Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

Welcome to this special presentation on introduction to the Save the Cat! method for novelists. Let's dive in. We have a lot to cover today.

Today, I'm going to teach you how the Save the Cat! method can help you outline, draft, revise, and fix any genre of novel. 

If you are not familiar with the Save the Cat! method, this is a great crash course to get you up and running. You'll be able to use everything you learned today right away. If you're already familiar with the method, then great! This is also a great refresher to kind of give you a look at the method through some new eyes.

A bit about me

Before I get started, I just wanna give you a quick overview of why I am talking to you today. Flash back to about a little over 15 years ago: I was trying and failing to get my first manuscript represented by an agent and get it published — but I kept getting rejected repeatedly. 

But there was a common thread running through my rejection letters. They all said the same thing: you're a good writer but you don't know how to tell a story. Or, there's no story here. This really confused me. How can you be a good writer without knowing how to tell a story? I thought the two things went together. 

I quickly learned that I didn't know what a story was. I didn't know what structuring a story entailed. It became clear when I was introduced to this book called Save the Cat! It was a screenwriting guide originally written by Blake Snyder, a screenwriter. It broke down screenplays into these 15 beats or like a blueprint you could follow.

But what I found when I read this book was that these 15 beats didn't just apply to screenplays: they applied to stories in general. Then I thought, what if I took these 15 beats and applied them to the novel I was trying to publish? Well, that became my first experiment with the Save the Cat! method. 

I ended up rewriting my entire novel using this method that Blake Snyder laid out for screenwriters — and I got an agent for that rewrite. The agent sold it to a major publisher, St. Martin's Press, and I ended up selling over 20 novels to major publishers like Simon and Schuster Penguin, Random House, and Macmillan over the next 15 years using this very method. 

Then I had this question: does it just work for me? Do I just kind of happen to write books that sort of feel like movies? 

Save the Cat also applies to books

So I set out to experiment with the method. Does this method apply to all novels and to all stories? My research led me to write a book called Save the Cat! Writes a Novel in which I take the original screenwriting method applied it to novels. This is what happened:

I read a ton of different novels. I read modern mystery novels like The Girl on the Train, and horror like Stephen King's Misery. I read Young Adult Romance, Middle Grade Fantasy like Percy Jackson and even classics like The Grapes of Wrath and earlier. I found that hidden inside all of these books was this sort of code: 

I found that about 10% of the way through all of these stories, there was this big life-changing event. Something that stopped the main character in their tracks and forced them to think about life differently. 

At around 20% of the way through these stories, that same main character, that hero decided to try something new or go somewhere new. 

At around 50% of the way through all of these stories, there was a major turning point that completely changed the direction of the plot.

At 75% through all these stories, there was a rock bottom moment. 

And around 80 to 85% of the way through all of these stories, there was another moment of discovery where the hero found a resolution. 

Now that's either a really strange coincidence or I stumbled upon something interesting, which I call the Secret Storytelling Code. It's this pattern that exists within all stories. Blake Snyder found it in screenplays. I found it in novels. Blake Snyder just gave these beats, different names. He called them things like the Catalyst, the Break into Two, the Midpoint, the All is Lost, and the Break into Three. 

These 15 beats or plot points that we'll talk about today can be found in all great stories, screenplays, and novels alike. 

What is Save the Cat?

It's a structure blueprint. It's a series of plot points that can be found in every great story ever told. But I like to think of it a little differently. I like to think of it as a transformation machine. An imperfect hero goes into this thing that we'll call “The Beat Sheet” or the outline of the novel, and a less imperfect hero comes out. It's essentially a method that helps you track a compelling character arc across an entire story. 

The Save the Cat Beat Sheet is basically at the heart of the method.  It is a three-act structure that has been broken down even further into these 15 beats or plot points that we'll talk about today.

These beats are things that are going to make your story more compelling. They will help with the pacing, hold your reader's attention and leave your reader feeling satisfied. 

What is it good for?

