Course Overview

Overview

If you tried Save the Cat and threw the book across a room, this is your course. If you tried the Snowflake Method and quit halfway through, also this course. Most structural prescriptions ask you to fit your draft into a pre-built shape, which is precisely why your draft has been refusing. We teach structure as FUNCTION — what pace does, what stakes do, what motion does — and walk you through building your own flexible scaffolding that fits the specific draft you’re writing. Bring a project. Leave with bones. Four weeks. Twenty lessons. No beat sheets. No mandatory inciting incident on page seven. Just architecture that serves YOUR work.

What’s inside

• 4 modules, 20 lessons + scaffolding kit — function-based, prescription-free
• Mindset Maven Test that names YOUR specific resistance to standard structure systems
• 4 guided meditations averaging 9 minutes — paired to the architecture decisions
• Toolkit: the Function-First Scaffolding Worksheet + the Custom Bones Template
• Lifetime access, unlimited retakes — every new project gets fresh architecture
• Companion blog post per module — public, perfect for the friend who has thrown a structure book across a room

Who this is for

• The literary novelist whose work refuses every pre-built structural template
• The screenwriter who can intuit structure but can’t articulate it on a beat sheet
• The playwright whose drama follows its own logic and is tired of being told to bend it
• The memoirist whose life doesn’t follow three acts and yet has to land

FAQs

Will this teach me Save the Cat?
No. Save the Cat is one prescription among many; this course teaches the function underneath all prescriptions so you can build your own. Some students end up using a modified Save the Cat anyway, by their own choice. Most build something custom.

I write literary fiction. Does this work?
Yes. The course was built specifically for writers whose work doesn’t fit commercial templates. The function-first framing serves literary fiction better than any prescription-based system.

What does ‘structure as function’ mean?
Structure has jobs — controlling pace, installing stakes, generating motion, organizing reveals. The jobs are universal; the SHAPES that perform the jobs are infinite. Most prescriptions teach a shape. We teach the jobs.

Will this course tell me where to put my inciting incident?
No. The course will help you understand what an inciting incident DOES, so you can decide where YOUR draft needs that function performed. Could be page 1. Could be page 60. The function dictates the placement.

What’s the difference between this and BM-108 (Finishable Draft Method)?
BM-108 is about PROJECT design (size, scope, completability). BM-125 is about STORY architecture (structure, function, scaffolding). They pair if you want a fully designed AND structured project.

Can I retake?
Yes. Unlimited. Every new project benefits from a fresh architecture pass.

What one student said

★★★★★

“5 stars. I tried Save the Cat in 2009 and threw the book across a room. I tried Snowflake in 2012 and quit halfway through. The pattern: any structure that asked me to fit my novel into a pre-built shape made me homicidal. This course teaches structure as FUNCTION — what pace does, what stakes do, what motion does. The function framing is the move that worked. I now have a four-element scaffolding I built myself, in the course, that fits the specific novel I’m writing. Different prescription. Worked. I am still writing literary fiction.”

— Olu A., literary novelist (refused Save the Cat for 15 years)