Structuring the Cat or Something
I’m allergic to cats.
There’s something very artsy buried deep, deep down in my writer’s gut. Something that tells me, no, no you’ll figure it out as you write. Just put down 1000 words every day and eventually it will make sense.
And then I finish a draft, and another, and another, and another and suddenly it’s four years later and maybe I have a workable draft.
Recently, I’ve started to ween myself off of this horrid, horrid (for me), idea.
Let’s face it, in my old age (45 on Tuesday, ‘natch), I’ve gotten slow. I haven’t published a book in 7 years. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing, just nothing ready to publish… yet (but we’re getting there).
Anyways, the first way I tried to deal with Artsy Dave was a compromise: Write the first draft, then go back and outline the revisions. That was cool for the last two Jackson Donne books and worked to an extent. Do I think those books could have been better? AN EMPTY HELL is my favorite Jackson Donne novel and BLIND TO SIN has a lot of fun big swings.
But then I tried to write a standalone and that strategy didn’t work. So I’m trying something I’ve kind of scoffed at over the years: Save the Cat.
I’ve always kind of scoffed at the idea because it sounds very formulaic. If you don’t know, STC is a screenwriting format that allows you to create a story using 15 different categories. You can map out almost every movie with this formula.
But, what I finally realized is Save the Cat isn’t teaching formula, it’s teaching structure. Why certain story beats go where they go. You have your fun and find ways to stand out inside those beats—not because they’re not there.
So I think I’ve finally structured this new book the way I want it. Which should, in theory, make writing it much faster.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, the bad guys are closing in (that’s one of the beats) and I have work to do.
Maybe saving a cat or two is nothing to sneeze at.