Do you need help plotting your novel?
Bestselling author and story coach Jessica Brody (author of the #1 bestselling plotting book, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel) is giving a virtual writing workshop March 11, 2023, from 12:00-2:00 p.m. MST.
You can be a part of it for only $47! (Only $37 if you are a member of the Idaho Writer’s Guild.) Go here to get your tickets!
In this dynamic and engaging presentation, Jessica guides you through the renowned Save the Cat! storytelling method that writers around the world are using to create engaging stories, compelling character arcs, and unputdownable novels.
Get Help Plotting Your Novel!
Using examples from popular books and movies, this workshop will peel back the curtain and show you the “secret storytelling code” that lies at the heart of all great fiction so you can harness its power to plot, write, outline, or revise your novel with confidence.
You will leave this workshop with a deeper understanding of what makes stories work and all the tools you need to craft your own bestseller.
There will be workshop elements and even some homework, so be sure to come prepared to work on a plot of your own.
For more information, check out the Idaho Writers Guild workshop page.
Plotting Your Novel: A Q&A with Jessica Brody
To help you get into the groove for this workshop, we asked Jessica a few questions about story structure and plot.
Q: You’ve worked with a lot of writers on story structure and plot. What is one of the top things writers get wrong when crafting their stories?
Not establishing clear enough goals for their main characters is a big one.
I find most problems—pacing, messy middles, meandering plots, writer’s block, and so many more—can be solved by going back to the goals of the story.
Goals are storytelling fuel. They give you something to write about and your reader something concrete to latch onto.
When writers are struggling to make their stories work, I urge them to look at their characters’ goals and ask questions like:
- What does the hero want when the story begins?
- How does the Catalyst (inciting incident) change, evolve, or intensify that goal?
- How does the Break into Act 2 solidify, focus, or change the goal?
- How does the Midpoint intensify, diminish, or nullify the goal? Especially after the Stakes are Raised?
You’d be amazed at how many problems these questions solve!
Plotting Your Novel: Have You Read the Book?
Q: What gave you the idea to write Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, and why do you think it’s resonated so well with writers?
I remember sitting at breakfast with the people who run Save the Cat! (they took over after Blake Snyder, the original author of the screenwriter books, passed away in 2009).
I’d been using the method for years to write my novels and also teaching the method to novelists through in-person workshops. It was almost this unspoken thing.
We all kind of brought it up at the same time. “We need a book for novelists, don’t we?”
At the time my in-person workshops were limited to 8 people and so I was only able to reach so many writers based on the constraints of my time and energy.
A book felt like the inevitable next step in order to help more novelists adapt the method.
Plotting with Save the Cat!—It Makes Sense!
Honestly, I think writers resonate with it for the same reason I resonated with the original screenwriting book when I first read it.
It makes sense.
It takes this oftentimes ineffable thing—storytelling—and breaks it down into an easy-to-follow blueprint that is just rigid enough to give you helpful guidelines, but not rigid enough to hinder your creativity within those guidelines.
Sometimes when you have “all the options” in the world for where your story can go next, it can be not freeing but paralyzing. (Like too many options on a restaurant menu).
But when you read, “your hero should make some kind of decision next and that decision should propel them through the next 30% of the novel,” suddenly your endless options are helpfully narrowed down by a sense of purpose and direction.
And that can be both freeing and inspiring.
Why a Personal Connection To Your Story Is Important
Q: You spent some time working as a manager of acquisitions for MGM. What did you learn there that could help writers improve their odds of receiving acceptances rather than rejections?
Honestly, I think it had much less to do with being part of the “industry” than having a “hook” for my first novel and being able to market it with that hook.
My first book was actually inspired by some of my experiences at MGM, which I was able to include in my pitches both to agents and editors, but also to readers when the book came out.
Having a personal connection to your story is powerful. People are typically intrigued by that and want to know more.
So I encourage authors to highlight any connection they might have to their story—and why they are the best person to write it—in their query letters.
Helping Other Writers to Plot Their Novels
Q: You’re a prolific writer yourself. Why do you make time in your schedule to help other writers? What specifically do you find rewarding about it?
