Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book On Novel Writing You'll Ever Need

Of the countless author help books I have owned, none of them compares to Save the Cat! You will NOT walk away from this book still in a fog of understanding. Save the Cat! lays everything out for you, and in layman's terms. I highly recommend it. With that said, there is no harm in expanding upon the knowledge given in Save the Cat! especially if you are new to the craft or finding yourself still struggling. Personally, I use Save the Cat! as well as the online (YouTube) guidance of Abbie Emmons. Whatever works for YOU. But Save the Cat! is a great source to start your writing journey. The book, unlike so many others out there, walks you through the writing process step-by-step. Abbie Emmons and Save the Cat! are not affiliated, to be clear, just two remarkable sources to help crack the code.

This book is based on “Save the Cat Goes to the Movies” by Blake Snyder, which is based on “Screenplay” by Syd Field. Both of those books do a good job of laying out the basic structure of how to plot your novel. Both of those books are also a little light on filling in some of the grey areas on which that structure is based. They get you close to understanding their plotting technique, but don’t get you all the way across the finish line. If you have “Save the Cat Goes to the Movies” you may not need this book—it is very similar to Blake Snyder’s book. If you have “Save the Cat Goes to the Movies” and are still unsure about how to utilize Blake Snyder’s beat sheet to full effect—then you may be interested in what Jessica Brody does with the topic and may find it useful for filling in those grey areas. If you haven’t yet purchased either, then “Save the Cat Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody is the book to get. At first I was annoyed when I purchased this book (e-book version) and flipped through it. It looked exactly the same as “Save the Cat Goes to the Movies”. The list of genres is exactly the same—just in a different order. But when I turned to the beat sheet section, is when I discovered that “Save the Cat Writes a Novel” is worth the price of admission. Brody does an excellent job of breaking down the purpose of each of the beats, rather than giving a vague definition that will still leave you confused. She explains in detail, gives examples, and introduces new ideas that provide both clarity and new understanding of plotting—especially to the function and purpose of the midpoint of the story. If you’ve had difficulty plotting and the other books on the subject just didn’t quite get you to where you needed to be, give “Save the Cat Writes a Novel” a chance. Jessica Brody will likely help you understand just how to plot that novel you’ve been working on.

If you're a writer, you need this book in your library. It is well-written and amusing, and has the mindfulness of warning you about spoilers in the literary works it quotes from.

I love how-to-write books, and enjoyed this one. The author starts with an interesting premise—the plotting and pacing strategy that works for movies can translate to novels. Also, the author’s folksy writing style makes the book easy to read. A couple of problems with the book knock it down from five stars, for me. First, the breathless tone of revealing a hidden secret, a sure-fire success path, left me suspicious. Save the Cat! Sells a Used Car would have been written with the same air of certainty. They call them “novels” because someone’s always coming up with a new and innovative way to tell a story, a way that breaks previous molds. The author sets out the necessary “beats” or plot points and provides locations (in terms of percentage of book length) where they go. That’s handy, but she leaves the impression these locations are decreed from Olympus. In the books the author picked as examples, the locations of beat points vary a lot from her stated ideal. For example, she says the “B Story” beat should occur at 22%. It occurs at 3% in Bridget Jone’s Diary, and at 38% in Kite Runner. Though the author provides page numbers from each example book where readers might find the beats themselves, I believe I found a mistake. The novel Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini runs for 371 pages. Brody states that the “Final Image” beat occurs on pages 318-323 of this novel. That’s 60% to 87% of the way through. The Final Image beat is usually much later. I suspect she erroneously copied the page numbers from the novel example in the previous chapter, which were also 318-323. I like that the author provides ten “genres” or plot types and gives readers descriptions and tips on each. Much of the book consists of analysis of real example novels in each of these genres, illustrating how they adhere, more or less, to the Save the Cat beat formula. In addition, she provides necessary elements for each genre. My only quibble with this categorization centers on the name of one genre—Dude with a problem. Although she defines a specific type of “dude” and a specific immediacy of the problem, I think, to some extent, all stories could be called “Dude with a problem.” I wish she’d found some other name for this genre instead of that catch-all. All that said, I found the book very helpful and I believe all novel writers could benefit from reading it.

Just finishing ’Save the Cat Writes a Novel ‘ The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need. I don’t normally do reviews, but this book is certainly worthy of some attention. A couple of years ago I signed up for and started attending a writing course at a local college. What I had hoped to get was some specific instruction on structure, pacing, characterisation and the like. But while the course was pleasant enough, I couldn’t see any of what I really needed and dropped out. I feel that I should have read this book three years ago. It explains exactly what I, and possibly most other wannabe writers should know and do. There is a detailed breakdown into fifteen milestones, (she calls them ‘Beats’, I think in reference to the beat in music), each is explained, with reference to well-known books and one is further sub-divided into five mini-beats. She also lists ten genres which are not the traditional type of genre such as mystery, romance, sci-fi, etc. but which are much more wide-ranging and which make a lot of sense, such as Whydunit, Rites of Passage, Dude with a Problem, etc. Three points are required in each of these genres and each genre is then explored with a specific novel that is exploded using the beats. A ‘Beat-Sheet’ is given so that you can see how other authors, from JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, have created their masterpieces and match her template. Jessica Brody, the author, writes in terms that I can understand, with multiple relevant examples, and walks the reader through the whole process of planning and creating a novel. Highly recommended.

I view a lot of writing craft books not as 'how to' resources, but more along the lines of a provision of tools to add to your toolbox for the purpose of writing, plotting, and editing your manuscript. Because writing is art - a creative journey - and a big part of that is getting into a flow state: that place where your imagination takes over and you start to grow your own world on the page. So books like 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' are there for you to hone your craft, offer tools to improve, fill in the gaps, so that the final result is more appealing to a wider group of readers. I say this because I don't think "writing by numbers," as in following a recipe from concept to final product is the best route... I feel it can lose passion, soul, and a unique element for your story. So what 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' offers is a great structure, language, and tools to help identify the mechanics behind crafting a story, and offer way to implement them - with examples! This book comes particularly in handy if: you've got a story concept but don't know how to develop it into a fully formed plot; you've written a first draft and are going back over it to improve; hitting that developmental edit (structural edit); or you have too many ideas in your story and need to focus it down to what is really important. 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' is big picture thinking for your manuscript! It asks questions you may not have thought of asking about your story, characters, and world. I've added a few tweaks to my writing/editing process after reading 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' and see myself referring to this often. A great resource and highly recommended.

Bellissimo manuale di scrittura creativa molto pratico e chiaro nello spiegare come progettare e scrivere un romanzo. Ricco di esempi tratti da romanzi attuali, il linguaggio è semplice e chiaro, l'unico neo se così posso chiamarlo è che il manuale è in inglese.

Ik had al een digitale versie van het boek, maar ik vind dit boek zo goed, dat ik ook een papieren versie wilde hebben. Ik heb stickertjes aangebracht, zodat ik gemakkelijk alles kan terugvinden. Twijfel je tussen de ebook- en de papieren, kan dit je misschien helpen. Tip voor de uitgever. Een luxere versie met bijvoorbeeld gekleurde pagina’s zou een aanrader zijn en dat verdient dit boek ook.

Last book you will ever read :)