I wanted to add a question for your AMA at the end of the month! I just started reading parts of Save the Cat and am not sure about it. If you're familiar, what are your thoughts on the method?
I stumbled upon the book by accident as it was a gift, and when I read about the 15 beats, I decided on a whim to see if they matched up at all with my book. I was shocked to find out that almost the entirety of the story lines up! The only thing that doesn't is my setup length, which is about 1-40% of the book instead of the suggested 1-10%. However, this story's a memoir, so I'm thinking maybe the beat sheet doesn't need to fit perfectly. Or maybe the beat sheet isn't actually a great method for any book! Or perhaps I need to cut a lot of my beginning.
So I wonder what you and other people think about it.
Thanks for this question! I had fun answering this in our last AMA.
I'm not well-read when it come to memoir and creative nonfiction in general, but it's very possible that the genre conventions of nonfiction just don't work with Save the Cat. I'd love to hear other memoirists thoughts about this!
I like the Save the Cat beats as a way to think about story structure. I almost always start with the beats as a brainstorming tool. There's another version called Save the Cat Writes a Novel. Also, there are a bunch of interesting structural worksheets online at https://jamigold.com/for-writers/worksheets-for-writers/
I'm not sure how any of them would work with a memoir. I thought it was interesting to see how Kat applied the beats to the Greek Dramatic Structure detailed in the Freytag post: https://katjolewis.substack.com/p/plotdiagram
My Country was great. Loved the supporting characters and relationships. (Have you seen The Untamed? Similarish vibe -- epic battles and machinations and twisty flashbacks.)
Thanks for the recs!
I wanted to add a question for your AMA at the end of the month! I just started reading parts of Save the Cat and am not sure about it. If you're familiar, what are your thoughts on the method?
I stumbled upon the book by accident as it was a gift, and when I read about the 15 beats, I decided on a whim to see if they matched up at all with my book. I was shocked to find out that almost the entirety of the story lines up! The only thing that doesn't is my setup length, which is about 1-40% of the book instead of the suggested 1-10%. However, this story's a memoir, so I'm thinking maybe the beat sheet doesn't need to fit perfectly. Or maybe the beat sheet isn't actually a great method for any book! Or perhaps I need to cut a lot of my beginning.
So I wonder what you and other people think about it.
Thanks for this question! I had fun answering this in our last AMA.
I'm not well-read when it come to memoir and creative nonfiction in general, but it's very possible that the genre conventions of nonfiction just don't work with Save the Cat. I'd love to hear other memoirists thoughts about this!
I like the Save the Cat beats as a way to think about story structure. I almost always start with the beats as a brainstorming tool. There's another version called Save the Cat Writes a Novel. Also, there are a bunch of interesting structural worksheets online at https://jamigold.com/for-writers/worksheets-for-writers/
I'm not sure how any of them would work with a memoir. I thought it was interesting to see how Kat applied the beats to the Greek Dramatic Structure detailed in the Freytag post: https://katjolewis.substack.com/p/plotdiagram
Thanks for this, Chris! I'm excited to explore Jami's worksheets.
Thanks so much, Chris! I forgot about that post, and I'll check out the worksheets.
Wowow. Thanks for these recommendations-- adding them to my lists!
If you watch or read any of them, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
My Country was great. Loved the supporting characters and relationships. (Have you seen The Untamed? Similarish vibe -- epic battles and machinations and twisty flashbacks.)
Excited to hear you like My Country! I haven’t watched The Untamed, and it sounds exactly like the kind of thing I would like. Thanks for the rec!