You might be thinking, okay, but is this just for outlining a novel? 

Although the Save the Cat! method is really great for outlining or fleshing out a new idea, it's also good for a lot of other things like test-driving a new idea. Before you start writing, you might ask yourself how many beats you can instantly come up with — even if they’re rough ideas that change later. If you can come up with ideas for beats immediately, you know that the story can go far.

It's also great for figuring out what's broken in a story. It can be a diagnostic tool for looking at a story you're already working on and figuring out where you've gone astray, or how it could be more impactful.

It's also an excellent tool for revising an existing story. Maybe you quickly wrote your first draft, or it was a discovery draft and now you have a bunch of scenes and events that you have to make work. If you compare what you have to this Save the Cat! beat sheet, you can easily see what needs to be revised, what needs to be moved around, what can be cut, and what needs to be added. 

 

It's also a really good tool for getting back on track if you've wandered 300 miles off the course of your current story. I've done this, and I know many other writers have too.

Why’s it called ‘Save the Cat?’

If you signed up for this webinar thinking it was about rescuing cats, you might be disappointed. 

“Save the Cat” simply refers to the moment in a story when a hero does something redeeming. You could think of it as the moment when the audience or the reader gets behind the hero of your story. Blake Snyder called it the “Save the Cat” moment because it's the scene where the hero saves a cat from a tree or burning house. 

You don't literally have to save a cat. It's just a metaphor for something the hero does that is redeeming. One of my favorite examples is from Aladdin. At the movie's start, he is seen stealing a loaf of bread. He's chased through the marketplace, wreaking all sorts of havoc. And then what does he do? He gives the bread to a pair of starving children, and suddenly we are on Aladdin’s side. He has been redeemed and we follow him through the whole story. 

So that's where “Save the Cat” comes from.

Explaining the beat sheet (aka The Cat on the Train)

I will use an example of a popular novel to demonstrate each of the 15 beats. This way, you'll see the beat sheet in action from start to finish.

The book we’ll cover first is The Girl on the Train. If you haven't read it, I'm sorry there will be spoilers in this presentation.

With each beat, you'll see a percentage mark — which is roughly where the beat should come within your novel. Now, these are rough guidelines. People get very nervous about sticking to these numbers. I say, don't worry about them. Use them if you need them, and let them go. But basically, these guidelines are taken from averages of really successful novels.

Beat 1: The opening image (1%)

This is where we'll set the tone, style, and mood of the story. It's essentially a ‘before’ snapshot of who your flawed main character is at the start of the story. From here on out, we'll call your main character the hero. So essentially, it's a starting point of their transformation.

Remember, this is a transformation machine. Where are they before they go into the machine? How is their life or their world? Essentially, we get one image to give the reader that first glimpse. If you are doing worldbuilding, this is also where we’ll get the first glimpse of your hero's world.

Now it's called the opening image, and not the opening monologue or the opening info dump — it works best when it's visual. When we see the hero interacting with their world, that is the best way to engage your reader right off the bat. Drop them into an active scene and show who this hero is and how they, how their life is what their life is like.

Example: The Girl on the Train

In the opening image, we see that Rachel is riding a train, fantasizing about other people's lives. So what does this tell us? It gives us a sense that: 

1. This is a very regular occurrence for her; 
2. That she fantasizes about things a lot; 
3. That maybe she doesn't live in the real world and prefers to live in her head. 

That is a quick glimpse of a flaw that will play out throughout the rest of the story.

Beat 2: The setup (1-10%)

Now, this is a multi-scene beat. It spans the first 10% of your novel and will feature scenes or chapters in which many important things are happening. These are scenes that will explore the hero's status quo life (their life before the transformation begins) and all of its flaws. Flaws are the important part. We want to show how our hero's life is problematic. So what does their life look like before that epic transformation? 

The opening image gave us our first taste, but this is where we get to explore it more. If you're going to include a Save the Cat! moment, you might put it in the setup. 

