The Workbook's Mission

Traditional instruction often begins with terminology and analysis. Save the Cat! begins with understanding—helping students recognize meaningful story patterns first, then building toward academic language and deeper analysis.

By learning clear story structure, students improve narrative writing, literary analysis, essay organization, and communication skills.

With Save the Cat!, the student's job is to have ideas and play with them. The Workbook's job is to keep everything organized.

How Does the Workbook Work?

Rather than generating a complete story all at once, students build their narrative gradually. As they record their ideas in the Workbook, they begin to recognize patterns and develop a mental framework that supports both comprehension and creation.

The Workbook carefully explains the Save the Cat! methodology, centering on its backbone: the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet, a framework of 15 key story beats that represent meaningful stages in a narrative. 

The Workbook includes "beat by beat" instruction, followed by work sections with expandable fields the students can fill in.

There is no "right way" to use the Workbook. The student can skip pages, write one word, leave fields empty, come back later... or ask for help!

Course Curriculum

  • 1

    WB

    • Front Cover

    • Workbook Purpose

    • Your Job & Our Job

    • How to Use This Workbook

    • The Save the Cat! Beat Sheet

    • Access Beat Sheet

    • What Is Act One?

    • Act One Example

    • Beat 1: Opening Image

    • Your Opening Image Beat

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Beat 2: Theme Stated

    • Your Theme Stated Beat

    • Beat 3: Set-Up

    • Your Set-Up Beat

    • Beat 4: Catalyst

    • Your Catalyst Beat

    • Beat 5: Debate

    • Your Debate Beat

    • Beat 6: Break into Two

    • Your Break into Two Beat

    • Act One Complete!

    • Bring It Together - Part 1

    • What Is Act Two?

    • Act Two Example

    • Beat 7: B Story

    • Your B Story Beat

    • Beat 8: Fun & Games

    • Your Fun & Games Beat

    • Beat 9: Midpoint

    • Your Midpoint Beat

    • Beat 10: Bad Guys Close In

    • Your Bad Guys Close In Beat

    • Beat 11: All Is Lost

    • Your All Is Lost Beat

    • Beat 12: Dark Night of the Soul

    • Your Dark Night of the Soul Beat

    • Beat 13: Break into Three

    • Your Break into Three Beat

    • Act Two Complete!

    • Bring It Together - Part 2

    • What Is Act Three?

    • Beat 14: Finale

    • Your Finale Beat

    • Beat 15: Final Image

    • Your Final Image Beat

    • You Did It!

    • Put It All Together

    • Download and Print

    • Let's Get Real

    • Feel Stuck?

    • Hero Builder

      FREE PREVIEW

    • Access Story Wheel

    • Back Cover

Managing Your Student Seats

When you "group order" individual Workbooks for your students, you can access your Admin Dashboard to easily:

  • send a specific sign-up link to each student
  • manage seats
  • view details of students who have enrolled or claimed a seat
  • easily add seats
  • manually unenroll students

Pricing Options

Group Orders are available at various discounts.