![The template open in Strokes: a banner picture of a ginger cat asleep on a sunny window seat, above the title “Save the Cat beat sheet: [Working title]”.](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fhero-light.67244e96.webp&w=3840&q=75)
![The template open in Strokes: a banner picture of a ginger cat asleep on a sunny window seat, above the title “Save the Cat beat sheet: [Working title]”.](/_next/image?url=%2F_next%2Fstatic%2Fmedia%2Fhero-dark.bca71adb.webp&w=3840&q=75)
When to use it
- Plotting a commercial novel (thriller, romance, fantasy, mystery) before the first draft
- Breaking a screenplay into beats with Snyder's page numbers
- Finding the sag in a finished draft by checking where each beat actually lands
- Drafting a synopsis or pitch: the filled-in beat table is its skeleton
How to use this template
- Write the logline and the theme first
Fill in "Story at a glance" before touching the beats. If you cannot write the logline yet, the beat sheet will not hold either. Write the theme as what the hero needs, kept separate from what they want: every beat below either pushes the want or tests the need.
- Place the five turning points
Write one sentence each for the Catalyst, Break into Two, the Midpoint, All Is Lost and Break into Three. These are single scenes, and they turn the story. The Catalyst is what other models call the inciting incident. The stretches between the turns (Debate, Fun and Games, Bad Guys Close In, Dark Night, the Finale) run for several chapters each and are far easier to fill once you know where they lead.
- Convert the placements to your length
Multiply your target word count by each percentage and write the chapter in the last column. The table below does the arithmetic for an 80,000-word novel. Measure by words, not chapters, because chapter lengths vary.
- Pair the mirrors, then run the check
Several beats answer each other. Fill in the mirror check, then tick through the checklist. Run it again on the finished draft, using where each beat actually landed.
Beat percentages for novels and scripts
Blake Snyder wrote the beat sheet in Save the Cat! (2005) for a 110-page screenplay and pinned each beat to a page number. Jessica Brody's Save the Cat! Writes a Novel (2018) adapted the method for fiction and turned the pages into percentages.
| Beat | Novel | 80,000-word novel | 110-page script |
|---|---|---|---|
| BeatOpening Image | Novel0–1% | 80,000-word novelfirst ~800 words | 110-page scriptp. 1 |
| BeatTheme Stated | Novel~5% | 80,000-word novel~4,000 words | 110-page scriptp. 5 |
| BeatSetup | Novel1–10% | 80,000-word novel800–8,000 | 110-page scriptpp. 1–10 |
| BeatCatalyst | Novel~10% | 80,000-word novel~8,000 | 110-page scriptp. 12 |
| BeatDebate | Novel10–20% | 80,000-word novel8,000–16,000 | 110-page scriptpp. 12–25 |
| BeatBreak into Two | Novel~20% | 80,000-word novel~16,000 | 110-page scriptp. 25 |
| BeatB Story | Novel~22% | 80,000-word novel~17,600 | 110-page scriptp. 30 |
| BeatFun and Games | Novel20–50% | 80,000-word novel16,000–40,000 | 110-page scriptpp. 30–55 |
| BeatMidpoint | Novel~50% | 80,000-word novel~40,000 | 110-page scriptp. 55 |
| BeatBad Guys Close In | Novel50–75% | 80,000-word novel40,000–60,000 | 110-page scriptpp. 55–75 |
| BeatAll Is Lost | Novel~75% | 80,000-word novel~60,000 | 110-page scriptp. 75 |
| BeatDark Night of the Soul | Novel75–80% | 80,000-word novel60,000–64,000 | 110-page scriptpp. 75–85 |
| BeatBreak into Three | Novel~80% | 80,000-word novel~64,000 | 110-page scriptp. 85 |
| BeatFinale | Novel80–99% | 80,000-word novel64,000–79,200 | 110-page scriptpp. 85–110 |
| BeatFinal Image | Novel99–100% | 80,000-word novellast ~800 words | 110-page scriptp. 110 |
The two versions differ slightly. Snyder's Break into Two on page 25 sits at 23% of the script, and his B Story arrives on page 30, about 27%. The novel version rounds both earlier. Neither is a rule: a beat within a few percent of its mark is on time, and one far off is a question worth asking, not an error. A Debate still running at 30% usually means readers are waiting for the book to start.
Save the Cat beat sheet example
An original novel outlined with the template. Every beat is something that happens or something the hero decides.
Logline: A cellist who has dodged every audition for three years must play the solo at her orchestra's last-chance gala, or watch it fold.
- Opening Image. Mina Park, 26, plays the gala solo flawlessly in an empty rehearsal hall, then stops mid-phrase when the conductor walks in.
- Theme Stated. Her stand partner, packing up: "Nobody remembers the note you didn't miss." Mina laughs it off.
- Setup. Second chair in the Marlow Valley Symphony, cello lessons for kids in a strip-mall music shop, a cracked instrument she cannot afford to fix, and a mother who asks about the principal audition every Sunday.