Juggling both has been a process!
Since the book came out, I also opened my own online writing school, The Writing Mastery Academy, where we help fiction writers achieve their writing goals.
It’s been super rewarding being a part of so many writers’ journeys and breakthroughs. Nothing feels better than hearing one of our members say, “Your Fast Drafting course is the only reason I was able to finally finish a first draft.” Or “Your Save the Cat! course gave me so many aha! moments about my story.”
It’s like a shot of hot cocoa straight to my heart!
But I’ve also had to be very disciplined about how I manage my time, so that I don’t neglect my own creative process, which is what really nourishes me.
So I usually reserve three hours first thing in the morning for my own novels, and then spend the afternoon working with other writers.
How Teaching Kids Storytelling is Different from Teaching Adults
Q: You regularly do virtual workshops with school children. What do you find is different about working with children as opposed to adults?
Kids tend to have a delightfully uninhibited imagination that is so inspiring.
I play a fun brainstorming game where the kids have to come up with a random character and a random goal (there are those goals again!) and then write a scene with that character acting upon that goal.
Note: I do a similar prompt in one of my online courses for adults. The adults tend to come up with more practical things like, “A business woman who wants to ask her boss for a raise.” While the kids often come up with stuff like, “Darth Vader wants to eat French fries.”
How can you not be inspired by the image of Darth Vader showing up at the McDonalds drive-through and using the force to nab himself a large order of fries?
Plotting Workshop Is for Plotters AND Pantsers!
Q: Anything else you’d like to add to encourage writers to attend this workshop?
One of the number-one misconceptions writers have about learning a story structure method like Save the Cat! is that it’s just for outlining a novel (i.e. just for plotters, not for pantsers).
Yes, it’s a fantastic tool for outlining in advance, if that’s your thing.
But it’s also a fantastic tool for revising a first draft, building a revision plan (by comparing what you have to what you should have in order for your story to be the most compelling it can be), diagnosing what’s not working in your story, or breaking you out of writing slumps or blockages.
Structure is one of those pesky thing that all stories have to have. Whether it gets added in at the beginning, while you go, or after the fifteenth draft is irrelevant. It has to get added in somewhere.
So, if you’re struggling to make your story work at any part of the writing process, then this workshop might be just the breakthrough you need to move forward and re-ignite your passion for your story.
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Your Workshop Presenter
Jessica Brody is the author of more than 20 novels for teens, tweens, and adults including The Geography of Lost Things, The Chaos of Standing Still, Amelia Gray is Almost Okay, A Week of Mondays, 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, the Unremembered trilogy, and the System Divine trilogy which is a sci-fi reimagining of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, co-written with Joanne Rendell.
She’s also the author of the #1 bestselling novel-writing guides, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel as well as several books based on popular Disney franchises like Descendants and LEGO Disney Princess.
Jessica’s books have been translated and published in over 20 languages and several have been optioned for film and television. She’s the founder of the Writing Mastery Academy and lives with her husband and three dogs near Portland, OR.
Visit her online at JessicaBrody.com or WritingMastery.com. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The first novel-writing guide from the best-selling Save the Cat! story-structure series, which reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any novel a success.
Novelist Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story-structure guide for novelists that applies the famed Save the Cat! screenwriting methodology to the world of novel writing.
Revealing the 15 “beats” (plot points) that comprise a successful story–from the opening image to the finale–this book lays out the Ten Story Genres (Monster in the House; Whydunit; Dude with a Problem) alongside quirky, original insights (Save the Cat; Shard of Glass) to help novelists craft a plot that will captivate–and a novel that will sell.
Available at Amazon and wherever books are sold.
“Most comprehensive, engaging & applicable book on novel writing I’ve ever read!”
– Brittany
“Cannot Say Enough Good Things About This Book.”
– Frankie A.
“Brody gives clear cut – straight forward advice. She gives great examples of books for each act. This book has become a writer’s bible for me.”
– FeisyFae
“I’m a pantser by nature, but have struggled for years. Now, in the first few days of reading the book, I’ve had more epiphanies, inspiration, and “A-ha!” moments than I’ve had in the past few years!”
– Kelly H.