In the book “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel,” author Jessica Brody goes over a 15-step method to turn any idea into a full novel outline.
So let’s vote on a bestselling book idea and then try her method together!
During the last stream, we went over the 15-step method to outline a novel from “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody.
Definitely check out her book here if you’re at all interested in crafting novels.
Watch a short version of the stream here or scroll down for what we wrote.
“Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” Awesome Outline Method
- Writing a novel can be scary. What if your idea runs out of steam? What if you get writer’s block? What if you get to the end and it sucks?
- One way to alleviate those feelings is by creating an outline for the novel beforehand, so that you have a roadmap for your story, and you know where it will end up
- Doing this can give you the confidence to trust your story idea, while still leaving plenty of room for improvisation and surprises to pop up while writing the story itself
How Do I Outline?
- There are a lot of different ways to outline a story, but one of my favorites is the 15 step/beat outline from the book Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
- I like it because (1) the outline works for any kind of story, (2) she proves this by fitting ten popular novels into the outline, and (3) if your novel hits all 15 beats then you know you’re going to have a good story on your hands
- So let’s go over the outline together quickly, then come up with a novel idea to outline using it together
The 15 Beats of Good Stories
- Opening Image (1%)
- A “before” snapshot of your hero/world
- Ex: In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the opening image is Harry being dropped off as a baby at the Dursley’s, getting hints of the magical world along the way
- Theme Stated (2-5%)
- Allude to the transformation your hero will take
- Harry is marked as the “chosen one,” and the story is about him coming to terms with that.
- “Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won’t remember!”
- Setup (6-10%)
- Show your hero’s life/status quo before everything changes
- Show their problems and that stasis = death for them
- Introduce all of the A-story characters
- We see Harry’s life with the Dursleys, see that it’s miserable, and if he doesn’t leave then things will just get worse
- Catalyst (11%)
- Disrupt the hero’s world with a life-changing event
- Mysterious letters arrive for Harry, then Hagrid comes to tell him he’s a wizard
- Debate (12-20%)
- The hero is hesitant to change/prepares for Act 2
- Harry prepares to go to Hogwarts, getting his school supplies, but he’s worried he won’t fit in, and that he won’t live up to his reputation as “the boy who lived”
- Break Into Act Two (21%)
- Hero enters the new world
- In Act 2, they will usually try to fix things in the wrong way, or they are oblivious to the wrong things happening
- Harry boards the train to Hogwarts (unaware of the secrets hidden inside of it)
- B-Story (22-24%)
- Introduce characters who represent the new world/story theme
- Harry meets Ron and Hermione, as well as the other students/teachers at the school
- Fun and Games (25-49%)
- The premise of the novel, how the hero fares in act 2, either having fun or floundering, ups and downs
- The premise of the story is a wizarding school, and that is delivered here with all the different classes, houses, moving staircases, battling a troll, etc. Harry has ups, like joining the Quidditch team, and downs, like getting trouble with Snape/Malfoy
- Midpoint (50%)
- A false defeat/victory, raising the stakes, sometimes a twist
- Harry feels like he has it all, winning a Quidditch match and finding a new home, until Hermione reveals that Snape was trying to kill Harry during the match on his broom… something bigger is going on at Hogwarts
- Bad Guys Close In (51-74%)
- Hero rebounds after defeat, or falls after victory
- Hagrid accidentally tells them about Nicolas Flamel and Fluffy, and they learn about the Sorcerer’s Stone, an artifact that can give eternal life, which is being held in secret at the school
- All Is Lost (75%)
- The hero’s lowest point of the story, a whiff of death
- During detention in the Forbidden Forest, Harry finds out that Voldemort, the evil wizard who killed his parents, is trying to get the Sorcerer’s Stone to come back to life
- Dark Night of the Soul (76-80%)
- Hero reacts to All Is Lost and breaks through to resolution
- Harry/Ron/Hermione discover that Snape knows about the stone and when they try to tell Dumbledore, they find out that he’s gone
- Break Into Act Three (81%)
- Combines A-Story with B-story, fixes things the right way
- The trio decides that it’s up to them to stop Snape
- Finale (82-99%)
- Resolves all problems in Act 2, proves your hero has learned the theme and been transformed
(1) Gathering The Team
- The trio meet in the common room, get past Neville and Peeves, and use the invisibility cloak to go to the Stone
(2) Executing the Plan
- They get through traps set to protect the stone, with the B-story characters sacrificing themselves for Harry to proceed
(3) The High Tower Surprise
- Oh snap, it’s not Snape, it’s Professor Quirrell who was after the stone, and Voldemort is literally a part of him
(4) Dig Deep Down
- Harry realizes that as “the boy who lived,” he can defend himself against Quirrell/Voldemort
(5) The Execution of the New Plan
- Harry presses his hands against Quirrell/Voldemort, turning him to dust, and then later Dumbledore explains it was the power of his mother’s love-sacrifice-shield
- Final Image (100%)
- An “after” snapshot of your hero/world to show the change
- The trio take the train back home, and even though Harry has to go live with the Dursleys for the summer, he’s completely different than before: he’s confident, has friends, and is no longer alone
– These 15 beats don’t just work for Harry Potter, they work for any story, because the beats are what makes a story a story
– Sometimes they might be in a different order, or have different percentages, but unless the story is abstract/purposefully weird, all of the steps are there
– Yes, it’s similar to the Hero’s Journey, but that’s more of a theoretical idea while these 15 beats are an actual formula that you can use to plug in your own story ideas
After that, chat voted for a story idea for us to outline together. They voted for this one: An architect finds a building that breaks the laws of reality.
