TSP-006 · 01 Write & shape
Save the Cat Beat Sheet
The 15 beats of Save the Cat as a fillable template — mapped to your word count, and saved as you go.
TSP-006 · Save the Cat Beat Sheet · Free / no account
Note ⊕The 15-beat structure from Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!, mapped to your word count. The percentages are guides, not rules — your plan is saved in this browser.
A 'before' snapshot of the hero and their flawed world.
Someone hints at the lesson the hero must learn by the end.
Establish the hero's world, wants and flaws — and what needs fixing.
The inciting incident that upends the status quo.
The hero hesitates: should they really answer the call?
The hero commits and steps into the new world of Act Two.
A new relationship — often a love interest or mentor — carries the theme.
The 'promise of the premise' — the set-pieces the reader came for.
A false victory or false defeat raises the stakes and the story pivots.
Pressure mounts; the hero's team frays and the enemy regroups.
The lowest point — the hero loses something vital (a 'whiff of death').
The hero wallows in the loss before a new answer surfaces.
The 'aha' moment: lesson and plan fuse for the final act.
The hero storms the castle and proves they have truly changed.
An 'after' snapshot that mirrors the opening — the world transformed.
Save the Cat is the 15-beat story structure that has quietly shaped a generation of novels and screenplays. This free Save the Cat beat sheet lays out all fifteen beats as an interactive template — from the Opening Image to the Final Image — with a short prompt for each, and maps them to your novel's word count so you know roughly where each beat should land. Fill in your own beats and the whole thing saves in your browser.
It works whether you are outlining from scratch or pressure-testing a draft that is not quite clicking. Pair it with the character profile template to know who is driving each beat, and see what your beats mean in printed pages with the words-to-pages calculator. For a plain-English walk through all fifteen, read the 15 Save the Cat beats explained.
- Treat the percentages as guides, not tramlines — story comes first.
- Fill in the Midpoint and All Is Lost beats first; nail those and the rest follows.
- A beat sheet is a plan, not a contract — expect it to change as you draft.
- Know each beat's driver: pair it with a character profile.
- 01
Set your target word count
Enter roughly how long the novel will be, and each beat gets an approximate word position — so you know when the Midpoint or All Is Lost should arrive.
- 02
Write a line for each beat
Each of the fifteen beats has a prompt explaining its job. Jot what happens in your story at that point; there are no wrong answers this early.
- 03
Copy or download
Your beat sheet saves automatically in this browser. Copy it into your outline or download it as a text file when you are ready to draft.
Common questions
- What is the Save the Cat beat sheet?
- It is a 15-beat story structure created by screenwriter Blake Snyder and popularised in his book Save the Cat! Each beat marks a key turning point — the Catalyst, the Midpoint, All Is Lost and so on — giving a story a reliable shape. Jessica Brody later adapted it for novels in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.
- What are the 15 beats of Save the Cat?
- In order: Opening Image, Theme Stated, Set-Up, Catalyst, Debate, Break into Two, B Story, Fun and Games, Midpoint, Bad Guys Close In, All Is Lost, Dark Night of the Soul, Break into Three, Finale and Final Image. The tool above lists each with a prompt and its approximate position.
- Does Save the Cat work for novels, not just screenplays?
- Yes. Although Blake Snyder devised it for screenwriting, the beats map cleanly onto novels, and Jessica Brody's Save the Cat! Writes a Novel is built around exactly that. The percentages shift a little, but the sequence of turning points holds across both forms.
- Where does each beat fall in the word count?
- As rough guides: the Catalyst around 10%, Break into Two at 20%, the Midpoint at 50%, All Is Lost near 75%, and the Finale in the last fifth. Enter your target word count above and the tool converts each percentage into an approximate word position.
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