Official channel of Jessica Brody, bestselling author of SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL as well as over 20 novels, and the founder of the Writing Mastery Academy.
So many pits of doom for a writer. Even starting a project because you need to make peace with it never being 100% what you imagine and hold dear. Need to accept it can become dear to someone else because they will imagine it differently. Translation errors, in a way. Need to break things up in manageable steps, and focus on one issue at a time... Editing and revision... Yep, when i have some scenes written in deep pov with a lot of (fun for me) effort, but then have a scene where the tense jumps around and i have stunners like "she looks like she is seemingly doubting her words". So... draft 2 draft 3 tackle one of those issues... bit by bit. Some parts will feel beyond current capability. You can leave those for another draft. Heck, a new idea to twist up those problem scenes can happen while youre moving forward. I like to say "draft" rather than "revision" because revisions are when im quite confident im polishing up. But it is the same essentially, just steps to that final thing.
In the example on the blog please clarify: Finale shows pages 299-342 and chapters 54-52. Final image are pages 342-349 and chapter 53. What are the correct chapters for Finale? Thanks
00:01 Use a quick and easy tip to improve your first scene. 00:31 Utilize 'hiding the ball' technique for impactful scene build-up 00:54 Creating an engaging opening chapter is crucial for a novel's success. 01:18 Avoid info dumping in the first scene. 01:46 Build tension and mystery in the first scene 02:12 Hiding the ball creates intrigue and engages readers 02:38 Create intrigue by withholding information from the reader. 03:01 Active readers are engaged and happy readers.
Happy to find you. Girl your book rocks. I owe you a lot. My idea is taking real shape after reading your book. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Love your writing style❤️❤️❤️❤️
I'm looking for some help. I'm reading the Save the Cat! book right now and now I'm not entirely sure about the structure of my book. At the start of my book, my character and her friends have been planning an escape from the place they are being held at for quite some time now and the book begins on their escape day as they start to execute their plan. I'm not entirely sure where the catalyst is here or if there even is one. Nothing happens to her at the start of the book that makes her leave her status quo world but she's been suffering abuse for years now and has always wanted to escape. Do I need to put something in there that flips the switch for her? The catalyst should be that an opportunity has prevented itself for her escape. Is it possible to start a book with a character already knowing her plan or should I change that? If it is possible, what can the catalyst be?
Hello, I'm an aspiring writer with an odd question. I have a passion for creating stories, but I have no talent. I was born with a litany of mental disabilities and with a low IQ. Despite my attempts, I've been unable to improve my intelligence in a way that would yield any merit, both in writing and in a number of pursuits. I'm in my late 40s and I believe it's too late to build any career in writing.I've been wasting my time and energy in trying to write a number of books to no avail. This passion for story creation will not leave me. Any advice on how to eliminate this passion for writing? It's not going anywhere and there is no extrinsic value for me if I continue with this dream.
Wait a minute, I'm confused -- so the scene beats are for individual scenes/chapters as well as for the entire book as a whole? (Kind of like a fractal?)
This was so incredibly helpful. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed after receiving an R&R from an agent! Didn’t know where to start. I feel like the fog has been cleared and I know exactly what to do now! Thank you!
Usually I use the narrator. Before any chapters at the begging, the narrator speaks three paragraphs of info dump - aka, set the scenario - necessary to the characters start speaking. I use a lot of free indirect speech, so the thinking of the characters go seamless into the narrator
Why are there more "authors" selling courses on how to write than actual authors writing new Novels? Hmmmm. Suspicious. Like the house-flipping online courses. Why would the guy sell his house-flipping secrets instead of just flipping more houses? Also weird (as others have said), Jessica didn't write Save The Cat, Blake Snyder did. Jessica's novels are exclusively for young adults. Nothing wrong with that, except that an adult novel is usually more complex. So keep that in mind. While this beat sheet could come in handy, it should probably only be used lightly as a guide. For example, the first mention of the antagonist on the beat sheet isn't until the MidPoint. Huh? No antagonist, no 1st half of the story! There are many elements not in the beat sheet that are typically found in great books, like plot twists and foreshadowing, just to name two. You are better off critically reading many books in your proposed genre to see the structure and other fundamentals. You can't color by numbers a novel. Get creative and fly by the seat of your pants using a little structure. Great painters or songwriters didn't have formulas. They became inspired and then created.
Thank you for this comment. These beat sheets are too rigid. I an still kind of a beginner so am trying to work with the basic structure and experiment with each story. Figuring out my process.
Your Save the Cat! book greatly helped me progress to getting my first draft completed. I have been working on a lot of developmental edits and I created a reverse outline to make it easier to look at the big picture. I am looking forward to the scene editing but I know how important the macro edits are before I get there. I have been consuming craft resources like crazy to get me through this revision/editing process. Thank you for your video!
I use Mario Puzo's The Godfather as a "go to" for writing. First page, the funeral director at court during the sentencing of the two men who raped and attacked his daughter. He is a tiny character that appear only once after Chapter 1. The paragraphs end with the men getting a suspended sentence and him being angry and saying, "For justice, I will go to (main character)."
Naive, inaccurate NaNoWriMo sales pitch stops at 1:05. I'm watching this even though NaNoWriMo is a propaganda arm of the DNC pretending to be some writing thing. They could care less. Their whole goal is forcing lefty extremism down everyone's throats whether they like it or not (as Gavin Newsome would say.) PLEASE STOP SUPPORTING NANOWRIMO. THEY ARE 100% POLITICS. (Don't believe me? Look at the emails they send out to people enrolled in the writing program giving marching orders on how to vote. )
