Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You'll Ever Need

by Jessica Brody

Paperback, 2018

Status

Available

Call number

808.3

Publication

Ten Speed Press (2018), Edition: 1st Edition, 320 pages

Description

"The first novel-writing guide from the best-selling Save the Cat! story-structure series, which reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any novel a success. Novelist Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story-structure guide for novelists that applies the famed Save the Cat! screenwriting methodology to the world of novel writing. Revealing the 15 "beats" (plot points) that comprise a successful story--from the opening image to the finale--this book lays out the Ten Story Genres (Monster in the House; Whydunit; Dude with a Problem) alongside quirky, original insights (Save the Cat; Shard of Glass) to help novelists craft a plot that will captivate--and a novel that will sell"--

User reviews

LibraryThing member theWallflower

It’s 90% the same as the original “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder. Same beats, same outline. The only difference is that the examples are novels instead of films.

I always thought Save the Cat is a way to get “how do I make this idea into a commercial story”. And the keyword is

commercial–something that will sell. Because, really, unless you can sell your story to a major publisher–someone who can get it in front of eyes–you’re just shouting into the wind.

Everyone’s looking for the magic formula to create that best-selling story, myself included. But the real magic is in the lines themselves, and there’s nothing that can help with that. Sometimes you’ve got to just build one Lego brick on top of the other.

My point is, either read this one or read Blake Snyder’s version. There’s not much difference. But I guess if you haven’t read either, and you’re aiming for novels instead of screenplays, read this one. You’ll get closer-to-home examples (and hope to god you’ve read them).

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LibraryThing member caanderson

Great book, helps with plotting from beginning to end of your story. Recommended by an agent. It’s always good to revisit the art of writing.

LibraryThing member rrkreads

Loved it. I heard am audio book & the narration was just fabulous. Awesome book. Hearing or reading this one once is definitely not enough.

LibraryThing member writersaurusrex

I've heard a lot of good things about Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, especially during and just after NaNoWriMo. Enough that I eventually caved and bought a copy (on Kindle) to see if I agreed with everyone else.

I did not. It's not that the book isn't full of good tips, and the beats thing looks

interesting. I just don't think it's going to be the first book in my toolbox when I plot my books. I'm not saying it will not be useful at all to me. I'm still planning on using the Snowflake Method to do the main planning, but I'm likely to use the Save the Cat! to beef the plot up, tweak it to add a little more oomph to it.

So, my verdict: if you want to buy it, buy it. If you want to use it, use it. I'll probably use it and a second wave type of thing.

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LibraryThing member spinsterrevival

I’m somewhat conflicted on whether I actually feel this is beneficial mostly because I’m not so sure about if their “genres” really cover every novel that could be written. Some of it might be that I apparently don’t read a ton of super popular novels because I hadn’t even heard of a

few examples and only had read a few more; also the fact that the beat breakdown of almost every novel had a movie equivalent was suspect. I think I most enjoyed the beginning before all the genre breakdowns, but I guess it could be a formula that may work for most.

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LibraryThing member zot79

This is a great starting point for learning the Save the Cat methodology as it applies to writing novels. Anyone with previous exposure to the concepts can easily skim the first chapters to grasp the novel-specific tips, analyze the applicable genre chapter(s) for a couple of new genre insights and

cherry-pick the bits of "Problems / Solutions" they find interesting. I particularly liked the write up for "The Foundation Beats" that simplifies the 15-beat structure into the 5 most essential for getting started.

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