Our second session of the Writing Craft Book Club at Entershine Bookshop on October 5, 2025 was just as split on this book as the first, Bird by Bird. Six of us discussed Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody.
Here’s a breakdown of the vote (note that only five of the six had read the book):
Did you find Save the Cat! Writes a Novel Useful?
| Answer | # of responses |
| Yes | 3 |
| Maybe | 1 |
| No | 1 |
| Total | 5 |
| Star Rating 1 | 3.5/5 |
The Discussion
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel is a practical book detailing how to write a novel based on 15 beats. The original Save the Cat! Book was aimed at screenwriters, so Brody took that same idea and tried to overlay it on novels to see if the beats fit. She came to the conclusion that they did, and gives many examples in this book including The Kite Runner, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Girl on the Train.
However, not everyone in the Writing Craft Book Club was convinced. Most of the nay-saying around this book revolved around two themes:
- The book makes assumptions around the Western-normative idea of storytelling in a novel
- Most found the general tone of the book to be annoying
Even some of the “Yes” votes came with reservations and/or caveats that also landed along these lines. I’ll go into more detail about these reservations.
Western-normative Ideas of Storytelling
Some said that this structure doesn’t work for non-Western storytelling, pointing to Eastern and in particular Japanese storytelling techniques as being quite different in structure, philosophy, and approach. Members commented that even within Western Europe, you can see distinct differences between, say, novels written in England vs. novels written in France.
Others said the structure seemed too formulaic, and that there were bound to be examples of novels that didn’t fit so neatly into this box. One member mentioned that Everything, Everything, which was held up as an example in this book, didn’t quite fit the beats.
The discussion evolved into talking about formula vs. structure, and whether structure meant “formulaic writing”. The group didn’t come to any firm consensus on that one. But many members were surprised that “Theme Stated”, which is one of the 15 beats in the structure, seems to be hiding in plain site in many of these novels. (Go ahead – try it yourself once you’ve read Save the Cat!!)
Annoying Tone
The tone of the book annoyed most members, starting with the sub-title: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need. It sets itself up as the book on storytelling and novel writing, rather than a single viewpoint and approach. This sensationalistic language tended to take away from the experience (and in turn the credibility) of reading the book. The names of the beats including “All is Lost” seemed too over-the-top for many of the members, and didn’t properly reflect quieter books. One person mentioned that many of the book titles were YA and therefore didn’t seem approachable. Another (ahem, me) found the many mentions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone rather than Philosopher’s Stone to be grating. But maybe that’s nit-picking.
My Hot (and Different) Take
I probably liked this book the most out of the group. I found it to be very helpful in adding structure to my WIP – even if I’m doing that mostly in the later stages of drafting the novel. In other words, I don’t let it dictate where the story is going – I can still be my own pantsing self – but it is a structure I can hang the story on later. My argument was that maybe readers intuitively expect certain points of confusion, angst, and ultimately payoffs all provided at specific points in a novel. I admit that I never thought beyond the Western-normative viewpoint, and I believe the people who said this wouldn’t work for Japanese literature. In fact, all the comments opened my eyes to problems in the text that I hadn’t seen before. However, I’ve written a novel without structure before and failed so my logic is, why not try this and see how it goes?
The tone itself didn’t bother me, which is unusual. I’m often hyper-sensitive to over-marketing. Maybe in this case I was immune – for example, I never really expected that this would be the last book on novel writing that I’d ever need, so I never took that statement seriously. Most of the hyperbole washed right over me unnoticed. But it is a good heads-up for people thinking of reading this book.
Some Keen Insights
“Not all the beats need to be big.”
“I don’t want to be told what to do.”
“There is too much math.”
Final Verdict
Three out of five readers said yes, they’d recommend this book. However, as mentioned above, those “Yeses” have asterisks. Rather than being an all-encompassing, comprehensive book that people all agreed nailed it, most saw it as a flawed book that needs to be taken with a grain of salt, mostly for the two reasons mentioned above.
Again, because I was the outlier here, I’ll say that Save the Cat! Writes a Novel has helped me, a pantser, to think more about structure and storytelling. Whether this experiment of mine turns out to be formulaic and/or forced in some way, or a hugely successful venture, remains to be seen.
To weave those ideas together: this most definitely is not the last book on novel writing you’ll ever need. However, if the idea of adding more structure to your story is appealing and you’re writing a Western-style novel, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel is worth taking a look.
Next Up…
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. This classic needs no introduction. However, it is now approaching 30 years in print. Does it hold up or will we find it has also frayed at the edges due to the passage of time as Bird by Bird did?
Find out with us! New members are always welcome. If you’re not on our list already, contact us to sign up, and then buy your copy at Entershine Bookshop. (If it’s sold out, you can order it here. Bring your own copy if you already have it.)
Find out more about the Writing Craft Book Club here.
Footnotes
- Star Rating is calculated by taking the weighted average of scores out of five and rounding down to the nearest half-star. “Yes” = 5 stars, “Maybe/I don’t know” = 3 stars, “No” = 1 star. As such, it is a general overall impression. The Star Rating is not – and is not meant to be – a comprehensive score or precise reflection of the Writing Craft Book Club’s take on the work. ↩︎
