Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel

The Ultimate Guide to Writing a YA Bestseller

By: Jessica Brody

Narrated by: Jessica Brody

Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

An indispensable guide in the bestselling Save the Cat! story structure series that reveals the 15 essential plot points needed to make any young adult novel a success, from an accomplished novelist and the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.

In Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel, prolific author and story coach Jessica Brody presents a comprehensive story structure guide for anyone who wants to write a young adult novel by applying the famed Save the Cat! screenwriting methodology to the world of YA fiction. In this book, you will learn:

• The fifteen "beats" (or plot points) that are necessary for crafting a successful story with a compelling character arc—including the Opening Image, Catalyst, Fun and Games, Bad Guys Close In, Dark Night of the Soul, and Finale
• The ten universal story genres that will help you drill into what makes your type of story work, including those most commonly found in young adult novels like Rites of Passage, Superhero, Buddy Love, Institutionalized, and Golden Fleece
• Quirky, original insights and writing tips like “Save the Cat,” the “Shard of Glass,” and the “Dark Night Epiphany,” that help you craft a story that will thrill and captivate teen readers

Filled with practical advice, easy-to-follow templates, and "beat sheets" analyzing the structure of popular young adult novels such as Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, and Lois Lowry's The Giver, this book is the ultimate reference for anyone who's ever dreamed of writing their own young adult bestseller.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that includes charts, lists, and exercises from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Jessica Brody, Blake Snyder Enterprises (P)2022 Random House Audio

Excellent demonstration of the Save the Cat method

This is an excellent demonstration of the Save the Cat method of story construction as applied to young adult novels. The analysis of different young adult novels for each of the Blake Snyder genres is extremely instructive.

I welcome that the author do this again for other fiction categories, like it was done for Save the Cat Goes to the Movies, Save the Cat Goes to the Indies, and Jessica Brody's first book on Save the Cat. Analyzing different fiction categories through the lens of the Save the Cat method is a feature not a bug.

Write more of these books, Jessica Brody!

Tempted to Return

I was so excited for this focus on YA and pre-ordered the audiobook. But as another reviewer said, this is *exactly* like her Save the Cat Writes a Novel, with the exception being that she uses YA novels in the examples section. I mean even the accompanying text — it’s the same Save the Cat beat sheets, everything, with one slide on word counts for popular YA novels and then the examples again using YA titles. (This is an aside, but even before knowing any of this, I was disappointed to start the audiobook and hear her narrating again.)

I am leaving this review partly because I’m more than half afraid that she’s now going to do this with every popular conventional genre — and it is not worth buying it over and over again, this is lazy and not new material.

It’s exactly the same as her first save the cat book

I think this book would be worth recommending if it didn’t contain literally identical advice as Save the Cat Writes a Novel. If you read that book, there’s no reason to read this one. There’s no new information. There’s nothing to differentiate the advice other than she uses YA examples. I assumed the advice would be substantially different in regards to direct your story towards the YA genre (and yes, Jessica, YA is a genre. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous in the extreme.) So pass on this and get the first book if you’re so inclined.