What does the character want?

This is also where we'll introduce other supporting characters in the story and — also super important — we'll introduce our hero’s primary goal here. This goal is something external or tangible that the hero is pursuing. We also can call these the ‘wants’. It's important for your hero to be pursuing something at the start of the story. Nothing turns off a reader more than a hero sitting around waiting for something to happen to them. We want our hero to be actively doing something at the start. 

Giving them something to pursue not only puts them in motion but also tells us a little something about your hero. It doesn't have to be what they want throughout the entire story. Goals will often change, and I will point out places where those goals commonly change. 

Urgency needed

There’s a chance to do some world-building here, but essentially, the setup boils down to demonstrating why this hero or this world needs to change. 

We're creating a sense of urgency for our reader. Our reader is going to be asking at the beginning, why are we here? Why do I need to read the story? And we answer that question by showing a hero that is flawed, and showing why they need change in their life. That creates that urgency that the reader will want to keep reading to find out if that change occurs. At the same time, we're hinting at the stakes, which helps with that urgency of this story.

Example: The Girl on the Train

In the setup of this novel, we learn a few things:

Rachel has a drinking problem and often blacks out. (We now know she's an unreliable narrator.) 

She can't get over her ex-husband Tom. 

She's recently lost her job. 

She rides the train every day looking for glimpses of Jess and Jason, a fantasy couple whom she thinks has the perfect marriage. She wants to see them every day. That's the goal she's pursuing. 

Her roommate is getting tired of her drinking and might kick her out if it continues. So now we've got some stakes. 

We see Rachel's life is a mess, and if it doesn't change, she's going be out on the street. So we feel that urgency in the stead in the setup.

Beat 3. Theme stated (5%)

This moment is a subtly made statement — usually by a secondary character — that hints at the hero's arc or transformation. Essentially, we will know what your hero has to learn, discover, or overcome by the end of the story. How are they going to move along this transformation machine?

We like to plant that as a little subtle hint or seed in the reader's mind right at the story's beginning. It shouldn’t be obvious or over the top. When you deliver on that transformation at the end, the reader should subconsciously feel like they somehow knew what it was about.

The theme state is usually related to a flaw the hero has to overcome or a fear they must conquer. We can also call this beat “the life lesson.” What does your hero need to learn to fix their life? 

Example: The Girl on the Train

In The Girl on the Train, this is coming on the first or second page. Rachel narrates, “my mother used to tell me that I had an overact active imagination. Tom said that too.” 

How do you like that? Rachel needs to learn how to face reality. We already saw her overactive imagination, and now we're planting a seed: that her imagination is going to be the problem that she has to overcome by the end in order to truly fix her life. Not surprisingly, it's also the problem she must overcome to solve the book's mystery. 

All right. We can't stay in the setup forever. Eventually, we'll have to move on…

Beat 4. Catalyst (10%)

An inciting incident is a life-changing event that will essentially catapult the hero into a new world or a new way of thinking.

It’s an action beat that needs to be big enough to break the hero from their status quo life and keep them from returning to that life. If your hero can convincingly go back to the way things were after the catalyst, your catalyst is probably not big enough. You don’t want your reader asking, why don't they just go back to their old life? What's really compelling them to change? 

This action beat needs to be big. That's why you'll often see that the catalyst are things like breakups, deaths, firings, attacks. Those things are very hard to come back from.

You'll also see invitations happen here, like an invitation to appear at or compete in some sort of event or tournament. 

Example: The Girl on the Train

The catalyst comes when Rachel blacks out and wakes up with bruises, a bump on her head, and blood in her hair. She's unable to remember what happened the night before. She thinks she remembers seeing Jess (Megan's real name) kissing another man and getting angry about it.

It's hard to return to your status quo life after you might have injured someone or harmed someone and you don't remember. 

So that's a really effective catalyst right there. It's also the start of the mystery. 

