Save the Cat! Beat Sheet

Welcome to the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet spreadsheet. There’s a mouthful. This spreadsheet comes with two forms, just to dissuade any worries of different users. One form deals with word counts, the other with page counts.

Who am I?

My name is Paul Carroll; I’m a writer and comic creator, and a spreadsheet enthusiast who likes to make things to help people in creative fields. I was introduced to Save the Cat as a concept – beyond owning the original book – through by Jessica Brody, which is based on Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder, designed for screenplays. When I decided to use it as a means of saving a book I’d written, I naturally had to make a spreadsheet for it.

What’s in this spreadsheet?

Every beat from the Save the Cat Beat Sheet is included, with the minimum notes on what they mean. The main purpose of the spreadsheet is to allow you to determine the word count points along the way towards writing your own novel – or script, if you’re working with the page count tab instead!

I purposely did not expand on what everything means. That’s the remit of Brody and Snyder, and I don’t know the copyright on their work to include it. Think of this as a tool to use to implement your study of their teachings.