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Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

The Last Book on Novel Writing You'll Ever Need
Jessica Brody ·2018
“The 15-beat structure works for novels too — story architecture doesn't change with medium.”
Blake Snyder's 15-beat screenplay structure adapted for novels. Same Beat Sheet, longer form — with 20+ published novel breakdowns proving the template works across prose genres.
Snyder's beat sheet adapted for novels, with 20+ published novel breakdowns.
Won't help with: prose style, dialogue, character depth, or understanding WHY the beats work.
Topics structurecharacter
Key Insights
1 takeaway from this resource — click to expand
💡 Act Two isn't Act One but harder. It's Act One flipped upside down — and your character's old playbook is useless there. ›
Brody adapts Snyder's framework for novelists and sharpens one principle that applies across media: the world of Act Two should be the inverse of Act One. If the character was safe in Act One, they're exposed in Act Two. If they were in control, they're powerless. If they were surrounded by allies, they're alone. This inversion isn't just a change of setting or difficulty — it's a structural mechanism that forces the character to abandon the behaviors that worked in their old world. The character enters Act Two trying to solve new problems with old tools, and the upside-down world systematically breaks those tools. That's what creates the conditions for transformation: the character can't change until their current self has been proven insufficient by an environment designed to test exactly what they're worst at.
Check Your Script
Compare the 'world' of your first act with the world of your second act. What's inverted? If your character enters Act Two with the same relationships, status, and coping strategies that worked in Act One, the world hasn't flipped — and the pressure to transform is weaker than it should be.
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How It Teaches

Encoding fingerprint and cognitive approach

Theory
Examples ›
Example-heavy — 20+ novel breakdowns illustrate every beat in prose form.
Mechanism
Heuristic ›
Entirely heuristic — same quick-rule approach as Snyder, adapted for chapter and scene structure.
Diagnostic
Prescriptive ›
Fully prescriptive — template-driven with clear beat targets.
Global
Local ›
Global — maps the entire novel structure with minimal scene-level guidance.
Cognitive Mode
Te + Si
Teaches through extraverted thinking — the same systematic beat sheet from Snyder, adapted with prose-specific guidance (Te). Grounded in introverted sensing — 20+ novel breakdowns demonstrate the pattern empirically (Si). Identical cognitive approach to the original Save the Cat!, extended to longer form.
Te provides the framework; Si proves it works. Together they make novel structure as systematic as screenplay structure.

What It Teaches

Central thesis and key premises

The 15-beat structure that works for screenplays works equally well for novels — the universal story architecture doesn't change with medium, only with scale.
Teaching Modality
Template-Prescriptive
Approach
The 15-beat template adapted for novels. Same structure, longer form, with published novel examples proving the pattern.
Structure
15 Beats for Novels
The same 15 beats from Snyder's screenplay model, adapted for the longer prose form with chapter-level guidance.
Structure
Novel Genre Categories
Snyder's ten genre categories applied to novels — proving the story types are medium-independent.
Structure
20+ Novel Breakdowns
Published novels from multiple genres broken down beat by beat, demonstrating the template's versatility.
Screenplay-to-Prose Adaptation
Specific guidance on how beats that work in 110 pages translate to 300+ pages — pacing, chapter structure, and the expanded middle.

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