how stories should look but if you want to take writing seriously then you're going to need more information than that I'm not going to talk about picture book outlines today because I've already done a video on that so if you want to check it out click the link down below but today we're going to talk about novel outlines so moving on from the basic story arc you may have heard of another story template which is called the hero's journey this is a template for basically all mythological stories where you have a person who goes on an adventure by venturing into a supernatural world they encounter friend and foe until they reach a climactic decision after which they return to their own world a changed person this pattern have been naturally over centuries of telling stories but it was a man in 1949 named Joseph Campbell who kind of branded the idea in his book the hero with a thousand faces now we still use this format today for example Star Wars a new hope follows the hero's journey to the T we've got Luke's world a call to adventure refusal of the call crossing the threshold tests allies enemies the approach the ordeal the reward the road back resurrection and the return if your story is about a classic hero like Luke Skywalker then maybe you do want to follow the hero's journey but what if your story doesn't fit this criteria enter save the cat save the cat was originally a book for screenwriters by blake schneider and then it was redone for novels and authors by Jessica Brody now the format that they talk about and save the cat is basically the hero's journey except it just has more details and it adapts it to different styles of storytelling for example adopting the story format they have for a wide dunnit novel like Sherlock Holmes is not going to be the same as adopting it to an institutionalized novel like the help and then save the cat there are ten different stories on Rah's that they'll teach you about but like I said they all follow the same basic formula and this formula is a lifesaver they divided it into three acts obviously if you're taking writing or screenwriting seriously you will benefit a lot if you just pick up a copy of this book but for the sake of this video I'm gonna summarize every piece that goes into each act you may notice as I'm reading the similarities between this format and the hero's journey so act 1 shows us an opening image it shows the character and the world before any conflict comes in half of act 1 is a set up it shows us the status quo of the hero's life and somewhere during this setup usually halfway through will have another character say the theme of the novel the theme is a statement made by someone other than the main character that hints at what the main characters arc will be or in other words what they to learn after the setup we have a catalyst or in other words an inciting incident an event that will push them into the new world or a new way of thinking and then we're going to have a debate a reaction sequence where the hero debates what to do next it's usually presented like should I do this should I go and if in the odd case a debate is not necessary for the character then the debate section will be taken over by a planning section preparing for whatever the catalyst brought them into now we're into Act two Act two starts about 20% into the novel and it will start off with something called break into two which is where the hero decides they are going to accept the call therefore leaving their comfort zone and going off into the unknown next we're going to introduce the B story and the B story is really cool because they don't dive into this idea in a hero's journey but a B story is kind of like what is underneath the surface Harry Potter is about a boy who goes to school and has all these adventures but the B story would be the internal part of his journey what does he learn in every book there should be an a story the outside physical things that go on and the B story the internal changing that goes on in order to learn the B story the character needs another character to come in and help them this can be like a helper a friend a mentor next what we'll see is something called fun and games this is where they actually get to experience their new world and they're either going to be loving it or hating it you'll also probably get a big hint as to what is going on in the fun and games on the back of the book that's usually where we talk about it people often use the fun and games as the hook to get people to read the book next we have our midpoint our midpoint is halfway through the novel now I've actually an entire video about inciting incidents and an entire video about midpoints so if you want more details on those go check them out they're so helpful they even help me because sometimes I forget and I need a refresher the midpoint is a critical moment for the character and the story it's often where the character realizes what they really need to do to change and you can often tell exactly when the midpoint is because the first half of the book they will often have things happen to them but the second half of the book is where they are actively making the changes right after the midpoint we have a section called the bad guys close in I think it's pretty obvious what goes on in the bad guys closing but a point that you want to make here is if your first half of the book in your funding games they were loving the world then the bad guys close in they're having a really hard time if during the fun and games they were hating in their world then during the bad guys close in they are loving it but still remembering that the bad guys and the enemies are getting closer and closer to suffocating that character and making them change whatever that changes now next we have all is lost this is the lowest point in the novel something happens to your character that pushes them to rock-bottom and right after you have this all's lost moment you're gonna have something called the dark night of the soul this is where the character has to basically internalize what has just happened it's the moment right before they figure out the solution to their problem and learn the life lesson okay now we're starting act 3 act 3 starts off with them having that aha moment finally they realized not only how to fix all the problems that were created in act 2 but they also understand how to fix themselves there B story and we're almost done here with finale finale is that moment where the hero confronts the evil they prove that they've truly learned their lesson and they enact the plan that they came up with in their aha moment this is where bad guys get destroyed where flaws are conquered and lovers are reunited this is the climax now the finale moves into the final image and this is only like the last percentage of the novel but it shows one that the world is different it's like a mirror image of the first scene we saw except that it's different it's changed not only is it changed but it's changed for the better so there you have it that is what they call the save the cat beat sheet you can see how it's very similar to the hero's journey except it has more detail and it even goes through what percentage of the novel these parts should cover now I can only imagine what you're feeling right now like if you haven't heard of this before you're probably wondering why haven't I heard of this before right I got an English degree I got my bachelor's in English and I never even knew about this format like what why did I not know about this earlier they should be teaching this in elementary school right so when you're ready to outline your own novel I recommend brainstorming and writing down all the ideas you've had thus far about that story and then once you've got it all down take a copy of this book read the whole thing and after you've read it you can go through that whole beat sheet that outline we were talking about and put ideas down into this formula the more you know about your world and your characters the better your outline and the more accurate your outline will be so before writing an outline you should have already made some kind of world-building document and some kind of character description building document if you need help creating those you can just pop on over to my website I actually give character templates and world building templates out for free if you just sign up for my newsletter okay I know I've given you so much to think about already but let's just do a quick recap Act one is the status quo world act two is the antithesis or the upside-down world act three is where those two worlds merged together and we can see who the character is going to become there we have it guys that's how to outline your novel using the save the cat method if you have you save the cat to help your novel writing I'd love to hear your experience let me know your questions or comments below I post once a week on YouTube and I post daily on Instagram giving you more writing tips there and sharing insights into my middle grade novel which is coming out called sea of kings which you can pre-order now at chapters Barnes Noble and jellyfish press so we'll see you next week bye

Channel: HopeFullHappenings

Views: 993

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Length: 11min 30sec (690 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020