For plotters and pantsers
Save the Cat Beat Sheet Template
Plot your novel on all 15 Save the Cat beats: Jessica Brody's percentages, the job each beat does, and where each lands in your draft.
All 15 beats
Where each Save the Cat beat lands in a novel
Jessica Brody's novel version of Blake Snyder's beat sheet gives each beat a set share of the book. Act One runs to 20%, Act Two to 80% and Act Three to the end. Use the table to plan a story, or to check a draft beat by beat.
| Beat | Where it lands | What it has to do | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening Image | 0-1% | One scene showing the hero's life before anything changes. | A scene that could open any book. Show what the ending will reverse. |
| 2. Theme Stated | 5% | Someone, usually not the hero, hints at the lesson the hero must learn. | Spelling it out. One passing line that the hero shrugs off is enough. |
| 3. Setup | 1-10% | The hero's everyday life, its flaws, what they want and who is around them. | A flaw we're told about but never see cost the hero anything. |
| 4. Catalyst | 10% | Something happens to the hero that makes the old life impossible to keep. | A choice the hero makes, or news they could shrug off. Their choice belongs to Break Into 2. |
| 5. Debate | 10-20% | The hero doubts, argues or prepares, asking some form of "Should I go?" | Skipping it. The hesitation shows what the coming choice will cost. |
| 6. Break Into 2 | 20% | The hero chooses to act and steps into a new world or way of thinking. | A hero dragged into Act Two. It has to be their own decision. |
| 7. B Story | 22% | A new character who will help the hero learn the lesson: a love interest, mentor, rival or friend. | A sidekick or romance with no link to the theme. |
| 8. Fun and Games | 20-50% | The premise in action, the part the blurb on your back cover promises. | Saving the hook for later. Readers picked up the book for this. |
| 9. Midpoint | 50% | A false victory or a false defeat that raises the stakes. | A middle where nothing turns. A twist or a ticking clock often lands here. |
| 10. Bad Guys Close In | 50-75% | Pressure builds from outside and from the hero's own flaw. | Villains doing all the work. The hero's flaw should do damage too. |
| 11. All Is Lost | 75% | The lowest point. Something dies, literally or not, and the old self with it. | A setback the hero recovers from in a page. |
| 12. Dark Night of the Soul | 75-80% | The hero mourns the loss, worse off now than at the start. | Rushing to the fix. Give the hero time to face the lesson. |
| 13. Break Into 3 | 80% | The "aha" moment: the hero sees how to fix the problem, and themselves. | A rescue from outside. The fix should come from what the hero has learned. |
| 14. Finale | 80-99% | The hero acts on the new plan and proves the change. Snyder split it into five smaller beats5. | A win the old hero could have managed. |
| 15. Final Image | 99-100% | An "after" snapshot that mirrors the Opening Image. | An ending that doesn't answer the opening. Set the two side by side and check the change. |
Placements and jobs follow Jessica Brody's novel beat sheet1 and Save the Cat's guide for novelists2, both checked October 29, 2026. The cautions in the last column are editorial advice, not Save the Cat! rules.
How it works
What is the Save the Cat beat sheet?
The Save the Cat beat sheet breaks a story into 15 beats, from the Opening Image to the Final Image, each with its own job and place. Screenwriter Blake Snyder introduced it in Save the Cat!, his 2005 book on screenwriting, and novelist Jessica Brody adapted it for fiction. Her novel beat sheet1 pins each beat to a percentage of the book. The Catalyst lands at 10%, Break Into 2 at 20%, the Midpoint at 50%, All Is Lost at 75% and Break Into 3 at 80%.
Work from the outside in, starting with your story in one sentence and your hero at the start and the end. Save the Cat's guide for novelists2 says that in a novel that works, the protagonist "cannot remain who they were on page one." Brody treats the Opening and Final Images as "before" and "after" snapshots, so make them mirror each other. Then place those five turns, and fill the stretches between them last.
Each beat in the template has a "Lands at" line for its word target. Multiply your length by the beat's percentage: a 90,000-word draft reaches its Midpoint near word 45,000. Or describe your story in the box at the top of this page, tap a length and click Edit with AI. River fills every "Lands at" line and drafts a first pass under each beat. Then break the beats into scenes with the scene card template, or into chapters with the 24-chapter novel outline.
How it works
From blank page to beat sheet
Download it or open it in River
Get the Word file free, with no account, or click Edit with AI to open the beat sheet in River.
Tell River your story
Optional. Before you click, type a sentence or paste a few paragraphs of notes, then tap a length for word targets.
