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SAVE THE CAT!® by Blake Snyder is a popular screenwriting book series and storytelling methodology used by screenwriters, directors, and studio execs across Hollywood. Now, for the first time ever, bestselling author and writing teacher, Jessica Brody, takes the beloved Save the Cat! plotting principals and applies them to the craft of novel writing in this exciting new “workshop style” guide, featuring over 20 full beat sheets from popular novels throughout time.Whether you’re writing your first novel or your seventeenth, Save the Cat! breaks down plot in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step method so you can write stories that resonate! This book can help you with any of the following:

Outlining a new novel
Revising an existing novel
Breaking out of the dreaded “writer’s block”
Fixing a “broken” novel
Reviewing a completed novel
Fleshing out/test driving a new idea to see if it “has legs”
Implementing feedback from agents and/or editors
Helping give constructive feedback to other writers

But above all else, SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL will help you better understand the fundamentals and mechanics of plot, character transformation, and what makes a story work!

Review: If you’re a writer, you need this book. I’ve read a lot of books on the craft of writing over the years, but this one really connected for me. I’m not even finished with it and I’m recommending it. Most of us have heard of “Save the Cat!” by Blake Snyder. That book is focused on screenwriting. This one is specifically about writing novels. As you can see from the blurb above, this will help you focus your writing so you know where you’re going. No, it’s not about plotting out the entire novel. It’s about figuring out who your characters are, what they want, why they want it, and how they get (or don’t get) there. The author writes in a clear, easy-to-understand way. There are multiple examples of what she calls “beats” or better known as plot points taken from real books that some of us have actually read. And no, that doesn’t mean your books will be formulaic. This is just a starting point to get you from beginning to end without (hopefully) getting bogged down in the middle.

Recommendation: Definitely!

Birthdays: Charles Darwin (1809), George Meredith (1828), Fred A. Shannon (1893), Alan Dugan (1923), Donald Kingsbury (1929), Judy Blume (1938), David Small (1945), Ray Kurzweil (1948), Jacqueline Woodson (1964),

Fred Albert Shannon won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize in History for “The Organization and Administration of the Union Army, 1861-1865”

Alan Dugan was an American poet, National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner for “Poems”

David Small won the 2001 Caldecott Medal for “So You Want to Be President?”

Jacqueline Woodson won the National Book Award and a Newbery Honor in 2015 for “Brown Girl Dreaming”

Quote: “I hate first drafts, and it never gets easier. People always wonder what kind of superhero power they’d like to have. I wanted the ability for someone to just open up my brain and take out the entire first draft and lay it down in front of me so I can just focus on the second, third and fourth drafts.” – Judy Blume

Tip: A redundancy is the use of a word or words that are not necessary and can be eliminated without losing the meaning of the sentence. “That” and “of” are often not needed. Go through your story and eliminate them where possible.

Jumpstart: Make a list of every place you’ve been in the past 24 hours. Describe each location in detail and the feelings associated with it. If you’ve not been anywhere, pick the last time you went somewhere and describe that, even if it’s just the grocery store.

Birthdays: Sidney Sheldon (1917), Gordon Lish (1934), Jane Yolen (1939), Joy Williams (1944), Pico Iyer (1957), Mo Willems (1968),

Quote: “Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.” – Jane Yolen

Tip: Go to a library and browse the stacks. Check out areas you don’t normally go. What can you find that’s new and different for you?

Jumpstart: Make a list of images you find disgusting or ugly. Choose one and write a description that redeems that object.

Do yourself a favor and get this book. It’s one of my favorite books on writing.

Managed to get 87 pages of edits done yesterday. Hope to get this baby done today!

Birthdays: Charles Lamb (1775), William Allen White (1868), Boris Pasternak (1890), Bertolt Brecht (1898), Joseph Kessel (1898), Adrienne Adams (1906), Alex Comfort (1920), E.L. Konigsburg (1930), Stephen Gammell (1943), Mary McGarry Morris (1943), Francis Moore Lappe (1944), Vernor Vinge (1944), Mark Teague (1963), Lucy Cousins (1964), Glenn Beck (1964).

E.L. Konigsburg is a two-time winner of the Newbery Medal.

Stephen Gammell is the winner of the 1989 Caldecott Medal for his work on “Song and Dance Man”

Vernor Vinge is a multiple Hugo Award winner for his science fiction

Quote: “No bad man can be a good poet.” – Boris Pasternak, known for his book “Doctor Zhivago”

Tip: What is your book about? Boil the answer down to no more than two sentences. This becomes the basis for your pitch to editors and agents.

Jumpstart: You’ve been chosen…. (finish this using splinter, guitar, in a lab)

Birthdays: Anthony Hope (1863), Amy Lowell (1874), Thomas Bernhard (1931), Lionel Fanthorpe (1935), J. M. Coetzee (1940), Alice Walker (1944)

Amy Lowell won the 1926 Pulitzer for Poetry.

