Save the Cat!® Forum - Recent Posts

RE: Writing a Tragedy

8c8080063d15 — Mon, 11 May 2026 12:28:33 +0000

it's hard to give specific advice. But of course, sometimes tales are "comeuppance" tales where the main character gets what he or she deserves, and thi

RE: Beat Mapper Page Count

greveshane — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:19:17 +0000

@bj Great! Thank you so much.

RE: Beat Mapper Page Count

BJ Markel — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:54:52 +0000

Hi Shane, That's actually a really good question! It's a double-spaced Word doc.

Beat Mapper Page Count

greveshane — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:59:57 +0000

This is probably a dumb question, but I'm attempting to write a book for the first time and I'm new to all of this.

When the beat mapper asks how many pages my novel is, what is it referring to? Pages of word document? A printed manuscript? A published book?

Thanks

Shane

RE: Minor POV Characters

Cory Milles — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 16:40:11 +0000

If they are minor characters, they don't necessarily need their own beat sheets. While it's true that multiple characters can change and have arcs throughout the story, they don't need to go through all of the beats individually. If the story is a two-hander, for example, and focuses on two different main characters, then it might be advisable to have a beat sheet for each of them, but otherwise, I would think it's fine not to.

RE: The Beat Sheet Sequence. Story told out of order.

Cory Milles — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 16:37:50 +0000

I think that in this case, you would want to focus the beat sheet on the main character, or hero. If this specific character is not the main character who is undergoing the change, then perhaps their story, told through flashbacks or in the past, might impact the hero's current story. Of course, there can be elements of the beats for additional characters, depending on how much growth the story has planned for them.

The Beat Sheet Sequence. Story told out of order.

askgenenow — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 19:21:50 +0000

One Character is introduced in the current timeline. But most of his story takes place five years earlier. The story alternates between the two timelines. The Beat Sheet appears to focus on sequential growth or change. How do I handle this?

Minor POV Characters

askgenenow — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 19:01:18 +0000

I have some minor POV Characters. Most have character arcs, but do they really need full beat sheets? They are only in the book for a few chapters?

RE: Content Not showing in Manuscript

BJ Markel — Wed, 29 May 2024 17:00:20 +0000

Hi, This is an infrequent issue -- and can differ depending upon whether you're using a PC or a Mac and your operating system. That's why we ask you to email tech support. In general, tech needs the user to create a thread with a description of the issue and the steps to reproduce it -- and then tech will fix the issue. So the Forum isn't an ideal place to handle this particular issue. Hope that helps!

RE: Content Not showing in Manuscript

Mark H — Tue, 28 May 2024 22:21:26 +0000

@bj

Hi, I have questions similar to a couple of others re: STC auto-saving and newly added

material not being saved and would love to hear the tech's response. Is that possible to post that so we can all learn from each other?

Thanks.

Mark H.