Hey, crew!
So the last half of 2025 was crazy and I got behind schedule on posting newsletter topics here, so I’m doing it now. Sorry for the long wake. This post was first offered to my newsletter subscribers in Sept-2025, in preparation for NANOWRIMO. If you want to get these posts RIGHT AWAY, then punch the button below and signup for my newsletter. You get ALL my exclusive posts that aren’t published here, plus exclusive BTS posts, and FREEBIES when they come up, so go here and SIGN UP NOW!
Three-Act Structure
The Three-Act is the storytelling workhorse: setup, complication, resolution, and you can feel your book breathe when you use it. It’s forgiving — you can be simple or ornate — and there are several free, fillable worksheets you can drop into Google Docs or Milanote boards and start using today. The templates walk you through Act 1’s hook and inciting incident, Act 2’s escalating problems and midpoint, and Act 3’s final confrontation and resolution so you won’t wonder what to write next. Writers who love a clear map will find it calming; pantsers can use it as a loose skeleton. The risk is that you can become slavishly literal and produce a paint-by-numbers plot unless you mess with the beats. It’s also wonderfully versatile; commercial editors understand it instantly, which helps when you’re pitching. If you want to pace a long epic or a lean thriller, you can make three acts feel as big or as tight as you like. The templates I’ve linked are beginner-friendly and come in visual (Milanote) and worksheet (ImagineForest / Reedsy) flavors. Use it to learn the craft, then break it on purpose.
| Pros: | Cons: | Best genres: |
| Familiar, flexible, great learning scaffold. | Can feel formulaic if followed mechanically. | Almost everything — fantasy epics, thrillers, romances, commercial fiction. |
Three-Act Structure Templates
Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is the mythic pathway—ordinary world, call to adventure, trials, abyss, transformation, return—and it’s addictive because it mirrors our deepest storytelling instincts. Templates based on Christopher Vogler’s streamlined version have been turned into fillable worksheets you can use to slot your beats and characters into the 12 (or 17) stages. Those templates force you to think mythically about theme and transformation, not just plot mechanics, which gives emotional heft to commercial stories. The downside is obvious: plagiarize the beats and your book reads like dozens of other heroes unless you inject specificity and weirdness. It’s superb for books where transformation is the point — you can see the arc breathing on the template as you fill it out. If you’re writing a quest, epic, or coming-of-age novel, the template will feel like a warm glove. If you’re writing slice-of-life or experimental fiction, it might feel heavy-handed. Use the Hero’s Journey template when you want mythic resonance and a character-centered roadmap.
| Pros: | Cons: | Best genres: |
| Deeply satisfying emotional arc; archetypal clarity. | Can become cliché without original specifics. | Fantasy, adventure, mythic sci-fi, YA. |
Hero’s Journey Templates
Save the Cat! Beat Sheet (15 beats)
Save the Cat! turned into a novelist’s cheat code: 15 beats that force you to hit the emotional and plot points readers expect. Reedsy and other template makers offer fillable Save-the-Cat beat sheets that even let you enter a target word count to auto-scale where each beat should land. It’s brilliant for fixing pacing issues — sagging middles and rushed endings become obvious when you plug your beats in. The obvious complaint is that a strict beat checklist can squeeze out surprising choices if you cling too tightly to it. That said, the beat sheet is basically a mentoring system — it makes sure your protagonist changes and that stakes escalate in satisfying increments. For rom-coms, thrillers, and commercial fiction, this template can be the difference between an inert draft and a propulsive one. You’ll probably still want to riff and subvert some beats, but this template keeps the engine humming.
| Pros: | Cons: | Best genres: |
| Great pace control, plug-and-play; word-count aware. | Can feel “formulaic” if not personalized. | Commercial fiction, rom-coms, thrillers, YA. |
Save the Cat! Templates
Dan Harmon’s Story Circle (8 steps)
Dan Harmon boiled the Hero’s Journey down into eight clean, character-focused steps that read like: comfort → need → go → search → find → take → return → change. There are ready-made Story Circle templates (Notion, Craft, StudioBinder and Prewrite have templated workspaces) that let you plot each of Harmon’s eight beats with short prompts and example questions. The Circle is wonderfully compact — it’s small enough to stare at during drafting and big enough to chart transformation. It’s especially great for character-driven novels and for writers who think in emotional arcs rather than mechanical beats. The caveat: the Circle is concise — you’ll need to expand it into scenes and sequels to actually write a novel. But as an organizing skeleton the template is joyful and quick to use. Use it when your story is really about inner change and you want a template that keeps beats tied to psychology.
| Pros: | Cons: | Best genres: |
| Super character-centric, compact, easy to use. | Not a scene-by-scene blueprint — you’ll need to add detail. | Literary, character dramas, many types of genre novels when character change is central. |
Story Circle Templates
27-Chapter Method (3-Act / 9-Block / 27 chapters)
The 27-Chapter Method (3 acts × 3 blocks × 3 chapters) gives you a clean chapter-by-chapter scaffold so you don’t have to guess what each chapter should do. LivingWriter and other tools offer a built-in 27-chapter template that pre-fills chapter prompts, so you can click through “Chapter 1: Hook,” “Chapter 2: Inciting Event,” and so on, which is great if you want chapter-level focus. The template helps writers avoid filler chapters by assigning a purpose to every chapter and nudging you to distribute turning points evenly. The potential downside is that your story doesn’t have to be 27 chapters — forcing the number can feel artificial — but the template is explicit that chapter count is flexible and the real value is the prompts. It’s an excellent way for first-time novelists to learn pacing at a chapter scale and for seasoned writers to break big drafts into actionable chunks. Use it when you like working one chapter at a time with clear objectives.
| Pros: | Cons: | Best genres: |
| Concrete chapter prompts, superb for pacing and small wins. | Can feel arbitrary if you cling to “27” instead of function. | Commercial fiction, thrillers, romance, any novelers who like chapter goals. |
27-Chapter Templates
I didn’t want to bore you all with too much homework, so I broke this puppy into TWO pieces. Next month, I’ll finish off the list with the other 5 novel structures, just in time for NANOWRIMO in November. And by all means, if you found a different story template that works for you share it with us!
Take care and if you want more information on our monthly writing workshop, hit me up! We’re always looking for new blood. In the mean time, stay frosty, my friends!
-Scotcho
Scott R. Welvaert 
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