BREAKING DOWN THE FUN AND GAMES

sharing my process by Liselle Sambury

This is a little cheat sheet to go along with my video that shares how I
structure the Fun and Games section of my books. This refers to the beats
set out by Save the Cat Writes a Novel. Because this is based on the video
that I made, it is just a brief reminder to help jog your memory while you
work. To get all the details of what I’m talking about, you’ll need to watch
the video which you can watch here.

Please note that this is a guide I put together based on how I break down
the Fun and Games section. This is not endorsed or sponsored by the Save
the Cat creators, nor is it a hard and fast guide. If you don’t agree with it,
@lisellesambury cool, I’m just sharing my process in case it helps you.

1. Do the math
Fun and Games is 20% - 50% of the book. Make sure you know how big it’ll be based on your
expected final word count and how many chapters that’ll take up in your book. E.g. a 100k book
will have a fun and games that starts at 20k and ends at 50k, if the chapters are 2500 words
each then there will be 12 chapters in the fun and games section.

2. Internal and external goals

Make note of this for your main characters since these will help guide your subplots.

3. Decide on your subplots

Figure out what your subplots will be. Remember, these should develop your MC’s skills to help
them in the main plot, and in a positive character arc, should help them come closer to achieving
their internal goal. These should also deliver the promise of the premise aka what you said your
book would be about. Jot down a list of what needs to happen as part of each subplot to help you
decide what each chapter should contain. If the subplot is figuring out a mystery, they may decide
to investigate, find clues, fall into red herrings, and then solve it. Note: subplots should be weaved
into the overall story and integral to its function. If you can take out a subplot and nothing in the
book changes, it’s likely not well constructed.

4. Lay out your chapters

Create a list of the chapters in your Fun and Games and start filling them out. Use your jotted
out list of what needs to happen in each subplot to help. Figure out the best order or overlap of
subplots for your story. You can start placing chapters randomly, then figure out what makes the
most sense for the story as you go along.

5. Mark your end points

Close roughly half of your subplots before the midpoint hits in order to give yourself space to
finish off the story. If you can’t do that, that’s fine, sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. But
note which subplots need to be closed off and try and have most of them closed before Bad Guys
Close In. I’ve found that if you don’t do this, you’ll have too much to tie up before the third act and
the ending will feel rushed or overwhelming.

www.lisellesambury.ca
 BREAKING DOWN THE FUN AND GAMES
sharing my process by Liselle Sambury
EXAMPLE
YA Contemporary Fantasy at 100k words
MC’s internal goal is to learn that it’s not always better to go it alone
MC’s external goal is to restore the werewolf prince to power so she can be pardoned and go
back to her normal life

Subplots
• B-Story: the love story between the MC and love interest (win, continues to the end)
• They must find allies in another werewolf family to help them (win, ends before midpoint)
• Mystery of where is the missing bride of the current werewolf prince (win, continues past
midpoint to bad guys close in)
• MC is haunted by the ghost of her abusive mother (loss, continues past midpoint to all is lost)

Chapters in Fun and Games (12 chapters for 2500 words each)
1. Journey to seek out a werewolf family that can help
2. MC panics over her ghost mom during the trip
3. Arrive and family does not want to help, LI and rival fight
4. Discovery of girl living with family who is related to the missing bride of current werewolf
prince (antagonist), MC starts investigation on her own
5. MC struggles with ghost mom, love rival helps out
6. Love interest is jealous, but love rival gets family to agree to help, discovery of missing bride’s
diary, MC doesn’t share info (WIN for allies subplot, finished)
7. On journey, MC panics again over ghost mom but love rival helps, causes friction between him
and love interest, they fight, MC leaves
8. MC investigates missing bride in dangerous place without telling anyone, gets into trouble
9. Both love rival and love interest come to the rescue though MC has already saved herself, but
is shaken up and regretting it, but doesn’t share info
10. MC has moment alone with love interest to hash out friction, he gives her a chance to share
troubles but she holds back
11. Lead on missing brides turns up dry, MC is upset, ghost mom capitalizes on this and makes
things worse, MC is isolated from love interest and rival (LOSS for ghost subplot, continues)
12. MC realizes that love interest has connection to major clue, but would have to bring herself to
ask for help and collaborate to take advantage, tries to get around this, fails (WIN for romance
and mystery subplots (both continue) BECAUSE she will ask for help at midpoint and solve a
big part of mystery, therefore midpoint = false win)
Note: this is not meant to be a good book idea lol it’s just an example. Also, you will notice these chapter ideas are
fairly bare bones, yes, that is how I make them. When I outline further, I’ll often flesh these out a lot. But this is my
starting point for how I go about it.
www.lisellesambury.ca