Beat 5. The Debate (10-20%)

The catalyst bumps us into a multi-scene beat called The Debate that takes us to the end of act one. These are multiple scenes or chapters where your hero has a chance to react to the catalyst. Something big just happened. They need time to process it. 

What's happening here is the hero is debating what to do next. It's usually presented in the form of a question. That doesn't mean there’s literally a question on the page, but if you summed up these scenes, they would result in a question like: 

• Should I go?
• What do I do?
• Am I ready? 
• What does this mean? 

We sometimes see this as a preparation section. Maybe the hero knows exactly what to do next after the catalyst, but they need time to prepare mentally, physically, and maybe emotionally. This helps to inform the reader that the next thing that they're about to do is big. It requires preparation. 

So the purpose here is to show how reluctant your hero is to change or make the next decision — or to make that upcoming decision feel believably momentous by having the hero prepare for it.

Example: The Girl on the Train

The question that sums up the debate scenes in The Girl on the Train are: 

• What happened on Saturday night? 
• And what will Rachel do about it? 

In this section, we also learn that Megan Hipwell (the woman she remembers seeing in in her blackout state) is missing. That kind of gives us a little bit more information to go on before we go into Act Two.

Beat 6. Break into Two (20%)

We are now at the threshold between Act One and Act Two. A single scene beat that comes around the 20% mark will transition us into the second act. This is a moment when the hero decides to either accept the call to action and leave their comfort zone, try something new, venture into a new world or new way of thinking, or maybe all of the above.

The underlying theme here is that we’re heading into a new world — a new part of the story. The more you can make your second act feel new, the more your reader will feel like they're going somewhere and that things are happening in this story. This proactive beat separates the status quo world of act one from the new upside-down world of Act Two.

I call it the upside-down world, not because things literally have to be upside down. We don't all have to write Alice in Wonderland, but this should feel different and foreign. Your hero should feel like a fish out of water in Act Two, because that will give your story momentum.

New act, new goal

Now, Break into Two is often where we'll see a new (or modified) goal introduced. Maybe the Act One goal will continue through Act Two, but because that catalyst broke through the status quo world, it's quite believable that the status quo goal might also change. So often, at the Break into two, We'll see a new goal introduced, something the hero will pursue throughout at least the first half of act two.

Example: The Girl on the Train

The Break into Two comes when Rachel decides to insert herself into the case. She thinks she has the information that the police need. She thinks she's valuable to this missing person's case. So she vows to help solve the mystery of the missing Megan Hipwell, which becomes her new goal.

Beat 7. B Story (22%)

Once we're in act two, we must introduce a new character. We call this character the B Story character. It’s a single-scene beat right after the Break into Two — at the beginning of Act Two. We introduce a new character who will ultimately help the hero learn their life lesson.

Whatever your hero needs to do to transform by the end, this B-story character will represent that journey or theme or help the hero learn it. 

This character represents the internal story of the novel. The external story is all the stuff going on outside of your hero — all of the plot points that you're throwing at your hero. The internal story is how those external plot points affect your hero inside, how it's affecting their psyche, how it's forcing them to transform. 

So we bring a character in to help represent that internal story, to bring that internal story out of your character's head and onto the page. This character can come in lots of different forms. It can be a love interest, a mentor, a friend, a nemesis, a sidekick or something else.

The key is that they somehow represent that internal journey that the hero is on by maybe either representing the flaw that the hero is, has maybe representing the life lesson that the hero needs to learn. 

Can there be multiple B-story characters?

Absolutely you can, but you want to make those B-story characters represent the theme in different ways — or they teach the hero the theme from a different angle. Otherwise, you risk readers asking, why do I need both? Then both characters will start to feel redundant. 

Example: The Girl on the Train

So actually, The Girl on the Train does have two B-story characters. Rachel's theme, remember, is facing reality and getting out of her imagination. This is represented by two different characters in the novel.

