MUSING #32 - Save the Cat! Saving Me

MUSE: using the Save the Cat beat sheet to re-evaluate my script’s structure. 

Musing: 

I am currently on draft 5 of my script and feeling extremely proud of the progress I’ve made. I had a read through of an earlier draft about two months ago, from which I received amazing notes from my writing group. The main notes focused on the lead character (needing to deepen his motivations and reactions, aka make him less passive) and on specific comedic scenes (go bigger and weirder with them!). It was in the last draft, however, that I started feeling something was wrong in the structure of the first half. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the pacing and story from page 8 to page 55 just wasn’t adding much to the script as a whole. I found myself thinking ‘what am I actually trying to do here? What do I need to do here?’ I realized I’d gotten caught in trying to move from the early years of the lead’s life to the late years when the big events take place. But the sequences I was showing weren’t adding anything to his character and the world of the story as a whole. So I decided to take a step back and look at it another way. 

I’d read Save the Cat! years ago, when I was focused on writing short comedy bits for my web-series. Being that I wasn’t actually thinking about features films, I didn’t absorb much of what Blake Snyder outlined. I recently started to listen to the book on Audible as I walked outside, has to drive, or even while cleaning. Just bits at a time, listening and thinking about how my script fits into his beat structure, which he outlines with a very structure page rule (this beat MUST happen or start on this page). I was amazed to see that my script fit for most of the beats! But there were two sections that were very clearly missing.

The first was DEBATE - this is an Act One beat that happens between pages 12-25 in which the  lead character weighs their options, and usually a question is pose that they will spend the rest of the journey answering. Within these pages, I had my character being sent off to boarding school, including a montage of him in class as he gets older. Originally the visuals were accompanied with a Voice Over from the Principal about what the students would learn there. Basically the people they’d becoming... which in my head felt like a clever way to set up what my lead character was becoming. But I wasn’t actually showing anything he did or believed or was. Just what would be expected. It was basic and boring. So I decided to throw it out and start over. I needed to look at it as the debate question. 

So what does the lead character have to consider? What are his options? Well, he was sent to school by his Father, so he can’t just leave even though he has a hard time making friends. So his options are either to just suffer through his time there, or to do something that will better his experience. Maybe even make him friends. This led me to figuring out the question of this section: Can he rise to the challenge of a new situation and prosper? And the answer is yes. Rather then shy away, he buys a stylish outfit to wear to school, and when that get the positive attention of other students, he decided to start an accessory business and sell between classes. Now you may think that is a pretty random way to show him ‘rise to the challenge and prosper’... and it is, but it’s also what actually happened! My lead character is based on Calvin Coolidge, and my research led me to an article about his time at school and that is apparently what he literally did. Sell accessories that is, I’m not sure if it started because of issues making friends. 

The second section that I realized needed to be reworked is called FUN AND GAMES, and it takes place between pages 30-55.  This section is all about having fun, while also showing the heart of the movie. It sets up elements that will come full circle, but is before any of the true challenges and risky events take place. It usually has a light tone before the stakes kick in. I realized again that I’d mainly used these pages to show some of the Calvin’s life as a young man with some funny moments and a clever motif, but I was excluding other important elements of the film. Starting around page 30 the B storyline is often introduced and the Fun and Games section is great to weave it in with the A story line. I had introduced my B-storyline of the ‘antagonist’ figures too late, and had them mostly popping in during the second half of the script. Way too late! Right after realized this, I watched ‘Big Business’ for the first time (so good!) and loved the quick pace and interweaving of two A storylines they pull off for this section. So I decided to weave my antagonist figures in way more and I think it works! Well it’s getting there. Still have more edits to go, but each day it’s getting closer. And I’m excited to finish up... so I can work on my next one with the Save the Cat! Beat structure right from the start.