"Based on the best-selling Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder"--Title page.

Includes index.

Opening image -- 1. Creating your story-worthy hero: how to craft characters that teen readers will care about -- 2. Building your Save the Cat! beat sheet: a fifteen-step blueprint for a flawlessly structured novel that works -- 3. Customizing your beat sheet: you've learned the rules... now let's bend 'em -- 4. Identifying your genre: the ten Save the Cat! story genres -- 5. Rites of passage: sometimes "life" is the biggest conflict of all -- 6. Buddy love: all you need is love... or friendship -- 7. Institutionalized: beware the group! -- 8. Superhero: tales of the "Chosen One" -- 9. Golden Fleece: let's hit the road! --10. Food triumphant: underdogs and outcasts for the win! -- 11. Dude with a problem: when the odds are not in your favor -- 12. Out of the bottle: a magical twist on reality -- 13. Whydunit: the dark truths we hide -- 14. Monster in the house: now that's scary! -- 15. Selling your novel: how to pitch your books to agents, editors, and readers -- 16. Going beyond the first book: using Save the Cat! to develop and plot your YA book series -- 17. Final image: where we end.