Have you used Save the Cat! for your writing? If so, what do you think? Feel free to share on Writers’ Rumpus! Give it a whirl! The worst that could happen is that you learn a little bit about the structure of some of your favorite novels, and can chat about the “dark night of the soul” with the best of them.
This book is super helpful, whether you’re a plotter working out what happens next before you get writing, or a pantser who could use a bit of a pick-me-up in the ugly middles.
It sets up the hero’s journey for the maximum ride, while still offering freedom for how to go about it. I’ve used the Save the Cat! structure for my novels, stage plays, and even my latest musical. Need help revising? By fitting your story into the structure, you might find something that’s missing or needs to be expanded on.Feeling stuck? If you’re faced with a bit of writer’s block, use the structure to revitalize your creative juices.
Try using sticky notes, or index cards, or even the online Story Structure Software on the website. Have an idea for your next novel? Use the structure to plot it out. Then she goes step by step, detailing the structure with page numbers as well. For example, she explains the Superhero genre, Being Extraordinary in an Ordinary World, by using Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. She names ten genres and then applies the structure to each one. Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! is chock-full of examples from established novels that we all know and love. They have to have a moment that makes the audience think, “sure they launder money and just stole that car, but they really love their mother.” Or, “they’re angry and unkind to puppies, but they caught the baseball and threw it back to those kids, maybe they can be redeemed.” And then we’re in for the ride. The title of the book comes from the idea that to make a character likable they have to metaphorically save a cat. The play is interrupted at several moments by the antics of Rum Tum Tugger.Have you ever heard someone talking about a character’s “Dark Night of the Soul” or when the “Bad Guys Close In,” and thought, dark night of the what? That’s Save the Cat. As Munkustrap narrates, the other cats act out the tale by using items from the junkyard to dress up as the dogs. This goes on until the Great Rumpus Cat arrives and scares the dogs away.
Two more dog tribes, the Pugs and the Poms, eventually join in the barking as well. It is sung by Munkustrap and describes a legendary battle between two neighbouring dog tribes, the Pekes and the Pollicles, who bark "until you could hear them all over the park". In Cats, "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" is performed in the time signature 6Ĩ as part of a play within the musical. Similarly, "Jellicle Cat" is a corruption of "dear little cat". The word "Pollicle Dog" is derived from a corruption of the phrase "poor little dog". Eliot specifically mentions "Pollicle Dogs" to be Yorkshire Terriers in the poem as a reference to his first wife's dog Polly. When was Rumpus in the Harem created Rumpus in the Harem was created on. What part of speech is rumpus The word rumpus is a noun. Dogs are treated as "gullible simpletons" in the book and this particular poem revolves around a public commotion caused by warring dogs. Use the word rumpus in a sentence They made a rumpus in the class today. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. "(Of) The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" was first published on 5 October 1939 in T. It is also included in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical Cats, which is an adaptation of the book. Eliot included in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, his 1939 book of light verse. " (Of) The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" (Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms and the Intervention of the Great Rumpus Cat) is a poem by T. "The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles" (Of) The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles (Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms and the Intervention of the Great Rumpus Cat)