First we used the premise formula to flesh it out a bit more:
On the verge of [stasis = death] moment, a [flawed hero] [breaks into act 2]. But when [midpoint] happens, they must learn the [theme stated], before the [all is lost].
We turned that into this for our story:
On the verge of [bankruptcy], a [bitter architect] [discovers a building that breaks the laws of reality]. But when [he goes inside, and finds that he can’t leave], he must learn [to make reality his own], before [he pops out of existence along with the anomaly].
Here’s the outline we came up with:
- Opening Image (1%)
- A “before” snapshot of your hero/world
- MC goes to a meeting for a client, where he has awesome ideas for a new building, but they’re all shot down one by one. The client keeps asking him for weird additions/changes, like they always do. “They’re asking me to defy reality!” He leves the meeting in a huff.
- Theme Stated (2-5%)
- Allude to the transformation you hero will take
- Back at his office, the MC complains people don’t understand the beauty of classic architecture, the restraints of reality
- His employee tells him that sometimes you have to make reality your own (for example, he used to live in poverty, finding shelter in places that others would never think of as “homes”)
- Setup (6-10%)
- Show your hero’s life/status quo before everything changes
- Show their problems and that stasis = death for them
- Introduce all of the A-story characters
- MC finds out that his architecture firm is going to go bankrupt soon, he can’t deal with it and just gets blackout drunk one night and struggles to walk home
- Catalyst (11%)
- Disrupt the hero’s world with a life-changing event
- Not sure if he’s drunk or not, he discovers a building that breaks the laws of reality. In the middle of an empty lot, there’s a massive building hovering above the ground that changes depending on the angle he looks at it. He runs away from it screaming
- Debate (12-20%)
- The hero is hesitant to change, prepare them for Act 2
- MC brings his employee to the lot the next day, but there’s no more weird building there, it’s empty. Employee is worried about their firm, thinks his boss is a drunk, and quits.
- Break Into Act Two (21%)
- Hero enters the new world
- In Act 2, they will usually try to fix things in the wrong way, or they are oblivious to the wrong things happening
- Now MC is all alone, goes into a public restroom, but when he comes out… he’s inside the building he saw last night. He looks out a window and sees the empty lot.
- B-Story (22-24%)
- Introduce characters who represent the new world/story theme
- MC meets an imp creature inside the building who explains that it’s a reality-bending prison that he needs to escape from.
- Fun and Games (25-49%)
- The premise of the novel, how the hero fares in act 2, either having fun or floundering, ups and downs
- MC and the imp go through a series of reality-bending puzzles/traps that require the MC to abandon his preconceived notions of what reality is in order to proceed through them
- For example, he has to go through a door on the floor, or instead of turning on a TV, he has to turn on a couch, etc.
- Each puzzle draws upon a job that he had in the past, or a relationship that went poorly, etc.
- Midpoint (50%)
- A false defeat/victory, raising the stakes, sometimes a twist
- MC thinks that they’ve escaped the reality-shifting building, but it turns out they’re actually just in another room inside it, they’re going to be trapped forever
- Bad Guys Close In (51-74%)
- Hero rebounds after defeat/falls after victory, flaws close in
- The puzzles get even crazier, impossible to solve, the MC can’t figure out how to unlock them anymore
- All Is Lost (75%)
- The hero’s lowest point of the story, a whiff of death
- The imp tells him that there’s a time limit, the building will vanish from existence in one hour
- Dark Night of the Soul (76-80%)
- Hero reacts to All Is Lost and breaks through to resolution
- MC discovers that he has the power to control what happens inside the building, and he uses that power to solve the puzzle, *making* it is solvable. (He summons a lighter to set fire to a wall and burn it down, etc.)
- Break Into Act Three (81%)
- Combines A-Story with B-story, fixes things the right way
- MC realizes he’s not going to escape by playing the stupid puzzles and traps, he needs to make his *own* exit
- Finale (82-99%)
- Resolves all problems in Act 2, proves your hero has learned the theme and been transformed
(1) Gathering The Team
- MC rides the imp, moving too quickly for the building to keep up with
(2) Executing the Plan
- MC bends reality to his will, and escapes from the building, back into the lot
(3) The High Tower Surprise
- Oh snap! The building comes alive and tries to devour the MC and imp in the real world too
(4) Dig Deep Down
- MC can’t use the reality-controlling powers in the real world outside of the house, but then the imp reveals that he was the employee all along, and the MC still has the power to “alter” reality. Everyone does!
(5) The Execution of the New Plan
- MC “alters” reality by burning down the building with the lighter he’d summoned, then passes out in the fume.
- Final Image (100%)
- An “after” snapshot of your hero/world to show the change
- Employee wakes up MC, MC tells him all about the adventure inside the building and how he was the imp and everything, but the employee just laughs. He says he found him here, passed out drunk, and asks if he can have his old job back. MC says enthusiastic yes
- MC quickly calls up the old client, tells them that he’s more than happy to bend reality for them now
So what do you think of our outline? It’s not perfect, but it think it’s a great start. We have a solid beginning, middle, and end, and there’s still plenty left to discover and surprise ourselves with when we write the book.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Images: Pexels