After a little summer hiatus (camping, in-laws, a spiral-bound manuscript from FedEx…), Kayla and Rachel are back in the podcast saddle and diving deep into the storytelling structure that screenwriters love and novelists love to hate: Save the Cat.

Rachel reveals she finished a whole-ass book (?!), and together they break down Blake Snyder’s iconic 15-beat “beat sheet” and genre system—using Dinner for Eight and The Woman Tree (working title) to show how the structure can help shape a novel without crushing your muse.

Along the way, we tackle:

• Whether all the women or all the men should die in a dystopian future (whoops, we go there),
• That weird masculine energy in the culture right now 👀,
• The ex that might actually be the monster in your house (literally or emotionally),
• And our shared rage at the YouTuber who said “Why Female Authors Don’t Matter” (no, we won’t link it).

There's also some spicy talk about ghosts, sperm vials, and Judd Apatow movies. Plus: why your protagonist's breakdown in the shower might just be their “Dark Night of the Soul.”

This one’s juicy. And crinkly. (Sorry, Rachel’s mic did a thing.)

🕯️✨ Writers, readers, and story nerds — if you’ve ever wondered whether Save the Cat is helpful or heinous, this one’s for you.

Please subscribe, rate and review!

New episodes every Wednesday.

E-mail us your short story at [email protected]

Follow us on instagram @writeyourheartoutpod

Leave us a message at 650-260-4885