I started noting my novel writing process last month which has actually been really insightful as I start to put the bones down for my next book. So I’ve had some time steps one and two of day dreaming and free writing and now I’m ready for… Plotting!
Before I write a full post on plotting though I want to outline the tools I use to make my process a lot easier. There has been a lot of trial and error and I am definitely still learning when it comes to the art of the story beats but if you’re ever looking to develop your craft, this is a great place to start.
And if you’re thinking ‘What the heck are story beats?’ then absolutely read on for your next bit of storytelling research!
Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
There is Blake Snyders’ Save the Cat which was initially created for screen writing but Save the Cat Writes A Novel has been adapted from that for novel writing. It follows the fifteen beats of story telling and before you say, ‘I don’t want to write to a formula’ think of this not as a formula but as the bible of all novels, movies and story. If you’ve ever watched a movie or read a book and been left with an uncomfortable feeling or really didn’t like it. High chance the creator didn’t follow the fifteen beats which we all naturally look for in story telling. I would recommend buying the paperback of Save the Cat Writes A Novel and getting your post it notes and highlighters out. It has taken me several reads to understand what it all means but there are fantastic examples of novels and movies that break it down for you.
Savannah Gilbo’s Post Re: Plotting Save the Cat
Savannah Gilbo has made a handy guide where she breaks down how many scenes you need for each story beat outlined in Save the Cat and what percentage of your book you should be at in order to hit the right beat at the right time. You can also use her templates to work out how long your novel will be knowing that you will have about fifty six scenes for an average 80k word book and if you want longer or shorter you tweak your scene number or scene word count. She also spells out all the beats in really simple terms which I absolutely needed.
Jami Gold has generously created worksheets for writers to download. It is in excel format and you can put the word count of your novel in and then find out where your three act structure needs to land. I usually use this as a starting point to see where my my inciting incident, midpoint and ‘all is lost’ is meant to go. There are many worksheets at her website that are invaluable and she breaks them down by different genre too.
When I was struggling with understanding all the beats for Save the Cat I stumbled across Dan Harmon’s Story Circle. Dan Harmon is the creator of the TV show Community which I loved and gobbled up all six seasons so I trust anything he has to say! Funnily enough using the Story Circle as a guide helped me better work out the detail of the fifteen Save the Cat beats. It’s a much more simplified version of the journey your main character needs to go on to be a satisfying story.
Over the years I’ve developed my own Beat Sheet Spreadsheet using a mish mash of all of these. It has many tabs and is my starting point for plotting. If you are a writer and are interested in what this looks like, then please drop me a line. I would love to share!
Next month I will go into detail next month in How I Write A Novel – Part 3