Save the Cat! and Story Grid: Structure in Beats

Photo by Madalyn Cox on Unsplash

This week, we’re wrapping up our April focus on different approaches to story structure.  Today we’re focusing on two approaches that are a little more complex that the ones I’ve brought up already. This is only a brief overview, so if they intrigue you at all I encourage you to go to the websites, or get the books, and see if you find the approach useful. 

The first is Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody. This is based off the screenwriting Save the Cat! model created by Blake Snyder. It breaks the three-act structure down into 15 beats, as follows:  

ACT I 

Opening Image – The “before” of your character in their world. 

Theme Stated – A statement made by one of the characters hinting at the main theme or what the main character (MC) will need to learn by the end. 

Setup – This encompasses the first 10% of the novel, and includes the previous two beats. We see the MC, what they want, meet supporting characters, etc. 

Catalyst – Also known as the Inciting Incident, the event that kicks the story into gear and forces the MC to deal with a new reality. 

Debate – Where the MC has to decide whether or not to “heed the call.” 

ACT II 

Break Into Two – The moment the MC decides to accept the call to action; not just a decision, though, this involves a decisive action.  

B Story – Introduction of a friend/mentor/love interest who eventually helps the MC learn the theme, or what they need to know in order to change and grow and deal effectively with the situation. 

Fun and Games – The MC dealing with the new world, and either succeeding (false victory) or failing (false defeat).  

Midpoint – At 50% in, the result of the Fun & Games that forces the MC to change direction after the false victory or defeat. 

Bad Guys Close In – This is the opposite of the arc above; if Fun & Games was an upward trajectory toward a false victory, this will be a downward trajectory toward a false defeat, and vice versa. However, it’s important to note that either is really a downward trajectory, since both represent a failure to solve the real problem. 

All Is Lost – This leads to the All Is Lost moment, when it seems the MC will never achieve their goal or get what they truly need to succeed. 

Dark Night of the Soul – Rock bottom; the place where the MC reflects on their circumstances learns the lesson they need to learn (the theme). 

ACT III 

Break Into Three – The MC now knows what they need to do, and makes a plan to achieve a real victory.  

Finale – The Climax, where the final confrontation with the Villain takes place. 

Final Image – Where we see the MC in their new reality. If it’s a happy ending, we see how the transformation changed the MC for the better; if it’s a tragedy, we see how the MC was defeated in the end. Of course, there are many ambiguous endings possible in between those two poles.  

In her book, Brody gives lots of examples of how different novels have used these beats, so you quickly realize how many stories follow this framework. She also breaks stories down into ten “genres” or types, such as Whydunit, Rites of Passage, Superhero, Dude with a Problem, Buddy Love, Institutionalized, Out of the Bottle, Fool Triumphant, Golden Fleece, and Monster in the House. To explain each of these in detail is beyond the scope of this blog post, but I encourage you to check out her book for how the above beats connect to these overall story structures.  

What about character arc? She emphasizes that before you can fill in any of the beats properly, you need to know your MC’s want or goal, need, and the problem that prevents them from attaining the goal and fulfilling the need.  

The Story Grid, by Shawn Coyne, breaks down similarly into beats, scenes, sequences, and acts. It asks writers to focus on the macro level and micro level for each part, and also what action, linked to a universal value, might happen in each.  

Like many other approaches, it also focuses on major events for every story:  

The Inciting Incident 

The Turning Point Progressive Complication 

The Crisis 

The Climax 

The Resolution  

These are embedded in a traditional three-act structure, called here the Beginning Hook, Middle Build, and Ending Payoff.  

Like Save the Cat!, it also uses genre templates to help writers figure out what the conventions and obligatory events need to be in place if you plan to write that genre.  

What about character? There is a big focus on the Core Need, the Core Life Values, the Core Emotion, and the Core Event and how they show the MC’s development over the story. Interestlngly, it relates the Core Need to the genre, such as the “need for safety” being the core need of horror, thriller, mystery or crime novels. 

Honestly, the Story Grid is the approach I’m least familiar with, and I find it a little dense and confusing. I’m sure it’s a terrific analytical tool, and the website (www.storygrid.com) has many resources that will help you understand how it works. Developing the full grid for your story can help make sure something happens in every scene to move the story forward – an action, value shift, turning point, and so on. Then you know every scene has a place, and the characters are developing through the story.  

Strengths of these approaches: 

• The breakdown into beats can be helpful in guiding you into what comes next in the story. They even break down into percentages (I.e., at what point of the story each beat should appear).  It breaks the writing down into bite-sized pieces, with a clear idea of what should be happening at each stage.

• They also discuss “genres” in a larger sense, and while not absolutely prescriptive, make sure you know the conventions and important expectations of each.  

Challenges of these approaches:  

• They are more complicated than others we’ve discussed; in fact, they have a lot of specific lingo to describe the beats, genres, and other parts of structure. It may be confusing, even overwhelming, at first. 

• For discovery writers (aka “pantsers”) it may be easier to write your first draft, only minimally filling in the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet or Story Grid, and then filling in gaps in your story by mapping it to the relevant framework. 

There you have it! A review of many popular methods of approaching structure, including ways to make sure your character arc develops along with (and because of) the action arc.  

Keep in mind, the ones we’ve discussed this month are only a few of the possibilities out there; they’re just some of the more popular approaches, and ones that have worked for many people.  

One of them may clarify a whole lot of storytelling issues for you. Or, you may find a combination works best. You may even discover that different stories call for slightly different approaches. And of course, many of them have significant overlap. If looking at all of these tells us anything, it’s that story structure doesn’t change a huge amount, no matter what model you use. They’re not meant to be rigid paint-by-numbers ways of telling a story, but flexible frameworks that help give some method to the novel-writing madness.