Read your first pass
River fills the header and writes one to three sentences under each beat, keeping your names and planned events.
Make it yours
Rewrite or cut any line, ask River to change a beat, or have it turn the beats into a chapter outline in a new doc.
- 0-1%Opening ImageDana triple-checks a chart at 3 a.m. while a coworker naps in the supply room.
- 5%Theme StatedHer mentor: "The rules protect the patients. They were never meant to protect you."
- 1-10%SetupDouble shifts, her mother's rent, a promotion review in two weeks.
- 10%CatalystA double dose. The patient lives. Nobody saw.
- 10-20%DebateReport it and lose the promotion, or fix the chart?
- 20%Break Into 2She edits the record.
What you'll get
All 15 beats with novel percentages and word targets
- All 15 beats, each with its percentage and job
- Word targets for every beat at your length
- An empty doc, or a first pass from your notes
Before and after
Your story in. Fifteen beats out.
A by-the-book night-shift nurse covers up one dosing mistake to save her job, and the cover-up starts costing patients. Target length: 80k.
4. Catalyst (10%). Lands at word 8,000. Dana gives Mr. Albescu twice his dose at 3 a.m. He survives. Nobody saw. 7. B Story (22%). Lands at word 17,600. Theo, the new night pharmacist, notices everything and says nothing. 9. Midpoint (50%). Lands at word 40,000. False victory: Dana is made charge nurse the same night a second patient reacts to a drug from the same batch.
Every beat stays yours to rewrite. The first pass just gets you past the blank page.
What lands in your doc
What's inside the beat sheet
- All 15 beats in order
From Opening Image to Final Image, grouped into three acts with each act's share of the book. - Novel percentages
Jessica Brody's placement for each beat, shown beside its name. - A job for every beat
One plain line saying what the beat has to do for your story. - Word targets
A "Lands at" line under each beat. Work it out by hand, or let River fill it for your length. - A header for the big picture
Working title, story in one sentence, target length, the theme, and your hero at the start and end. - The five-point finale
Five optional steps inside the Finale, from "gather the team" to "execute the new plan."
Questions authors ask
Common questions
What are the 15 beats of Save the Cat?
They fall into three acts. Act One: Opening Image, Theme Stated, Setup, Catalyst, Debate. Act Two: Break Into 2, B Story, Fun and Games, Midpoint, Bad Guys Close In, All Is Lost, Dark Night of the Soul. Act Three: Break Into 3, Finale, Final Image. Blake Snyder named them in 2005; Jessica Brody adapted them for novels in 2018.
How do I work out where each beat lands in my novel?
Multiply your target length by the beat's percentage. At 100,000 words, the Catalyst lands near word 10,000 and All Is Lost near 75,000. No target yet? Save the Cat's guide for novelists2 puts most novels at 70,000 to 100,000 words, depending on genre. Treat each number as a marker, not a deadline.
How is the novel version different from the screenplay version?
The beats and their order are the same. Blake Snyder's 2005 book gave each beat a screenplay page number3, a page being about a minute of film. Brody's novel version uses percentages, and Save the Cat's screenwriting guide4 now uses them for scripts too. Jamie Nash's Save the Cat guide to beats5 notes that novels often allow more internal monologue, subplots and world-building.
Is Save the Cat too formulaic?
It can be, if you treat the beats as a script to copy. Snyder called his beat sheet a structure, not a formula. Peter Suderman argued in Slate3 in 2013 that it became one: once you know it, "movies all start to seem the same." He built that essay on the beats and found it made writing easier but left him "less creative."
I already have a draft. Is a beat sheet still useful?
Yes. Jessica Brody says the beat sheet can help you outline, write or revise1 a novel. Mark where each beat actually falls in your draft and compare it with its percentage. A Midpoint at 70%, or no real low point near 75%, can explain a sagging middle. For notes on a chapter that drags, try the AI book editor.
Is this Save the Cat beat sheet template free?
Yes. Download the Word file free, with no email or account. It's River's own beat sheet, crediting Snyder and Brody, not an official Save the Cat! product. Edit with AI opens the same doc in River, which is free to start. Paid plans add more AI use and access to the most advanced models.
What does Edit with AI do?
It opens the beat sheet in your River workspace. Leave the story box empty and it opens blank, with River offering to fill it in with you. Describe your story first, from one line to a few paragraphs of notes, and River writes one to three sentences under each beat, keeping your names. Tap a length too and it fills every "Lands at" line.
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