Save the Cat! Writes a Novel

by Jessica Brody

  5. Debate (pages 41–62)

  The big Debate question of this novel is: What happened on Saturday night, and what will Rachel ultimately do about it? Rachel can’t shake the feeling that something bad happened that night and that she’s somehow responsible. Meanwhile, in a stasis = death moment on page 41, Rachel’s roommate, fed up with her drinking, threatens to kick her out of the apartment.

  Rachel continues to try to piece together what happened, but it isn’t until Rachel learns that Megan went missing on Saturday night that she finally gets her act together and decides to do something about it. This second Catalyst (called a double bump in Save the Cat! terms) is what will push Rachel into Act 2.

  Meanwhile, in more flashbacks, we learn that Megan was having an affair with the mysterious “him,” which Hawkins’s clever sentence structuring leads us to believe is Megan’s therapist, Kamal Abdic. We also start to suspect that Megan’s husband, Scott (“Jason”) might be responsible for her disappearance, thanks to subtle little hints like, “We got into a fight. One of the bruising ones.” Is Scott capable of hurting his wife?

  6. Break Into 2 (pages 62–64)

  Rachel leaves her status quo Act 1 world behind when she decides to take action and try to solve the mystery of Megan’s disappearance (or more important, the mystery of her possible involvement in Megan’s disappearance).

  7. B Story (page 89)

  Rachel’s B Story (internal story) relates to her past. She must face up to it before she can truly break through these mysteries of the present. And that internal story is represented by twin B Story characters in this book: Scott Hipwell, Megan’s husband, whom Rachel befriends and bonds with after Megan’s disappearance, and Anna Watson, Tom’s new wife, the source of Rachel’s painful past. On page 89 Rachel visits Scott Hipwell to tell him about the man she saw kissing Megan before she disappeared. Scott will eventually help Rachel learn the theme by turning out not to be the man she thought he was (fantasy versus reality). Then, on page 108, we read our first chapter from Anna’s perspective and get a glimpse of the other side of the story. This novel is all about that other side of the story. What aren’t we seeing? What don’t we know? What is our unreliable narrator unwilling or unable to tell us?

  8. Fun and Games (pages 64–136)

  The upside-down version of Rachel’s life is illustrated through her involvement in investigating Megan’s disappearance. She researches at the library, comes up with theories, visits Witney (where her hazy memories of Saturday night take place), meets with Scott (B Story), and tells the police about seeing Megan kissing another man (who turns out to be Megan’s therapist, Kamal Abdic). Meanwhile, she stops drinking! She’s feeling (and looking) better than she’s ever felt before. “I am interested, for the first time in ages, in something other than my own misery. I have purpose. Or at least, I have a distraction” (page 85).

  Rachel is clearly on an upward path. But as she points out in her own narrative, it’s just a distraction. Has she successfully dealt with the source of her drinking (her painful past)? No. She’s just found a replacement for it. A new way to numb the pain. She’s fixing things the wrong way, as so many heroes do in Act 2. And it’s working! The case seems to be making progress, thanks to her tip about Kamal Abdic.

  But until she actually faces her reality (theme!), she won’t be able to truly solve the mystery (both Megan’s and her own).

  Paula Hawkins does an excellent job of putting readers in the same boat as Rachel, believing what we see, and trusting our own minds. By the time we reach the Midpoint, we’ve come to the same conclusion as Rachel: Kamal Abdic is behind Megan’s disappearance. He was (almost) definitely the one she was having an affair with.

  9. Midpoint (pages 137–161)

  Victory! Kamal Abdic is arrested and evidence is found in his home and his car. It seems the police (thanks to Rachel’s help) are getting closer to the truth about what happened to Megan.

  A and B stories cross as Rachel is leaving Scott’s house, after finding out about Kamal (A Story) and running smack into her past: Tom and Anna (B Story). This time, however, Rachel reacts differently. She’s indifferent to them (or so she tells herself) because she’s still on the high of her (false) victory.

