Scare the Cat

Blake Snyder’s story beats have proved useful to me in the past in helping me structure a longer piece of fiction. In my current work in progress, I’m using them to structure a thriller of sorts. But I have been writing horror on the side too. Snyder’s structure doesn’t quite work for horror though. Not perfectly.

T.L. Bodine has come up with a great beat sheet for writing a horror story. This might be old news for others, but to me this is a ‘breaking story’.

1. Suggest some suspicion of the normal world by hinting at the supernatural.
2. Introduce the characters and their internal struggles.
3. The character does something normal that sets them on the path for a conflict with the supernatural.
4. The character receives a warning of something unusual but continues on anyway.
5. A glimpse of the monster – but it is dark and they don’t understand what they are in conflict with.
6. Things get weirder and the supernatural is more obviously in effect.
7. The monster pursues the characters and some may die.
8. Hope dies. But a new hope is born when the character sees a glimpse at a possible solution.
9. A different solution is formulated.
10. The hunter becomes the hunted and the tables are turned on the monster.
11. The heroes must pay the piper – defeating the monster will exact a cost, and the hero chooses to pay it.
12. The inevitable fall out from the choice befalls the heroes, but the monster is at last defeated…
13. But the evil cannot be conquered – only delayed until a later date.

T.L. Bodine goes into more detail – I’ve not ripped off their entire post like some cad. Having a peek at their site is highly recommended.

What do you think of this beat sheet? Let me know if it is useful for you!