The Cat versus The King

I recentlay read two books on writing, and they couldn’t be more different: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody and On Writing by Stephen King. King is a panster; Cat! gives the novel a prescribed 3-act structure, plus a bunch of details, to be carefully planned before one word is written. King disdains the word “plot”; perhaps both authors would prefer the term “structure.” King depends on inspiration, following his muse. Cat! calls for a detailed plan akin to an outline.

King depends upon revelation, loosely contained within a structure; Cat! suggests structure with creativity within bounds. It’s fly versus walk. It’s like comparing Wishcraft by Barbara A. Sher (intuitive) to What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles (analytical) for career advice. 

Save the Cat! is a popular screen writing plan written by Blake Snyder, which has been adapted for novels by Brody. The skeleton of the novel is the “beat sheet,” organized in a 3-act structure, like many plays. 

You start with creating the main character, whom Brody calls the hero. You develop some information about the plot by deciding upon the hero’s problem, wants, and needs. 

The A story is the premise playing out, while the B story is usually the love interest. 

Act I is an opening image and the catalyst. Brody instructs us to have a character state the theme. The act is very short. Act II brings us all the way past the midpoint to a false solution. It is very long. Act III is the climax, resolution and wrapup. It’s very short. Each act contains specific details; those are the beats, but they too vary in length. 

King’s method is to start with the kernel of an idea and then write 2000 words a day, discovering the story as he goes. Sometimes he thinks he knows the ending, but then it may change. Besides plot, he hates flashbacks. Both are boring. One of Cat’s examples is Misery. I wonder how King feels about that!

Of course, change can happen using either method. Writing is still a discovery process; it has to be or it’s too mechanical, too dull, and too predictable. That would be considered a sin by either author.

I’m definitely in the Save the Cat! camp. I tried pantsing, and I wrote myself into a dull, inept climax. No more of that for me. But I actually preferred the outline format that I used for my second novel to the Save the Cat! method I used for the third one. I followed the outline pretty closely and ended up with the word count I was looking for. With the Cat! method, I kept jumping ahead; I had scenes that were just too similar, and I ended up with a word count that is far too low. 

Part of the problem may be the fast drafting I did during Nanowrimo, versus the 10-month method I used for the outlined book. I think I need something between the two–drafting that is slower than Nano but faster than 10 months. And an outline with important plot points and word counts to define the must-have scenes. 

Can’t wait to start editing to see which novel is actually better (#2 or #3; #1 went into the dumpster where it belongs).