  But like so many false victory Midpoints, something bigger is coming. A tiny bomb is waiting to explode and send the story (and us) in a new direction. And, as is so often the case in Whydunits, by the Midpoint we think we know what this case is about. We may even think we know whodunit. But we don’t. A Midpoint twist will prove that it’s much bigger than we thought. And that’s exactly what happens in this novel.

  Soon the stakes are raised, when Kamal is released without being charged and Megan’s body is found buried in the woods. This is no longer a disappearance. This is a murder. And our prime suspect just got away.

  10. Bad Guys Close In (pages 161–244)

  Rachel has already started drinking again…a lot. Which proves that her Fun and Games change wasn’t a real change. It was just a Band-Aid. Her internal bad guys are still in there, and now they’re about to come out in full force and drive her toward the All Is Lost, which is evident in the fact that she still won’t talk to the red-haired man from the train. She knows he knows something about that fateful Saturday night, yet she’s still too afraid of the truth (theme!).

  Meanwhile, however, in the Megan flashbacks, Megan’s life is improving. She’s opened up to Kamal about the tragedy of her past (accidentally killing her own baby in the bathtub), and is starting to feel lighter and less burdened.

  In the present, more details about Megan’s death surface: she died of a head trauma, and she was pregnant. Scott becomes a prime suspect in the case, yet Rachel gets closer and closer to him, eventually even sleeping with him, proving that she still hasn’t learned the theme. “I wanted it,” Rachel tells us. “I wanted to be with Jason” (page 217). “Jason” doesn’t exist. He’s a character in her dream world.

  Rachel goes to see Megan’s therapist, Kamal Abdic, posing as a new patient. At first, she’s pursuing her misguided goals of wanting to get involved in the case and to feel needed, but then, in a shift from wants to needs, Rachel finds the sessions helpful in confronting her past with Tom and her drinking.

  More memories start to surface for Rachel. She now remembers someone hitting her and walking away. She thinks it might have been Anna.

  Meanwhile, from Anna’s point of view, we learn things are going downhill for her, too. Rachel is driving a wedge between Anna and Tom. They fight a lot, and Anna starts to suspect that Tom might be having an affair—again. She hits an all-time low when she essentially becomes Rachel: drinking heavily and snooping through Tom’s stuff.

  11. All Is Lost (pages 244–252)

  The case (and Rachel’s internal story) both hit rock bottom when Scott invites Rachel over to tell her that the baby wasn’t his—or Kamal’s. Which means there’s another guy. This turning point reveals, to both Rachel and us readers, that things were never what they seemed. The “him” Megan kept referring to was not Kamal. It was someone else. But who?

  Scott is drunk and irate when he delivers this news. He’s also found out that Rachel lied to him about a lot of things. And when he finds out that Rachel was seeing Kamal as a patient, he thinks she’s been out to get him from the start. He attacks her, grabbing her by the hair and locking her in a spare bedroom. Then he threatens to kill her (whiff of death). Rachel is more certain than ever that Scott killed Megan.

  Now all is lost for Rachel. And it was her lying and meddling that brought her there. But not facing up to the truth (Rachel’s theme) also played a huge part in bringing her to this low moment. Because if she had confronted her past earlier, she might have realized who the real bad guy is in this story.

  12. Dark Night of the Soul (pages 252–269)

  Scott lets Rachel go—and she drinks herself into a stupor. She tries callin
g the police to tell them that Scott threatened her and definitely killed his wife, but they don’t believe her. As a drunk rubbernecker, she’s lost all credibility. And then Rachel does what many heroes do during the Dark Night of the Soul: she gives up. “All this time, I’ve been thinking that there was something to remember, something I was missing. But there isn’t” (page 254).

  Rachel tried to get involved, thinking she was helping, but that wasn’t the answer. The answer has been inside her this whole time: locked inside the black box of her memory, inside her own past.

