(Especially if you struggle with demand avoidance or similar issues)
Is “Save the Cat” ACTUALLY good?
Look, I know, everybody recommends it. The writing craft has rules and structures that work for a reason.
That being said, everybody recommending it makes me not want to pick it up. Why would I want to follow the exact same beat pattern as everybody else? I feel like this is why some books lose unique feelings in terms of structure and set up.
Logically, I don’t recognize that issue as much as a reader. As a writer, my brain just can’t get past the hurdle.
I feel like personal, specific opinions and advice will help me to either get over the feeling (or feel justified, depending on the response).
Any and all responses would be lovely! Tell me if it’s amazing, if I’m thinking of it too literally, or if it’s not something you enjoy at all.
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Different ways characters finally start to tell the truth
BREAKING POINTS:
After nearly losing someone they care about
When lies start harming others
Confronted with evidence they can't deny
Exhaustion from maintaining the deception
Rock bottom moment forces honesty
STRATEGIC REVEALS:
Calculated partial truths first
Testing others' reactions with hints
Choosing perfect timing/setting
Building up courage through practice
Private confession before public truth
EMOTIONAL CATALYSTS:
Guilt becomes unbearable
Trust from others breaks their resolve
Someone sees through their facade
Memory/flashback triggers confession
Another's honesty inspires them
i was about to say “is there an easy way to get a play by play of what was happening in season [whatever] with any given hermit at any given time” like a dumbass and then i remembered the recap existed
By popular demand, I'll be going over the units of story in detail over the next several posts. What's important to remember is that these units have a Russian
Really good, meaty talk about what a beat is, what it does in the story, and example(s) of what it looks like.
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Following on from the book, blog and software recommendations in Part 1 earlier, here’s how I actually tie it all together to write :D
Once again, below a cut because LONG.
Now, I did put in a link to one of my Trello boards earlier. If you look at some of the cards on this board, you’ll see that they have a little comment bubble below them.
Click on that, and you can read comments I’ve already made in there. When I have just the seed of an idea germinating, this is what I do; just put in little comments on a card until the seed starts to flower. You can put in as many comments as you want, as long as they need to be.
Once I’ve got enough of an idea to work with, I go into Google Sheets and create a new sheet to work with from this document. This is called a writer’s beat sheet. It lays out the major beats of your story.
Now, at the bottom of the page that opens you’ll see there are four worksheets:
(I’ve locked them to prevent people editing them.) If you would like a copy of this file which you can edit, you should be able to click File:Make A Copy.
If you like to write by hand, you will need to print out one copy each of the Master and the Blank (check that they are formatted to fit on a single portrait page with your printer). Lay them side by side and fill in all the blank spaces on the Blank. If you like to type out your plot, right-click on the Plot Sheet tab and choose Duplicate. You can then name this sheet whatever you like and customise it for your own use - but don’t mess with the formulas in the right-hand columns!
If you’re wondering what the hell those Points 1-15 (the beats) in the left-hand columns actually mean (because you haven’t read any of the reference books I suggested in Part 1 :P) then have a look at the sheet I called Avengers. Here I’ve roughly laid out the plot of the movie so you can see what the plot points actually mean.
Almost all fiction follows this rough outline, and almost all good fiction follows it in roughly the same proportions. The maths has all been done for you. Put in your desired word count at the top of your duplicated Plot Sheet and the right-hand columns will update to show you roughly how many words into your story your major beats should fall.Â
Don’t feel constrained by the space available in those boxes. Here’s a screenshot from a current original WIP of mine showing you that I just keep damn well typing. These never get printed out, for me, so I can make them as long as I like.
Once you’ve got something laid out for each plot beat, you should find that you have a pretty effective story outline.
Now, I used to do all this on post-it notes, and without the maths. Apparently I already had a reasonably good grasp of plotting and how beats should fall, though, because I’ve looked back through a couple of older stories and they really do follow the beats pretty well. Comes from a lifetime of reading, I guess!
From this point, you can start actually WRITING. As you can see, I’ve already been putting in little snippets of quotes etc. that I want to fit into the story, but there’s no real prose or dialogue yet.
The good part about having this outline is that you don’t have to start at the beginning. Don’t have a good opening line yet? No problem. Start wherever you like. You know how the whole story is going to play out already. For this story here, I’ve got about 3,500 words in a Google Doc which I wrote on my tablet on holiday, a bunch of bits for scattered scenes in the story. I’ll fit them in sequence later.  This is easier in Scrivener, but there’s no reason why it can’t be done in Docs or Word either. I’d probably have a separate doc for Act I, II and III, just to make it easier to fit things in order, especially for a longer piece of work - anything over 20,000 words and you’ll do a lot of scrolling otherwise!
Don’t worry about breaking things into chapters at this point. You can do that later. And yes, I STRONGLY advise getting the whole fic written before you even CONSIDER posting chapters, or at least get up to the Midpoint with the rest well outlined. You don’t want to write up to the end of Act I and have the story suddenly change on you!
And talking of changing things around, I’ve decided to make this a series of 3 posts instead of 2. Just to be annoying :D
The third post, however, will be Scrivener-specific. In it I will show you how I move my outline from Google Sheets into Scrivener, and share my Scrivener templates for different lengths of fics - with the maths already pre-done and scenes already laid out for you to write in, with word count targets and all!
Even if you don’t use Scrivener YET, you may want to save that post. Because if you’re serious about writing - at some point, you will quite likely want it!
