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. Jessica Brody is the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and an internationally bestselling author of more than twenty novels for teens, tweens, and adults, including The Chaos of Standing Still , The Geography of Last Things , 52 Reasons to Hate My Father , I Speak Boy, A Week of Mondays , the Unremembered trilogy, and the System Divine trilogy. Her books have been translated and published in over twenty countries and several are in development as movies and TV shows. Previously, she worked for MGM Studios as manager of acquisitions and business development, and she now the founder of the Writing Mastery Academy. She lives near Portland, Oregon, with her husband and dogs. Opening Image Where We Begin . . . Once upon a time, many many years ago, there was a tiny little corner of the bookstore, with an even tinier little sign that read “Young Adult.” (You might have passed it on your way to the bathroom.) It consisted of a handful of shelves and maybe a hundred or so titles, and milling about its tiny little selection were a few teenagers searching for their next read. Then came books like Twilight , and The Hunger Games , and Divergent , and The Fault in Our Stars , and The Hate U Give , and so many others. The genre exploded. “Young adult” became a household term. And that tiny little corner of the bookstore began to grow and spread—like Alice after consuming too many of Wonderland’s finest “Eat Me” cakes—until it was one of the most dominant sections of the bookstore, filled not just with teenagers anymore, but readers of all ages. And the best part? Young adult wasn’t (and still isn’t) technically a genre . It’s an age categorization. Which meant anything was fair game. Paranormal, dystopia, romance, comedy, drama, thriller, horror, mystery—they all fit into those ever-expanding shelves. In short, young adult fiction became a book industry gold rush. Publishers scrambled to acquire rights to the next runaway bestseller, movie studios filled their slates with films helmed by actors barely out of high school, book festivals catering to young adult fiction popped up around the globe, authors were sent on worldwide book tours. And readers still couldn’t get enough. They were hungry for more. Today, the mad rush to market might have died down a bit, but “young adult” is still as popular as ever. And it continues to diversify and grow year over year, attracting some of the most talented writers in the industry and tackling some of the most challenging and important topics of our generation, like racism, gender identity, inequality, injustice, abuse, disease, sex, addiction, and more. While trends in the young adult category might come and go, three things remain clear: young adult fiction is here to stay, the world is still hungry for good young adult stories, and we need more writers to tell them. Which brings us to this book. The Biggest Problem Writers Have Why did you pick up this book? Have you always dreamed of writing a young adult novel and don’t know where to start? Have you tried to write a young adult novel in the past and quit halfway through? Or finished one but couldn’t publish it or sell it to readers? Or perhaps you picked up this book because it has a cute cat on the cover and you like cats and are interested in saving them. (If this is the case, you might want to put the book back down now. It’s not re