STC in 60 Scenes
- Charles Sayers
- 4 Comments
About the Template
Meet the Author
Charles Sayers
Charles Sayers is an award-winning storyteller and author of novels, plays, short stories, and blogs. He began his career as a copywriter for Ladies Home Journal — a paper-based magazine people read long before the invention of the iPad. Since then, Charles has helped craft the stories of brands and businesses, written several off-Broadway plays, created award-winning animations and short stories, and, most recently, completed a novel set during the Great Depression about the building of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Charles lives in Panama City Beach, Florida, with his wife, Julie, and their golden doodle, Baxter. He received his bachelor's degree in Theater and English Education from Pace University.
© Fictional Devices, 2024. All Rights Reserved.
4 thoughts on “STC in 60 Scenes”
Hi Charles,
I just downloaded the template and it looks really good. Thanks for all the work.
I am familiar with the STC beats and the description in Blake Snyder’s book but also the novel version from Jessica Brody.
You seem to have extended the setup, could you provide some additional information on that?
And another question: Where do you get the ‘Actions’ from? Are those just some tags / ideas you added or is this taken from another story structure.
All the best, Niels
Hi Niels:
The challenge I found with STC (which I love) – even Jessica Brody’s version – was that it doesn’t really show you how the structure breaks down into chapters. However, they provide percentages (i.e., the midpoint happens at 50%). With a bit of math, I aligned beats with scenes and scenes with pages and pages with word counts.
Act I spans seven chapters and 14 scenes.
Act 2a and 2b span nine chapters and 17 scenes each.
Act 3 spans seven chapters and 12 scenes.
That’s a total of 50 scenes. You can shuffle the number of scenes per chapter, but there needs to be at least one scene per chapter.
So…
If you’re trying to write a 60,000-word novel, each scene will be about 1,200 words in length (4 pages). Each scene in a 90,000-word novel is 1,800 words in length (6 pages). It’s not a hard and fast rule. Just a guide based on an average of 300 words per page.
Apologies for all the math.
The actions are patterns I picked up from my reading and writing. Again, not hard and fast rules.
Cheers.
Charlie
Excellent breakdown. Highly useful.
I’ve been struggling with my current WIP live I never have before. A while back I modified STC to fit my needs, but it just wasn’t cutting.
Your template is outstanding and has saved me a huge amount of aggravation. Your organization of Chapters, Beats, and Scenes were just what I needed and they are easy to change here and there as needed without spoiling the big picture. Thank you!