It’s here! Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel is now out in the world and in this post, I’m thrilled to share all the juicy details. Are you ready? Let’s dive in! First off… There’s a new Save the Cat book? Yup, in case you haven’t heard, there’s a new Save the Cat!  … Read more

This year’s NaNoWriMo was the first year (in a long time…maybe forever?) I got to: 1) Start a new novel on November 1 (In past years, due to deadline timing, I was usually having to finish novels or just make 50k words of progress somewhere in the middle of a novel) 2) Draft a novel  … Read more

 Attention Save the Cat! Fans! I’ve got BIG NEWS!  In this post, I’m revealing all the juicy details about the next book in the Save the Cat! Series, Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel, written by yours truly, including a first look at the cover! So, yes, it’s true. I wrote another  … Read more

“Why is it called Save the Cat!?” A question I’ve been getting a lot since my novel-writing guide, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, was first published back in 2018. It’s often a confusing title because the term, “Save the Cat!” actually has very little to do with the core of the book, which is  … Read more

Maybe you’ve heard your writer friends talking about Save the Cat! and felt yourself nodding a long while secretly wondering, “What the heck is save the cat?” Maybe you read about it on a blog post or saw it mentioned in a Youtube video. Or maybe you were just searching for cute cat pictures and  … Read more

Flashbacks and backstory can be extremely useful storytelling devices that give your reader important information about the history of the world, a character’s past, and why certain characters behave a certain way. When used sparingly and strategically, backstory can provide context and clarity and even create empathy for unlikeable characters. But where do you do  … Read more

“How do you approach the beat sheet?” There’s a question I get asked a lot. Logically, you might think I start with the Opening Image and just work my way through, beat by beat, until I reach the Final Image. But that’s not usually the case. Although all of my novel brainstorm processes are unique,  … Read more

It’s officially NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where writers across the globe challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  To help you smash through that 50k word mark, I’m sharing with you my NaNoWriMo Starter Beat Sheet. What’s a “starter beat sheet?” Well, think of it as a foundation  … Read more

Imagine you’re reading a great adventure story. The hero has spent 80% of the story fighting against an evil regime that’s oppressed his village, scattered his friends and family, imprisoned the person he loves, and even kidnapped his dog! Just when everything seems lost for our hero, he realizes what he has to do–he’s got  … Read more

If you’re writing a novel or short story using the Save the Cat! beat sheet and wondering exactly where your beats should fall, then have I got a cool tool for you! (Not to mention a nice rhyme there.) When outlining, writing, or revising a novel, it’s helpful to know not only what story beats  … Read more

Writing a book outline is hard. Writing a book in general is hard. Plotting a compelling character arc and figuring out what happens next is a challenge for any writer, professional and newbie alike! Fortunately, I’m here to make it WAY easier for you. This blog post features my tried and true 15 steps to  … Read more

Prologues! Prologues! Prologues! It seems like everywhere I turn these days, I’m being asked about prologues. Namely, how do prologues fit into the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet? And whenever I get asked the same STC-related question an uncanny amount of times it makes me A) Wish I could go back in time and write  … Read more

Taylor Swift’s new album, folklore, is here and critics are already calling it her “storytelling album”. That seems to fit given that her first released video from the album, “Cardigan,” follows ALL of the key story beats!  I realize there’s about a zillion analyses and lyric interpretations floating around out there, as Swifties everywhere attempt  … Read more

So, here’s the problem: If you’ve read Save the Cat! Writes a Novel or taken my Save the Cat! Novel Writing Online Course, you know that the Catalyst (literally defined as the moment your story finally gets “going”) doesn’t come until 10% of the way in. So, mathematically speaking, if you have a story that’s  … Read more

If there’s one question I get more than any other when it comes to plotting (particularly using the Save the Cat! method), it’s this: But what about series? So, I do talk a little bit about the “series beat sheet” in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, but clearly not enough because the questions keep  … Read more

Everyone in the world wants something. Well, except maybe a few Buddhist monks who live in the mountains and meditate all day. They might not want anything. But the rest of us—we want things. We want a new job, a new car, a nicer house, to ask the cute boy to the movies, to win the  … Read more

A question I get a lot from novelists following the Save the Cat! plotting method is this: What’s the relationship between beats and chapters? Or in other words, how do the beats break down into chapters and vice versa? The answer, as is usually the case, is: It depends.  Super helpful, right? 😉 Well, let  … Read more

Today we’re talking about heroes…plural. What do you do when you have multiple points of view in your novel and need to juggle multiple Save the Cat! beat sheets (and character arcs!) Here’s another question I get a lot from writers who have read Save the Cat Writes a Novel or enrolled in my Save the  … Read more

I’ve been using the Save the Cat! methodology to structure and plot my stories for more than ten years and  17 novels now. I even wrote a book on this very topic and created a Save the Cat! companion course. And yet every day, I feel like I’m still learning and expanding my knowledge about  … Read more

When I look back at the 185 rejection letters I got from agents when I was trying to sell a book to a publisher, I can find one common theme throughout. And it usually looked something like this: “Great voice! No story.”  At the time, I didn’t understand this critique. I was like, “What are  … Read more