How to Write A Novel: The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet
A book I highly recommend for anyone writing a novel (or a screenplay) is Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder. Meant as a guide to writing screenplays that sell, I have found that the book applies just as much to the art of novel-writing. This is because the bulk of the book is about storytelling and story structure. You can find the book here on Amazon. I don’t have an affiliate link (though maybe I should set that up.)
The 15 Storytelling Beats
Anyhoo, the reason I found this book so extremely helpful is because of the BS2, the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet. Throughout his years of experience as a screenwriter, Snyder came to realize that all stories, at least all stories that sell, follow the same structure.
- Opening Image
- Theme Stated
- Set-Up
- Catalyst
- Debate
- Break into Two
- B Story
- Fun and Games
- Midpoint
- Bad Guys Close In
- All Is Lost
- Dark Night of the Soul
- Break into Three
- Finale
- Final Image
In the book, Snyder discusses what each of the beats means. If you’ve spent any time writing stories, you’ll probably already be familiar with many of them, since the BS2 follows the standard story structure of introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. Where Save the Cat really stands out is in all the detail that Snyder provides for each beat. He also tells you exactly which page each beat needs to happen on. You can visit the Save the Cat website to use their beat mapping tool for your own project as well. Just input the length of your novel or screenplay and the tool spits out the beat sheet for you.
Letting Story Structure Guide You
The reason I have found the BS2 to be so helpful is precisely because of all that detail. Most writing guides teach you about the three-act structure, or five-act structure, but for a novice novelist, those frameworks leave huge, intimidating gaps to be filled in. Sure you can follow the three-act structure, but what exactly are you supposed to write for hundreds of pages in the “rising action” section? What is the best way to lay out a novel’s plot and character development? These are questions I’ve really struggled with over the years and so the BS2 was a complete revelation. It tells you exactly how to structure your story, and exactly how to map out your character development based on that structure.
If you’re worried that planning so much will ruin the creative joy of writing with abandon, rest assured there is a lot of room for creativity when using the beat sheet. As Snyder says in the book, “Screenplays are Swiss clocks of emotion.” You will have to structure your story eventually, the beat sheet simply helps you do that earlier in the writing process rather than later.
Save the Cat has also taught me how to analyze movies better. Ever come away from the cinema feeling totally dissatisfied but unable to put your finger on why? Well, the movie probably didn’t follow the above structure very well.
No matter what you’re writing, this guide will help you understand how stories should be set up and how characters must develop over time.
It’s been a great help to me, and I’m sure it will be a great help to others too.
