Advice: Conflicted about Save The Cat?

Reposting some advice I gave about using Save the Cat and on conflict in writing.

Save the Cat is a formula and a set of beats, but it can't force you to add conflict to your story, which is where a lot of the reader's interest in a story begins. How will Princess Arabella get to the ball to meet lonely Lady Tarantella? How will brave warrior Stu the Terrible escape the were-chicken's nest in time to rescue the orphans from the fire?

Romance is very attuned to a structure, and a romance "beat sheet" builds in highs and lows automatically: that first introduction, the situation that gets them together, the rise and fall and rise again of their pairing. Formula is important in that genre, but you must give your characters something to overcome. Give them conflict. The structure is there to guide, but by itself, it's not particularly interesting. What opportunities for conflict are there within the structure? In a romance, there's so many options. What can you work in?

  • class differences/society judgement
  • cultural clash between the characters
  • one or both are in a relationship already
  • unstable home/work/family situation
  • money trouble
  • self-sabotage

Plot evolves from character(s) trying to get what they want, in spite of conflict. It should arise naturally, and not just from banging the two characters together according to an outline. Why do they fall in love/fight/make up? What does each want, what blocks them, and how is the other person a help or hindrance?

I keep book journals where I write this down, including interviewing my characters and having them write a diary entry, if that makes sense. Once I know what they want, I can take it away, put them in a room together, and listen.

Whatever you do, don't baby your characters. Baby food has no texture. Give your readers something to chew on. Don't withhold difficulty from your characters' lives, but the opposite. Pile it on. And make sure it's genuine conflict. "Had a fight" is not character conflict. "Lost their job/home/truck/dog" is conflict and also a country/western hit. Their lover took away their job/home/truck/dog is the beginning of plot. How do the characters strive for what they want, bumping against the conflict as they go? That's a story worth reading, whether or not it meets a specific sequence of beats.

🧩🦏

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