  Only when Rachel finally confronts the red-haired man and asks him about Saturday night does she start heading toward a real solution. The red-haired man tells Rachel that when he saw her on Saturday night, she was upset. There was a man walking away from her, and he was with someone. A woman.

  Rachel assumes this must have been Tom and Anna, but when she asks Tom about it, the stories don’t match up. Tom tells her Anna was at home with the baby. So who was with Tom?

  Then Tom says something that triggers her memory: “I’m surprised you remember anything at all, Rachel. You were blind drunk” (page 261). Rachel remembers Tom saying this to her another time she blacked out from too much alcohol and then he claimed she did something horrible. Things start to become clear for Rachel when she realizes Tom was the one who hit her on Saturday night (Dark Night epiphany).

  Meanwhile, Anna is having a Dark Night of the Soul of her own. As she drinks and snoops through Tom’s things, she finds a cell phone hidden in his gym bag. It belongs to Megan Hipwell.

  13. Break Into 3 (page 271)

  Memories fill Rachel’s head as she realizes the truth about Tom. He’s been lying to her and manipulating her for a long time. Rachel learns the theme and confronts the past, leading her to take action and (appropriately) get on a train. Headed where? We will soon find out.

  14. Finale (pages 271–318)

  POINT 1: GATHERING THE TEAM. Rachel goes to Tom and Anna’s house to “collect” Anna. She can’t do this alone; they—the two wives of the lying, murdering Tom Watson—need to do this together, as a team.

  POINT 2: EXECUTING THE PLAN. Rachel tries to convince Anna to come with her, but Anna doesn’t believe that Tom is a murderer. She just thinks Tom had an affair with Megan. Anna hasn’t learned the theme yet; she’s still living in her own fantasy world, afraid to accept the truth.

  POINT 3: HIGH TOWER SURPRISE. Tom comes home, and things get messy. Rachel is there and confronts Tom, and he, of course, lies to get out of it. It’s a battle for Anna’s loyalty, and Tom is winning. Rachel tries to convince Anna to call the police, but she won’t. Tom reveals the truth about killing Megan. Rachel tries to run, but Tom hits her on the head with a bottle and she passes out.

  POINT 4: DIG DEEP DOWN. Both Rachel and Anna prove that they’ve learned the theme and that they have what it takes to win this. First, Anna sneaks into the hallway to phone the police. Then Rachel plays right into Tom’s hand, letting him think he has the same control over her he’s always had. Now she is manipulating him.

  POINT 5: THE EXECUTION OF THE NEW PLAN. As Rachel lets Tom kiss her, she slips her hand into a drawer in the kitchen and steals something. Then she runs. When Tom chases after her, Rachel plunges a corkscrew into his neck. The use of a corkscrew as the final weapon is not coincidental. It represents Rachel’s drinking problem, her past, and, now, her triumph as she uses it to, once and for all, rid herself of her demons.

  15. Final Image (pages 318–323)

  In a mirror image to the opening, Rachel is on the train again. But this time things are very different. This time, she’s been sober for three weeks, and she’s moving forward, leaving her old world and her past behind her.

  WHY IS THIS A WHYDUNIT?

  The Girl on the Train contains all three elements of a successful Whydunit story:

  A DETECTIVE: Our hero, Rachel, is the amateur sleuth of the story. She’s never cracked a case before and is therefore wholly unprepared for what she’s getting herself into.

  A SECRET: The relationship between Megan and Scott leads to the unraveling of the whole case. It’s the card that author Paula Hawkins withholds until the very end, turning it over just in time for Rachel (and the reader) to put the final pieces together.

  A DARK TURN: When Rachel sleeps with Scott Hipwell, we know she’s in too deep. Not only is she sleeping with one of the suspects, but she’s sleeping with a husband whose wife has been murdered. It’s the moment when her obsession with the case overpowers her ethics.

  Cat’s Eye View

  For quick reference, here’s a brief overview of this novel’s beat sheet.