- Catalyst. The board announces the orchestra will fold unless the spring gala sells all 1,200 seats. The same week, the principal cellist takes a job in Denver.
- Debate. Take the empty chair and the solo, or wait for a replacement and stay safe?
- Break into Two. At the next rehearsal she sits down in the principal's chair before anyone can offer it to someone else.
- B Story. Ray Ocampo, the gruff repairman rebuilding her cello, quit performing forty years ago after one bad night and still regrets it.
- Fun and Games. The players sell tickets the hard way: quartets in laundromats, a brass quintet at the bus depot, Mina talking to strangers between pieces. Sales climb, and she turns out to be good at it.
- Midpoint. A false victory. A video of the laundromat concert spreads and the gala is two-thirds sold. Next day the board books a famous guest soloist to sell the rest. The solo is no longer hers, and the gala is six weeks out.
- Bad Guys Close In. She tells herself she is relieved. The soloist's fee drains the budget, her old stand partner resents the promotion, and Mina quietly stops the street concerts that sold the tickets.
- All Is Lost. Nine days out, the soloist cancels and the board votes to refund every ticket. Ray closes his shop and moves in with his daughter.
- Dark Night of the Soul. Mina applies for a teaching job two states away. Collecting her cello from Ray's empty shop, she finally asks him about the night he quit.
- Break into Three. Reading the refund requests, she sees the pattern: almost nobody bought a ticket for the soloist. They bought it for the orchestra from the laundromat.
- Finale. She talks the board into keeping the date. The concert hall pulls out over an unpaid deposit, so the orchestra plays the gala in the bus depot where the ticket drive began. In the second movement she misses a note and keeps going.
- Final Image. First rehearsal of the next season. Mina is in the principal's chair, the conductor walks in, and she keeps playing.
Run the mirror check on it. The opening and final images are the same rehearsal with one difference. The Midpoint is a high, the gala nearly sold, and All Is Lost is the matching low, the gala canceled. The theme line from the first chapter is what Mina acts out in the Finale when she misses a note and plays on. Ray's story (the B story) is what she needs to hear before she can see the pattern in the refunds, which is why Break into Three joins the two plots.
Common beat sheet mistakes
- A Catalyst that is only news. "A letter arrives" is news. "A letter arrives saying the house is sold by Friday" is a Catalyst, because it changes what the hero has to do.
- A passive Break into Two. A hero who is dragged, kidnapped or fired into Act Two rides along as a passenger. Events can push, but make the last step a choice.
- Fun and Games without the premise. This stretch is where the book delivers what the cover promised: the heist, the dates, the haunted house. If none of these scenes would make the back cover, the premise is not on the page yet.
- A B Story that only adds romance. The B Story character should embody or argue with the theme. A love interest who only flirts is decoration.
- A Midpoint that changes the setting, not the stakes. Moving the hero to a new city is not a midpoint. A win that turns out hollow, or a loss that puts a clock on the story, is.
- A rescue in the Finale. When luck or another character solves the problem, the theme never gets tested. The hero has to win or lose by what they learned.
Save the Cat and three-act structure
The beat sheet is a finer grid laid over three acts. Snyder called them thesis, antithesis and synthesis: the hero's world, its upside-down opposite, and a third world that merges the two. In the novel percentages Act One ends at 20% and Act Three begins at 80%, a slightly shorter first act and a longer middle than the classic quarter, half, quarter split. If you prefer the broader frame, the three-act structure template uses plot points and pinch points instead, and the guide on how to outline a novel compares the methods side by side.
The beats suit plot-driven commercial fiction best. Quiet literary novels and braided multi-viewpoint books often use them loosely or not at all. If you are a pantser, try the template after the first draft: fill in the Chapter column from the pages you wrote and see which beats are missing. For the want and need in "Story at a glance", the character profile template goes deeper.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 15 beats of Save the Cat?
Opening Image, Theme Stated, Setup, Catalyst, Debate, Break into Two, B Story, Fun and Games, Midpoint, Bad Guys Close In, All Is Lost, Dark Night of the Soul, Break into Three, Finale and Final Image. Blake Snyder set them out in Save the Cat! (2005) as the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.
Does the Save the Cat beat sheet work for novels?
Yes. Snyder wrote it for screenplays, and Jessica Brody's Save the Cat! Writes a Novel (2018) adapted it for fiction, replacing page numbers with percentages of the book. It fits plot-driven genre fiction most naturally. Literary novels tend to use it loosely or as a revision check.
What does save the cat mean?
It is Snyder's name for an early scene in which the hero does something decent, such as helping someone weaker, so the audience takes their side. The book and the beat sheet carry the name, but the cat scene is not one of the 15 beats.
What are the ten Save the Cat genres?
Snyder sorts stories by their underlying shape rather than setting: Monster in the House, Golden Fleece, Out of the Bottle, Dude with a Problem, Rites of Passage, Buddy Love, Whydunit, The Fool Triumphant, Institutionalized and Superhero. Knowing your type tells you what readers expect from the Fun and Games and the Finale.
