The Catalyst Beat

Written: September 14, 2020 at 8:30 PM
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The point of the Catalyst beat (15 Story Beats) is to shake up the hero's life. You've already shown the reader that their life needs some shaking in the Setup beat (The Setup Beat), so now make something happen that will force them to change.

The Catalyst is a single scene beat that really rocks the hero's world. The reader should reel as well and wonder how the hero will ever recover from it. No easy recoveries here.

It's also important that this catalyst is something that happens to them, rather than a choice they make. Even though they've expressed some form of distaste in their life via the stasis = death (The Setup Beat) moment, they're still not going to make the change they need without a good kick in the pants.

Citations

#toolong #writing