Kidlit Writer in Progress & Resource Blogger

A few days ago, I was scrolling through Instagram or Facebook I can’t remeber, and I scrolled past a post about a breakdown of a book called Save the Cat Writes a Novel. I have heard about this book in passing, so I sort of knew what it was about as far as being useful to writers, but I didn’t know exactly how. I signed up for the webinar that was a little over an hour long, and I am so glad I watched. The original Save the Cat book was published in May of 2005 by Blake Snyder, and it was for screenwriting. A novelist, Jessica Brody, in 2018 published Save the Cat Writes a Novel. She gives a wonderful breakdown and uses a movie as an example of each breakdown of creating a story. The breakdown is called a beat sheet, something I’ve never heard of. The beat sheet is a 15-part breakdown of what a story needs and for any novelists out there, it’s definitely a good watch! Now my focus is on picture books, so after watching the webinar, I began googling. I googled things like “beat sheet for picture books” and “Save the Cat Writes a Picture Book.” Save the Cat Writes a Picture Book does not exist, but I came across a link called Picture Book Beat Sheet Julie Hedlund. The link brings you to enroll in a course where author Heather Preusser applies the beats to picture books. She gives a breakdown of the 15 beats, which I was already familiar with from the previous webinar, and then she breaks down her own picture book called “A Symphony of Cowbells.” Her entire breakdown honestly blew me away, and her point of how illustrations help to tell the story and other hidden stories makes it a really magical learning experience. Another author, Julie Hedlund, comes in, and they both do a live beat sheet breakdown of a book called XO, OX: A Love Story by Adam Rex. In the beginning it was a little chaotic; they thought they weren’t going to be able to do it, but when they were done, they made it work, and again I was blown away. The illustrations explained throughout this book really put into perspective the talent illustrators have to tell, or rather show, a story. Overall, this really speaks to the talent and passion both authors have for picture books and teaching. The course will make you look at your manuscript differently, and more importantly, help strengthen it. And yes, this course comes with a printable picture book beat sheet. See link below!

https://juliehedlund.teachable.com/p/picture-book-beat-sheet