Welcome back from your summer adventures!
Today, GROG is thrilled to host guest blogger Heather Preusser for a second post about using Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet as a tool to enhance the drama of her writing -- this time for her chapter book series, Hedgehog Whodunit. Take it away, Heather!
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Using Blake Snyder’s “Beat Sheet” as a Revision Tool
by Heather Preusser
Writers often beat themselves up when a manuscript isn’t working (at least I know I do), but have you ever “beat out” a manuscript when you’re stuck?
Back in 2017, I wrote a GROG guest blog post where I applied Blake Synder’s “Beat Sheet” from SAVE THE CAT to one of my favorite picture books, SNAPPSY THE ALLIGATOR (DID NOT ASK TO BE IN THIS BOOK), by Julie Falatko and Tim Miller. I wanted to see if I could take a screenwriting tool, the “BS2,” and apply it to picture-book writing. Turns out I could!
Now I’m back to explain how I used the “BS2” while revising the first book in my chapter book series HEDGEHOG WHODUNIT, which came out in October 2024 from Andrews McMeel Kids.
I often create multiple iterations of the “BS2” as I progress through the writing process. Sometimes I use it as a brainstorming tool when I’m stuck drafting, and sometimes I use it as a reverse outline when I’m working through revisions. For the purposes of this post, I’ll focus on the latter and how, after receiving The Editorial Letter, I went back to my last version of the “BS2” to try and figure out how I was going to hammer out a solution (not that any hammers were involved).
1. Opening Image: In this before-the-adventure-begins snapshot, we read about Hitch hanging around his Hedgehog Hut. He is just about to take his mid-evening nap. This represents the struggle and tone of the story: Hitch is a reluctant sleuth; all he wants to do is be left alone to snooze.
2. Set-Up: This expands on the “before” snapshot. It introduces the reader to Hitch, the hardboiled hedgehog detective who claims to run the joint—the City Zoo—as well as his sidekick Vinnie, a rat and his informer.
Hitch always naps while Vinnie always snacks or rattles on about food. Hitch is observant and quick-witted but slow-moving; he keeps Vinnie on the straight and narrow. Vinnie, on the other hand, moves quickly; he has a predilection for puns, and he helps Hitch get things done. Their personalities complement one another, and they work together to solve crimes.
3. Theme Stated: Snyder describes the theme as what the story is about; it’s the message or truth. Here’s my truth: I didn’t set out to write a chapter book with a message. In fact, I wasn’t sure I could identify the message even after the book was acquired! I set out to create a rollicking romp of a read. And that’s the thing about chapter books. They’re meant to engage emergent readers, to compel them to turn the page again and again and again. Not once did the acquiring editor ask me about the story’s takeaway, which I found refreshing, especially since I was coming from writing picture books where takeaways are often paramount. So I didn’t worry about theme. This doesn’t mean readers can’t extract a theme (one takeaway could be that there’s a time to follow the rules, and a time not to follow the rules); it just wasn’t central.
4. Catalyst: This is the moment when the main character’s life changes. Vinnie informs Hitch someone has altered the sign in the panda pen from “Please don’t feed the panda” to “Please free the panda.” Not only is the giant bear missing, but it’s also creating chaos around the zoo.
5. Debate: This is a brief moment of doubt when the main character—and thus the reader—questions whether or not Hitch will take on the case.
6. Break into Two: At the end of Chapter One, Hitch agrees to help find the perpetrator and locate the missing bamboo-loving bear. He makes a choice to leave act one, the “thesis” world where he’s in charge, and step into act two, the upside-down world where Vinnie becomes his de facto zoo tour guide. After getting a whiff of fish, Vinnie follows the scent to the penguins’ pen, and Hitch follows Vinnie.
7. B Story: Although it’s not a traditional love story, Vinnie’s love of food is the B Story. Ultimately, his fondness for food leads Hitch to the last clue that allows them to crack the case.
