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Structure, Conflict, & Beats — Bringing it All Together

Conflict is key to any story. Even if the stakes are low and the show is purportedly about nothing, like in Seinfeld, the characters are motivated and pushed through new changes. As writers continually produce work, we are always revisiting the ways in which we understand writing.

Kramer, George, Elaine, and Jerry from the TV show Seinfeld

The Cast of Seinfeld – A Series about Nothing

One of the newest, most popular writing craft books is Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, which promises to be the last book you’ll ever need for novel writing, but one can never have too many books, especially on craft.

At Chanticleer, We Love to See Story Come to Life

The biggest feedback we give to authors in our Awards or for our Editorial Reviews is that, while the story was well-written and error-free, there was not much actual story that happened in it. For that reason, we always recommend that authors commit to a Manuscript Overview to make sure they’re heading in the right direction with their Work in Progress. Read more about those here.

So We’re Talking About Dialogue Beats Here?

If you’re interested in making your dialogue sing, that’s wonderful, and we recommend you do work to make sure all that interstitial tissue in your book is doing what it needs to do, but this toolbox article will focus on the overarching structure questions in terms of beats. If you’re interested in reading more about dialogue mechanics this article here from Margie Lawson has some great suggestions on language and beats!

Beats not beets!

We Are Talking About Conflict

Conflict is the engine that motivates a book. It doesn’t need to be zombies coming to destroy the world, but it has to be your main character’s desire for change (which often isn’t really their true desire at the start of the story). What we’re going to look at here is the way characters are motivated and approach the ending theme as they move through the book.

Save the Cat really shines in the way it points out that characters are often given the answer to all their life’s troubles early on, but they resist it throughout the story. One great example is Benjamin Sisko at the start of Star Trek: DS9.

When Sisko arrives on Deep Space Nine to take command of the station, all he wants is to keep running from the past with his son Jake. He doesn’t realize that this assignment is the beginning of his journey to healing from the terrible trauma of losing his wife two years ago. All the tools are there for him to create a home where he is, but he doesn’t understand this until maybe Season 5 of the show, and by that point, his desires have totally morphed in response to the environment he found himself in.

At least Season 4 Benjamin Sisko sitting at his desk in his Starfleet Uniform

Captain Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine (of the Star Trek Universe)

As Sisko moves from season to season, we see each point of growth and story structure as beats from which he grows and changes.

Story Structure as Beats

First off, what are beats?

Think about white space in a sketch for a painting. All the lines that make up the body of the work are the dialogue of your piece–it gives the plot, characters, and conflict a structure to work within. The beats are the color that fills it in, showing the reader a complete picture of what’s taking place. As you write, ask yourself if you’re better at overwriting and then trimming back or underwriting and fleshing out. Play to your strengths for your first draft, and then come back ready to adjust for any areas you know you’ll be weak.

Worth Repeating

As you write, ask yourself if you’re better at overwriting and then trimming back or underwriting and fleshing out. Play to your strengths for your first draft, and then come back ready to adjust for any areas you know you’ll be weak. David B.

Let’s look at the overall structure of a book

Let’s start out with Save the Cat. In this book, Brody breaks out most plots to follow the following Structure:

Opening Image
Theme Stated
Catalyst
Break into 2
B Story
Midpoint
All is Lost
Break into 3
Final Image

Each of these big sections is subdivided into categories based on how many scenes move it forward, which are further defined as multi-scene beats or single scene beats. Some of them are obvious, like the Opening Image and Closing Image tend to be a single scene beat where we get in and fulfill that need for the writing, and then get out. While most of these make sense just by glancing at them (or you can figure out that Catalyst is another way of saying The Inciting Incident), here’s a quick guide to some of the wonkier names from Save the Cat.

Break Into 2 & Break Into 3

This refers to Acts 2 and 3 of your story. Brody focuses on the 3 Act structure for novel writing, which does fit the majority of work out there. For differing ideas on how to structure a book, be sure to check out our article here.

The focus for the Break Into parts is on marking a clear delineation between your Acts. An example Brody uses is Jane Eyre, with Act I being her mistreatment and time at school, Act II being her role as governess for Mr. Rochester, and Act III being her escape from St. John and return to Mr. Rochester as an independent woman.

B Story

Often the introduction of B Story introduces the character who will help your protagonist learn the theme or lesson that they will need in order to grow properly by the end of the story. They are a helper-character who represents the new world of Act II that your main character enters. Keeping with Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester is a foil to Jane’s meekness that forces her to stand up for herself and push back against his rude brashness, pushing her to change.

Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester about to kiss

Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender in the 2011 Jane Eyre film – Charlotte Bronte 1847

Clear as Mud?

Rather than write out all of Save the Cat, Jessica Brody has already mostly done it for you here. And Brody isn’t alone in having great ideas of how to look at the intersection of conflict and structure!

Click on the link above to read more about Brody’s 15 Beats of Story Telling. We are not affiliates of Brody or Wolf 359, but we are passionate about sharing the best tools with Chanticleerians. Kiffer

There is a wonderful breakdown of story structure that is quite similar written by Gabriel Urbina to describe the story structure for the brilliant SciFi podcast Wolf 359, written by Urbina, Sarah Shachat, and Zach Valenti. You can read his breakdown of the story structure here and learn more about Wolf 359 here.

Our own Jessica Morrell, of course, has a brilliant take on Story that focuses more on different aspects such as character, structure, and plot which can be found here.

Beat Sheets Will Meet You Where You Are

The great thing about this tool is you can use it to plot out the work you’re planning or to analyze the work that you have. Brody’s cheat sheet linked above even offers general percentages on how long each section of the Save the Cat structure should take. Remember that different genres have different typical lengths, and keep those lengths in mind as your write and plot. And, as always, the work is yours; these are just guidelines, not hard and fast rules for success.

Be sure to get more than your eyes on the work! Beta readers and friends are great, but nothing beats a professional Manuscript Overview you can get from Chanticleer.

Chanticleer Editorial Services – when you are ready

Did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Tools of the Editing Trade

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top editors on an ongoing basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service. Here are some handy links about this tried and true service: https://www.chantireviews.com/manuscript-reviews/

And we do editorial consultations. for $75. https://www.chantireviews.com/services/Editorial-Services-p85337185