When Save the Cat isn't working
This plotter is trying to pants!
🧠 LEARNING 🧠
I’m very much a plotter, meaning I map out my books in great detail ahead of time and often follow a structure like Save the Cat or the Story Grid.
I'm messing around with a middle grade magical realism story about a cat with accidental powers helping his new 11-year-old owner work through her grief.
This book is challenging me to break out of the mold by pantsing (writing the story “by the seed of my pants” without knowing exactly where it’s going). It’s uncomfortable but in a GOOD way.
As I started writing, I noticed a few things:
1) This book cannot be plotted right now - it needs to be discovered. I had mapped out my save the cat beat sheet, started filling things in... and it wasn't going to happen. This book is about the character’s emotional journey, and since I don’t know what that journey is yet, I have to let the story take me there.
2) My protagonist situation is unconventional in a way that I love. The story is told in third-person limited POV, with the cat as the POV character. But... the cat is not the protagonist! He’s a side character, and his owner is the main character. Is this going to work out? Who knows. But I’m excited to try something different.
As I noticed these things, I took a deep breath, set aside my Save the Cat beats, and decided to let this story go where it needs to. It’s quite a challenge for my plotter-mind, but it will be better because of it.
My encouragement to you - listen to your story. It has things to tell you!
🎉 CELEBRATING 🎉
I finished editing my draft of When Death Is Hiding (Book 3 in The Severed Fates) and sent it to two beta readers!! YAY!
I've been drafting/editing this book pretty much nonstop since November 2023. It's SO nice to have it off my hands. It's not perfect, and there are already changes I want to make after sending it off (including a plot hole I realized last night). But I'm very excited to get big-picture feedback on the plot!
As always, this book is TWISTYYYY, so time to find out if the twists are twisting as they should be :)
😫 STRUGGLING 😫
I am trying to write my blurb for When Death Is Hiding (book 3) and OYYY. I forgot how hard this is. I dumped a bunch of words in a document (character! world! stakes!) that I was slowly moving around, trying to fit everything in.
After watching some videos on
’s Instagram page @bookblurbmagic, I realized that (as always) I was trying to do too much.I decided to start over and just focus on ONE conflict, and not include anything that wasn’t FULLY necessary to understand that conflict.
For my main character June, this conflict is the curse on her family from the Fates and her quest to break it.
The blurb is still a hot mess, but it’s a neater mess. More streamlined, less bouncing around, and hopefully packs a greater punch. Give me a few months and maybe I’ll have it done (lol).
(Image from bookblurbmagic.com)
🧘♀️ RESTING 🧘♀️
Vacation!!
My husband and I just got back last night from a week vacation visiting his family out of state. We ate a lot of food, I finished my editing, and I read a bunch!
Books read (the last three are indie books if you want to check them out)
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Calling Leah by Shaley Dehner
Resurrecting Cassidy Marchand by Tracey Barski
When I Met You by Avery Easton
I missed my cat SO much and she is very happy that we’re home!