8. Fun and Games: We see the penguins chillin’, enjoying the vast amounts of sardines, as well as the hippos, who have a predilection for selfies, and the lions, who appear to be just lying around. After visiting the suspects, Hitch and Vinnie arrange a stakeout. From their high vantage point, Hitch spots two lemurs carrying a bucket of red paint. They’ve caught the culprits red-handed, but the lemurs make a clean sneak!
9. Midpoint: Hitch leaves his post and follows Vinnie through the Woodland Garden and around the Snack Shack, where they encounter a slippery situation—literally. Vinnie and Hitch both slip in pigeon poop. This is a false defeat, a “down” beat.
10. Bad Guys Close In: It would appear things can’t get any worse than falling in pigeon poop, but then Bad Guys Close In in the form of a squadron of pooping pigeons. The pigeons chase the detective duo, and one even poops on Hitch’s head! Exhausted, Hitch rests on the ground in false defeat. He thinks he sees stars, but—thanks to his lazy ways—it turns out he’s uncovered another clue: fresh, red paint drops, which lead them around the Snack Shack and into Lemur Lounge.
11. All Is Lost: Initially, Hitch and Vinnie came across the missing giant panda at a disco party at Lemur Lounge, but—with no foolproof evidence—they simply let the panda go. After reading The Editorial Letter, I realized this beat was too easy, too convenient. There was no confrontation, so of course I needed to expand and adjust the scene. It’s the crux of the story, the moment when the main character realizes they’ve lost everything they’ve gained (all those clues that had Hitch thinking he was close to solving the case and taking a nap!), or everything they’ve gained now has no meaning. So I moved things around in act two and inserted more tension. I added a panda in a lemur costume at an A Capel-LEMURS concert as well as a game of hide and seek. This had me laughing out loud while I wrote it at my local coffee shop, and I chuckled again when I saw Gal Weizman’s hilarious illustrations of a ridiculously adorable giant panda trying to hide behind a bush (almost), under a table (kind of), and behind a flamingo (sort of). Since the panda is so bad at hiding, this beat is a false victory, an “up” beat that contrasts with the midpoint.
12. Dark Night of the Soul: During this beat, the main character hits rock bottom and wallows in hopelessness. Initially, Hitch did wallow. In anything. After some rejiggering, I made him wallow in stink—literally—after engaging in a stink fight with the lemurs. Then someone in the zoo turns the lights down low, puts on a slow song, and it seems like Hitch will rock himself right to sleep. But Vinnie misconstrues Hitch’s dozing for dancing, which results in the prime suspects pointing and laughing at the detective’s dancing skills (or lack thereof).
13. Break into Three: In chapter seven, it turns out Hitch and Vinnie have their culprits right where they want them. The lemurs are red-handed. Literally. They’re hands are covered in red paint! The lemurs plead not guilty, but when Vinnie and the troop leader trade secret family recipes, Hitch starts to put all the clues together. After all, this is the world of synthesis. He notices the index card for “Grandma Gansu’s Famous Soup Dumplings” and realizes the only secret to this secret recipe is it’s not the lemurs’. Hitch suspects they’re in cahoots with the footloose and fancy-free panda.
14. Finale: Hitch reads the culprits their rights and brings them to the big house. Vinnie tells a half-truth, explaining how he and Hitch saw the lemurs in the act. Hitch also points out the lemur has been avoiding eye contact during the entire investigation, further proof she’s guilty. When Vinnie attempts to write this on his notepad, the lemur fixes his spelling mistake and lets it slip that she is, in fact, guilty.
15. Final Image: Hitch hangs around his Hedgehog Hut again with his feet up when Vinnie barges through the door out of breath, announcing the wooden cheetah on the zoo’s carousel has disappeared. This image echoes the opening image and hints at the animal antics in book two.
So the next time you feel like beating yourself up about a manuscript you can’t seem to get right, try channeling your inner Blake Snyder and “beating it out” instead. Perhaps it will help you re-envision your writing and ultimately hit the nail on the head (not that any nails are involved).
More about Heather Preusser
Growing up in Maine, Heather Preusser read all the Nancy Drew mysteries. Every. Single. One. Now she writes her own mysteries featuring a hardboiled hedgehog detective and his tireless rodent sidekick solving animal antics at City Zoo.