The first is Scott Hipwell, the missing woman’s husband. Now remember, he started out as part of that fantasy couple (but then, his name was Jason). His real name is Scott Hipwell and he starts out as a love interest, but he turns out to be very different than the Jason that Rachel imagined. He's a much darker person. He represents Rachel facing reality as a character that is nothing like the character that Rachel imagined. That's how he's representing that theme. 

On the other hand, we have Anna, the current wife of Rachel's ex-husband. She represents Rachel's painful past that she is trying to overcome. So, the two characters represent the theme in different ways. 

Beat 8. Fun & Games (20-50%)

All right, now we're in the heart of Act Two. The Fun & Games is the longest beat of the entire novel and it spans the 20% to 50% marks of your novel.

This is essentially a sequence of scenes or chapters where the hero navigates their new world. So we ask ourselves, how are they faring? Are they loving it, hating it, succeeding, floundering? 

We also see them pursuing their Act Two goal, and we can ask ourselves, are they making strides to achieve it, or are they struggling to achieve it?

The promise of the premise

This beat can also be called The Promise of the Premise. Essentially, the premise of any story really just boils down to “An Act One hero in an Act Two world”. When we make that Act Two world different enough, putting an Act One hero into it means that sparks will fly. We'll have immediate juxtaposition. We'll have conflict, and we'll have fun. That's where the term fun and games really comes from. 

So I urge you to make that Act Two world different enough to make your premise shine. We can also call this the novel's hook — it’s why the reader picked it up in the first place. 

Now, it's important to note that this beat might just be only fun for the reader. It doesn't mean that the hero has to be having fun. But it's fun for the reader because they're seeing that juxtaposition. 

Example: The Girl on the Train

In our example, Rachel is having a lot of fun in the Fun and Games as she's playing detective. She's having a blast researching and creating theories. She meets with Scott. She tips off the police about Megan kissing another man. She's really having a good time here. She even quits drinking and seems to be making strides toward solving the case. 

Beat 9. The Midpoint (50%)

The fun and games culminates at a beat called the midpoint. It is a single-scene beat that happens 50% of the way through the story, which is literally the middle of the novel. The fun and game culminates in either:

A false victory. This means the hero has thus far been succeeding and has achieved their goal, or come close to achieving their goal, or has achieved some big part of their goal. Or…

A false defeat. The hero has thus far been floundering in the fun and games. They’ve not achieved their goal or has maybe lost a big part of their goal.

A direction change

Either way, something needs to happen at the midpoint that's going to raise the stakes of the story and push the story in a new direction. Some popular ways to shift the direction of the plot: 

• Plot twists. This definitely shifts the direction of the plot by revealing some kind of surprise.
• Ticking clocks. If this doesn't happen by this time, X, Y, and Z will happen. 
• Shocking reveals. 
• The love story ramp up. It's sometimes hard to go back to who they were before once that love story ramps up. 

Something big should happen at the midpoint that's essentially going to shift the direction of the plot. What we want here is we want to push the hero out of the Fun and Games into the next beat and ultimately toward real change.

Example: The Girl on the Train

So this midpoint really needs to feel like things are starting to get serious and we see that play out really well in The Girl on the Train:

Kamal, the main suspect, is arrested. So we have a false victory. Rachel thinks she solved the case. But soon after… he's released, which proves that the victory was false.

Then to raise the stake and turn the story in a new direction, Megan's body is found. This upgrades the case to a murder investigation. It's no longer fun and games: Rachel's not just playing detective anymore, now a woman is dead. That's a great example of stakes being raised at the midpoint. 

Beat 10. Bad Guys Close In (50-75%)

Once we've shifted the plot's direction, we are in a brand new beat and a new direction. It is called The Bad Guys Close In. It's a multi-scene beat that spans 25% of the novel.

You can figure out what direction your “Bad Guys Close In” will take based on your midpoint. If your midpoint was a false victory, then this will be a downward path where things worsen for your hero. Remember, we want to shift the plot's direction so it doesn't feel stagnant.

