Save the Cat! Novel-Writing Workshop!

A lot of people ask me how I write and outline my novels and I always have one response: Save the Cat!

I owe my entire novel-writing career to Save the Cat! A book series by the genius Blake Snyder about how to outline any story in the world. He calls his trusty “formula,” the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, and it consists of 15 “beats” (or story points) that fit into pretty much any movie ever made. And I’ve adapted them to novels to help me outline all my books. Since starting to use the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, I’ve sold nine novels. Yep…NINE! I don’t think that’s a coincidence! Now, I never start writing another book until I’ve got my trusted 15 beats in place.

So when the kind people at Blake Snyder Enterprises recently asked me if I wanted to teach a workshop about how to apply the Beat Sheet to writing novels, I jumped at the chance!

I’ll be teaching the Save the Cat Novel-Writing Beat Sheet Workshop alongside screenwriter, Ben Frahm, one of their “Master Cats.”

Basically it works like this: you come to the workshop with an idea for your next novel (all genres welcome!), the group (10 people) spend the next two days working through the 15 beats of each of your ideas, and by the end of the weekend, you have a sturdy (unbeatable!) outline to start writing your book with!

Our first workshop is in LA on April 16 and 17. All the details can be found here: http://www.blakesnyder.com/2011/03/04/announcing-our-first-novel-writing-beat-sheet-workshop/

But hurry up! There’s only FOUR SPOTS LEFT!

I hope to see you there!

Jessica

PS Click here to read the beat sheet for my young adult novel, THE KARMA CLUB, that I wrote for the Save the Cat blog!