  OPENING IMAGE: Rachel rides the train, fantasizing about other people’s lives.

  THEME STATED: “My mother used to tell me that I had an overactive imagination; Tom said that, too” (page 1). Rachel, Megan, and Anna all need to learn how to face reality.

  SETUP: Rachel has a drinking problem and often blacks out, making her an unreliable narrator. Megan’s marriage is not as perfect as Rachel has dreamed it is.

  CATALYST: Rachel blacks out and wakes up with bruises, unable to remember what happened the night before.

  DEBATE: What happened on Saturday night and what will Rachel do about it? Rachel finds out that Megan Hipwell is missing.

  BREAK INTO 2: Rachel inserts herself into the case, trying to help solve the mystery of the missing Megan Hipwell.

  B STORY: Rachel meets Scott Hipwell, Megan’s husband, and Anna’s side of the story is introduced (twin B stories).

  FUN AND GAMES: Rachel quits drinking and seems to make strides with the case (upward path).

  MIDPOINT: The main suspect, Kamal Abdic, is arrested (false victory), but stakes are raised when he’s released and Megan’s body is found, upgrading this case to a murder investigation.

  BAD GUYS CLOSE IN: Rachel takes up drinking again, sees Megan’s therapist (Kamal), sleeps with Megan’s husband (Scott), and starts to remember things from Saturday night. Anna suspects Tom of having an affair.

  ALL IS LOST: Scott finds out Rachel has been lying to him and locks her up, threatening to kill her (whiff of death). Rachel discovers Megan was pregnant when she died—and the baby wasn’t Scott’s or Kamal’s.

  DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL: Rachel drinks herself into a stupor, is turned away by the police, and finally confronts the red-haired man who gives her a key piece of information about Saturday night (Dark Night epiphany).

  BREAK INTO 3: Rachel realizes Tom has been lying to her and manipulating her for a long time. She gets on the train.

  FINALE: Together with Anna, Rachel brings down Tom for the murder of Megan Hipwell and when he tries to kill her, stabs him to death with a corkscrew.

  FINAL IMAGE: Sober, Rachel rides the train toward her new life.

  Rites of Passage

  When Life Gets in the Way

  WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING BOOKS:

  Emma by Jane Austen, The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

  When I was little, I used to get these dull pains in my legs at night. My parents told me they were “growing pains.” The result of my body, bones, and muscles changing. But what happens when the growing and changing happens in our minds? Do we also feel mental and emotional “growing pains”?

  You betcha.

  And that’s what the Rites of Passage genre is all about.

  Death, puberty, separation, midlife crisis, adolescence. These are the roadblocks of life that stop us in our path and force us to reexamine who we are as human beings. They’re also the building blocks of an incredible story tha
t will resonate with readers because, hey, we’ve all been there. We’ve all been kicked in the butt by life at some point or other. We’ve all experienced some kind of “life problem” that required us to grow and change in order to overcome it.

  Rites of passage stories span centuries, cultures, races, genders, and ages. They are universal because life is universal. Life doesn’t always give us what we want. In fact, it often dumps on us. It treats us unkindly, unfairly, and seemingly without respect. That’s why Rites of Passage stories are usually tales of pain, torment, disappointment, hard knocks, and agony.

  Sounds uplifting, doesn’t it?

  But actually, there’s many a comedy that fits inside this genre, as well as countless harrowing and introspective dramas. After all, when life throws you a curve ball, you can choose to handle it with either humor or solemnity.

  Whether you’re writing a novel that explores death (like The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson or The Shack by William P. Young), the pains of adolescence (like The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky or The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger), a midlife or quarterlife crisis (like Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin or About a Boy by Nick Hornby), or even problems that span decades (like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini), your job remains the same: Tell us a tale about someone dealing with some kind of life transition.

  And to do that, you’ll need three essential ingredients: (1) a life problem, (2) a wrong way to attack the problem, and (3) a solution to the problem that involves acceptance of the hard truth the hero has been avoiding.