On the other hand, if your midpoint was a false defeat or a false low, then this will feel like an upward path: things get progressively better for your hero.

But regardless of path, this is the beat where stakes and tension and conflict are heightened. We really want to feel like the walls are closing in on your hero. It's a claustrophobic beat. It's where things are feeling tighter and tighter. 

The enemy within

You could also call it “the conflict closes in” if you don't have real bad guys. You can throw conflict at your hero. But really, every hero has internal bad guys. These are your hero's flaws. Those things that they haven't quite transformed out of yet or conquered. There’s more and more pressure on your hero to change internally. 

The midpoint changed the direction of the plot; we will often see a new or modified goal being introduced at Bad Guys Close In. As the hero is heading in a new direction, there's a chance that they might have a new goal with that new direction. 

Example: The Girl on the Train

Things get progressively worse for Rachel as she loses herself in the investigation. 

• She starts seeing Megan's therapist, whom she thinks Megan was having an affair with.
• She sleeps with Megan's husband Scott, in attempt to get closer to this imaginary “Jason”. (So she's still kind of pursuing that fantasy life of hers). 
• She starts to remember things from the night of Megan's disappearance.
• She starts to drink again.

We see those flaws coming back, those internal bad guys closing in.

Beat 11. All is Lost (75%)

It doesn’t matter if you are on an upward or a downward path in your “Bad Guys Close In”. All paths lead to the All is Lost. This single-scene beat around three-quarters of the way through your novel, marking the story's lowest point. This is an action beat where something will happen to the hero that pushes them to rock bottom.

There's often a sense of failure to achieve a goal here or something important to the hero is lost. That's where we get that title, All is Lost. We want to make sure the hero really has failed or lost something. 

The whiff of death

This beat will often include what's called a whiff of death. Maybe something dies here: a mentor, a pet, a family member. Or you can also have a metaphorical death: maybe a relationship dies here. Maybe an idea or a partnership or a friendship dies here. We don’t insert the whiff of death because we're callous authors who like to manipulate the reader. No, what death does is it symbolizes the death of the old hero. Something has to die or give way so that the new hero — the transformed hero — can be reborn. 

So we insert something that dies here to symbolize that transition out of the old hero and into the new hero, which is coming up soon.

Example: The Girl on the Train

The whiff of death appears in The Girl on the Train when Scott finds out that Rachel has been lying to him and locks her up, threatening to kill her. It seems like she's completely lost — she won’t be able to solve this mystery because she's locked up in this closet.

Rachel also discovers that Megan was pregnant when she died and the baby wasn't Scott's or Kamal's. So her two main suspects are now out of the running. She has essentially failed at this as well. 

12. Dark Night of the Soul (75-80%)

The All is Lost is the low point, but then the hero has to wallow in it. They have a chance to react to this thing that has happened to them.

So this is another reaction beat over multiple scenes — 75 to 80% of your novel where the hero takes time to process what's happened. If that sounds like the debate, that’s not a coincidence. It's similar to what happens after the catalyst. 

I like to call it the wallowing beat because heroes often grieve or mourn, or maybe they get angry and rant and throw things. But essentially, the heroes should be worse off here than anywhere else in the novel — they've tried and they've failed, and now they get a chance to really wallow in that failure. This is their darkest hour. 

But remember, we're not just bringing them low just because it works. We are doing something very symbolic here. This is the darkness before the dawn. This is the gestation period of that new hero who will be reborn. This Dark Night of the Soul is necessary for the hero to dig deep down and find the solution they need to Break into Act Three (coming up next). 

The Dark Night Epiphany

This beat will often include a “Dark Night Epiphany”. This is some sort of final clue or piece of information or new way of looking at things that falls into place. Maybe the hero has some sort of life-changing a-ha realization. 

Example: The Girl on the Train

We see Rachel drinking herself into a stupor. So she's back to her old ways, and now she's even worse off than she was before. She tries to tell the police about Scott but she's turned away. They don't believe her anymore. 

