My fellow writers! I’m super excited to welcome Kelly McWilliams, author of the upcoming Agnes at the End of the World, to NovelKnight today. She’s here to share how the Save the Cat! method helped her revise her novel!

Keep on reading to learn more and get a glimpse of Kelly’s beat sheet board, and don’t forget to pre-order Agnes at the End of the World, hitting shelves this June!

 

How Save The Cat!™ Saved My Butt!™

by Kelly McWilliams

If you’re a writer with an Internet connection, you’ve probably heard about the Save the Cat! beat sheet. Blake Snyder developed his beat sheet as a tool for screenwriters, but novelists have been known to use it, too. Snyder called his beat sheet a “transformation machine,” because at its essence, it’s a system that helps you chart your character’s course from (as a “for instance”) miserly miserable Scrooge to self-actualized champion of Christmas cheer.

Personally, I’d owned the Save the Cat! book for years before I finally tried using the beat sheet. The catalyst, for me, was sheer desperation. I’d just sold my book, AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD, to a publisher, but the manuscript was a hot mess. I needed to rewrite it from the first page to the last—and all on a deadline.

As a bulwark against despair, I picked up that book with the cute orange cat on it. (I also own an orange cat, and in fact my novel contains an orange cat! So much synergy!) I read it, re-read it, and tried my hand at the STC! beat sheet, the single most well known plotting tool on the inter-webs.

Reader, it didn’t work—at first.

But six months and approximately 6,000 beat sheets later, Save the Cat! officially Saved My Butt. If your butt (and your novel’s plot!) also needs saving, here are a few things to know before you purchase an orange-cat adorned copy of your own:

 

1. You will resist.

Yeah, listen. Novelists aren’t great at following directions. We crave sprawling narratives, the freedom to digress, and the use of whatever tense our heart desires! You WILL take one look at that beat sheet and think, formulas aren’t for me. But as Snyder himself explains, the beat sheet’s not a formula, but rather a form. The sonnet is a form, but that didn’t constrain Shakespeare. He successfully wrote scores of them, and each is unique. Tragedies and comedies are forms, too, for that matter, with their own rules and expectations (weddings, B-plots, and fatal flaws, oh my!)—but the wonderful thing is that structure actually engenders creativity. It seems paradoxical, but try it and see: If I say ready, set, write a poem! You’re going to stare blankly at me. But if I say, ready, set, write a limerick…. You see where I’m going with this, right?

 

2. You have to actually read the book.

I get it. You’re in a rush to get back to your real work—writing your novel. But you can’t just download a blank beat sheet from the Internet, fill it in like a multiple-choice test, and bam, problem solved. You have to read the (very good) book, and after that, I’m sorry to say, you’re going to have to let it marinate for a while. My first 5,000 beat sheets were bad, because I didn’t yet speak fluent “Cat.” Above all, the beat sheet is a language: a grammar that allows you to describe more clearly, to yourself, the essential elements of story. Think of the book as your first lesson in that new language, and then get practicing. Beat out your favorite novels, short stories, and movies. Better yet, teach your partner the beat sheet, then practice shouting “BREAK INTO TWO!” at the television simultaneously, whenever, you know, the story breaks into two (“Cat” for the beat when the character leaps into the second act). Learning the language of the beats takes time and practice, yes.

But it’s still easier than learning French, so there’s that!

 

3. Invest in bulletin board and index cards.

Because they’re about to take over your life.

 

4. Don’t take the beat sheet too seriously.

Occasionally, your character will wander away from the structure you’ve carefully designed, and my best advice is that you let them (all who wander are not lost, etc.). Yes, you are almost definitely writing your future “deleted scenes” when this happens—but you’re also learning important lessons about your character and yourself. As a novelist, you should take as many words and pages as you want to explore. Your wanderings may still make your story world richer.

 

5. DO modify STC! to your own cultural specifications.

Blake Snyder created the beat sheet from the perspective of his own particular identity, but YOU may come from a different culture with its own storytelling traditions. Keep in mind that some of the STC! guidelines (and especially the “genre” suggestions) may not apply to the story you’re trying to tell, or to who you are.

For example, I’m a mixed-race writer with roots in the black storytelling tradition. At one point in his book, Snyder advises against employing “Double Mumbo Jumbo”—basically, combining sci-fi space aliens with magic, or witchcraft with time travel—but black folks have been quilting our stories and mashing our genres for centuries. So I just ignored that rule, and that’s okay. The Cat is flexible. (Please @ me with examples of how you tailored STC! to your own cultural traditions—I’d love to see them.)

 

6. Say goodbye to pantsing as an identity.

This one’s rough. It’s like living your whole life as a Red Sox fan and then, one day, waking up to realize you can only ever cheer the Yankees. It’s weird, and you might have to change your Twitter bio, but it’s also okay. People change, you know?

 

7. Remember why stories exist.

Readers want to see characters transform from, say, an oppressed cult victim destined to become the sixth wife of an aging patriarch into a literal prophet of a newborn world. Every story is an opportunity to imagine ourselves at our worst, or at our best, or at our most true. Should you ever find yourself in need of a clear, precise story language, Save the Cat! is a great plotting system. But as long as you hold onto the purpose of your novel, to the impulse that drove you to find a beat sheet in the first place, I think you’ll be okay.

 

As Shakespeare once wrote in his most famous tragedy, Jurassic Park, “Life will find a way.”

Novelists are like velociraptors that way.

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Pre-Order Incentive!

Have you pre-ordered Agnes at the End of the World? Make sure to submit your receipt to receive:

• signed bookplate
• 2 bookmarks
• 2 stickers
• magnet
• “Are You in Rebellion?” enamel pin (US only)
  • available to the first 10 pre-orders + limited number of random pre-orders
  • from now until March 31st, EVERYONE who orders from an independent bookstore will receive the enamel pin

CLICK HERE for the full incentive details!

For more pre-order incentives, check out the NovelKnight Incentive page!

 

About the Book

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The Handmaid's Tale meets Wilder Girls in this unique, voice-driven novel from Kelly McWilliams.

Agnes loves her home of Red Creek--its quiet, sunny mornings, its dusty roads, and its God. There, she cares tirelessly for her younger siblings and follows the town's strict laws. What she doesn't know is that Red Creek is a cult, controlled by a madman who calls himself a prophet.

Then Agnes meets Danny, an Outsider boy, and begins to question what is and isn't a sin. Her younger brother, Ezekiel, will die without the insulin she barters for once a month, even though medicine is considered outlawed. Is she a sinner for saving him? Is her sister, Beth, a sinner for dreaming of the world beyond Red Creek?

As the Prophet grows more dangerous, Agnes realizes she must escape with Ezekiel and leave everyone else, including Beth, behind. But it isn't safe Outside, either: A viral pandemic is burning through the population at a terrifying rate. As Agnes ventures forth, a mysterious connection grows between her and the Virus. But in a world where faith, miracles, and cruelty have long been indistinguishable, will Agnes be able to choose between saving her family and saving the world?

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