J.M. Coetzee won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and the National Book Award for “The Color Purple”

Quote: “Fiction is such a world of freedom, it’s wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.” – Alice Walker

Tip: Make a list of words that sound good to your ears. They might be onomatopoeic (buzz, sizzle) or simply words that suggest particular emotions or qualities. Keep them on hand for when you need a specific feeling.

Jumpstart: He stared at the key in his hand…the key to everything…

Birthdays: John Ruskin (1819), Jules Verne (1828), Kate Chopin (1850), Elizabeth Bishop (1911), Lisel Mueller (1924), Neal Cassady (1926), Donna Jo Napoli (1948), Barbara Joosse (1949), Rebecca Wells (1952), John Grisham (1955), Rachel Cusk (1968), Mary Robinette Kowal (1969)

Elizabeth Bishop won the Pulitzer and National Book Award and was US Poet Laureate from 1959-1960.

Lisel Mueller won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer for Poetry.

Quote: “Write a page every day. That’s about 200 words, or 1 000 words a week. Do that for two years and you’ll have a novel that’s long enough. Nothing will happen until you are producing at least one page per day.” – John Grisham

Tip: Switch writing gears. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or an article for your writer’s group newsletter. The change of pace can revitalize you.

Jumpstart: One of your characters keeps something in a box, buried where no one will ever find it. What is in there? What is the significance of the object? Where is it buried?

Jules Verne has always been one of my favorite science fiction authors.

Birthdays: Thomas More (1478), Charles Dickens (1812), James Murray (1837), Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867), Sinclair Lewis (1885), Fred Gipson (1908), Marion Cunningham (1922), Gay Talese (1932), Eric Foner (1943), Karen Joy Fowler (1950), Patrick McGrath (1950), Emma McLaughlin (1974).

James Murray was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Laura Ingalls Wilder is famous for her “Little House” series.

Sinclair Lewis won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Fred Gipson is best known for his 1956 novel “Old Yeller”

Marion Cunningham was noted for her work on The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

Eric Foner won the 2011 Pulitzer for History for his book “The Fiery Trial”

Quote: “The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will’. Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.” – Charles Dickens

Tip: Your main character(s) should grow and change through the story. By the end, they should have changed for the better and grown in positive ways.

Jumpstart: Your character is building a new house. What does it look like? Give details.

I made very little progress on the writing challenge this weekend as things like doing taxes and laundry and housework were deemed more important than writing and editing.

Birthdays: Louis Dudek (1918), Carl N. Degler (1921), Keith Waterhouse (1929), Tom Brokaw (1940), Daniel Yergin (1947), Michael Pollan (1955), Kevin Trudeau (1963), Kathryn Stockett (1969),

Carl Degler won the 1972 Pulitzer for History for “Neither Black nor White”

Daniel Yergin won the 1992 Pulitzer for Nonfiction for “The Prize”

Quote: “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” ― Tom Brokaw

“I sit in my little office and I feel like I’ve got all my readers staring at me.” – Kathryn Stockett

Tip: Get your mind off your WIP (work in progress) and read something totally different. Don’t analyze, don’t critique, don’t make notes. Just relax and read.

Jumpstart: You have to evacuate your home quickly due to a natural disaster (or some other emergency). What do you take? What do you leave behind?

Like most writers–and actually, anyone doing any job (and yes, writing is a job!), I have off days. Days where the words just won’t come. Yesterday was one of those days. I didn’t even come close to my goal. It happens. The trick is to keep going in the days following. So hopefully today will be better.

Birthdays: Herman Charles Bosman (1905), William S. Burroughs (1914), Margaret Millar (1915), Andrew Greeley (1928), Stephen J. Cannell (1941), Bill Strauss (1947), Terence Blacker (1948), David Wiesner (1956), Tom Eaton (1977)

David Wiesner Won the 1992 Caldecott Medal for “Tuesday”, 2001 for “The Three Pigs” and 2006 for “Flotsam”.

Quote: “For it is not the story that counts. What matters is the way you tell it.” – Herman Charles Bosman

Tip: Go for a walk or do other exercise for at least ten minutes—more is better. Do this especially if you’re stuck on something. Fresh air and movement gets the blood flowing – and wakes up the brain.

Jumpstart: Your house is haunted. Who is haunting you and why? Are they friendly? Or evil?

Some fun books this time around!

Under Mysteries:

5 Sparklers for “Murder With Earl Grey Tea” by Karen Rose Smith – but be forewarned, you really should read the first eight in this series in order to fully understand what’s going on. But you won’t be sorry!

Under Fantasy:

5 Sparklers for “Pillar of Heaven” by Kitty Shields. Great characters, especially Kate, the main character. But… watch out for quite a few typos. Still, the story is worth the read.

Under Romance:

3 Sparklers for “Georgie All Along” by Kate Clayborn. A little slow, but a satisfying ending.