Tag Archives: Story

Save the Cat Story Structure

Save the Cat is a plot type where the different parts of the plot are broken into “beats.” All the beats have a particular percentage associated with them. Which allows an aspiring writer to understand how much of the story belong to each part. Without further ado, here is Save the Cat story structure.

Photo by Anni Roenkae

Save the Cat Story Structure Beats

Act 1

  1. Opening Image (0-1%): A snapshot of the protagonist and their world.
  2. Theme Stated (5%): A statement, made by someone else, not the protagonist. It hints at what the character arc for the protagonist is going to be. This is also referred to as a life lesson.
  3. Set up (1-10%): This is what I call the “day in the life of.” This is where you see the protagonist’s world before things change for them.
  4. Catalyst (10%): This is the inciting incident, the thing that happens that changes everything for the protagonist, and makes their old life impossible to go back to.
  5. Debate (10-20%): A section where the protagonist debates about what to do next. This should show their resistance to change.

Act 2

  1. Break into 2 (20%): This is the moment where the protagonist accepts the call to action, essentially they decide to take action in a way that moves the story forward.
  2. B Story (22%): A new character is introduced that will help the protagonist along the way. This person will help the protagonist grow, and assist in resolving their character arc.
  3. Fun and Games (20-50%): This is where we see the character in the new world, they are either succeeding or floundering. This section represents the “hook” of the story.
  4. Midpoint (50%): The fun and games section culminates in either a false victory, or false defeat, and should raise the stakes and push the story forward for the protagonist.
  5. Bad Guys Close In (50-75%): If the mid-point ended with a false victory, then everything should start to get worse. If it ended in a false defeat, then things should start to look up for the protagonist. Either way, the protagonist’s deep-rooted flaws are closing in.
  6. All is lost (75%): The lowest point. Something pushes our protagonist to rock-bottom.
  7. Dark Night of the Soul (75-80%): A moment where the protagonist reacts to everything that has happened so far. They should be worse off than they were at the beginning of the story. This is the moment right before they figure everything out.
Photo by Marco Comolatti

Act 3

  1. Break Into 3 (80%): The moment when the protagonist realizes what needs to be done to fix the problems from Act 2, and also to fix themselves. Their character arc is almost completed.
  2. Finale (80-99%): The protagonist enacts the plan that they came up with. The world is not only saved, it’s better than it was before.
  3. Final image (99-100%): This is a mirror to the opening image, where everything is fixed.

If you have read some of my other posts, or you have some knowledge of plot structure, you will notice the similarity to Freytag’s pyramid, and to the three-act-story-structure. In reality, most plot types will follow the same trajectory. This is one is good if you need to know about specific things and when they should happen in your story to keep yourself on track.

The next time I discuss plot, we will look at a structure that is near and dear to my heart, the hero’s journey. So stay tuned for that, and thank you for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

Coming up with Story Ideas

I once had a class where an author came and spoke about the differences between writers, and everyone else. What are these differences? Writers take their weird thoughts and expand on them. Non-writers will just shrug them off, and move on. With that being said, let’s talk about coming up with story ideas.

Photo by Anni Roenkae from Pexels

How?

How does a person come up with an idea for a story? Lots of ways. I will go over a few that I’ve used below.

Writing Prompts

One of the easiest ways to come up with an idea is to look at a prompt. A writing prompt is a couple of sentences. They will usually detail a situation, and maybe a character. Then they will ask the writer to take the situation/character from there. You can sign up to get writing prompts sent to your email, or they can be found through social media.

Pictures

Grab a picture that you really love. It could be anything, it could be a photograph, it could be a painting, a drawing, maybe even a sculpture. Make a story that revolves around the picture. Imagine what the world of the picture is like, if it’s a surreal, imagine a whole where that kind of landscape can exist. If it’s a photograph, if there is a person in it, what are they like (if it’s a photo of someone you know, then focus on another aspect of the picture).

If it’s a beautiful landscape, what can you imagine happening there? What if that beautiful landscape was previously the site of a large battle, what if that landscape was the home of a fantastic creature, or a horrible murder, or what if the children gathered there on the night their parents died, or their house burned, or maybe the mountain is the one that the woman summited after she’d gone through so much, and she was finally gaining her own power back.

Photo by cottonbro

Folk/fairy Tales

Re-told fairy tales have been something that people are interested in reading for a long time now. Because they are well-known, they may be harder to get published. However, that shouldn’t stop anyone from taking their favorite folk and fairy tales and then bringing them into the 21st Century and making them their own. You can even ditch the magical aspects, or maybe remain more faithful to the Grim’s version, or alternatively, you can take multiple tales and weave them together. Maybe Beauty is a badass carpenter, and instead of being pressured to marry the town jerk, she gets called to a mansion to make some kind of chair or railing or something, and on the way there she meets up with red riding hood or Hansel and Gretel.

Also, because the fairy tales have been done so many times and are well-known, it may be worth it to look into legends from different areas, or ones that aren’t that well-known in your area. Or you can use it as a framework for the story, without making it apparent that it came from a folk or fairy tale.

Pay Attention

This last idea is simply about paying attention to the world around you when you are out and about. When you are walking down the street, and you see someone that you find to be completely interesting, put them in a work, or use them as a jumping off point for a story. Or when you have weird occurrences happen to you, and you think “what if,” either write those down, or just try to remember them when it’s time to write.

So when coming up with story ideas, one size doesn’t fit all. But, there are enough ways to come up with a story that everyone should be able to find something to work for them.

Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you want to hear more about how to come up with ideas, or maybe a writing prompt? Let me know what you are looking for.