So in this darkness, Rachel goes back into something that's scary: she finally confronts the man from her memory of that night, and he gives her a key piece of information about what happened. 

So the Dark Night Epiphany leads to an a-ha moment and a solution. 

Beat 13. Break into Three (80%)

This threshold between Act Two and Act Three comes at around 80%. It's one scene in which the hero realizes what they need to do. You could also call it a breakthrough moment. 

In this realization, the hero is coming up with a plan to fix all of the problems from Act Two and — maybe more importantly — fix themselves. Your character arc is nearly complete. Now, the character knows what they need to do. They know how to overcome their flaws. They know how to fix the messes they've made, but now we need to see them actually doing it, and that's what the next beat will be about. 

You'll find the Break into Three will often come with a modified goal or a new plan. We call it the “Act Three Goal”. It's the thing they're going to pursue throughout Act Three.

Example: The Girl on the Train

By confronting her past and facing that reality — which is her theme — Rachel realizes that Tom has been lying to her and manipulating her for a long time. So what does she do? She gets on a train — aha! —  and goes to rescue Anna (her B story character) from Tom, which is her Act Three goal.

Beat 14. Finale (80-100%)

As I said, the Break into Three is the decision to act. Now we get the implementation, and that's what we see throughout this beat called the Finale. This is a multi-scene beat that will take us to the end of the novel — the last 20% of your story — where the hero must prove that they really have learned the theme by enacting their Act Three Goal, and proving that they have what it takes.

That's why we don't make it easy for them. We throw lots of conflict at them, but this is where we'll see those bad guys being destroyed. Those flaws being conquered, hostages rescued, lovers reunited. Whatever else you've dreamed up for your big Act Three Finale. 

Sometimes the help of the B Story character is brought in here. The B story character maybe survived after the All is Lost whiff of death. 

It's important to note that the finale should never feel easy. It should feel like a test, because it is. We are testing the hero. Do they really have what it takes to conquer this flaw? We know that they know what to do. Can they actually do it?

We throw lots of conflict in, which is why it's often called the story's climax. By the end, not only is the hero's world saved but it's usually a better place than before. (I say usually because not all books ha have to have a happy ending. You might not choose to have a happy ending, but your story needs to go somewhere.)

Example: The Girl on the Train

In the Finale of The Girl on the Train, Rachel — along with Anna — confronts and brings down Tom for the murder of Megan Hipwell. When Tom tries to kill Rachel, she stabs him with a corkscrew, symbolizing her drinking the flaw. She has overcome her flaw and her past.

It's all coming together in this beat. Love this book so much. 

Alright, that brings us to the final scene of the novel. 

Beat 15. Final Image (100%)

This single-scene beat where we have our ta-da and an ‘after’ snapshot of your hero (where the opening image is the ‘before’ snapshot). Now that your hero has gone through the transformation machine, what do they look like? 

Like the opening image, it works best when it's visual — where we show the reader something and let them piece it together themselves instead of telling them what you want them to know.

And also helps if you mirror the opening image in some way. Maybe you put the hero in the same location as the opening image, but now they're behaving differently. Maybe they're holding the same object or encountering the same situation, but now differently. When we mirror the opening image, we can show the reader just how far the hero has come and give them the pieces they need to solve that mystery themselves and see exactly how the hero has transformed.

Example: The Girl on the Train

Once again, we see Rachel on a train. She's now sober, no longer stuck in the past. So we get a mirror of the opening image (also a train ride) but now she's not fantasizing about someone else's life. She's going toward her own new life. 

So that was a quick overview of the Girl on the Train beat sheet. If you wanna read the full beat sheet with all of the details and all of the page counts, you can find that in Save

The Cat! Writes a Novel, that's one of the 10 books that I break down in entirety in the book.

---

For another breakdown, look at Reedsy’s guide to the Save the Cat! Beat sheet. To get Jessica’s starter kit (including a downloadable beat sheet), head to her site.