Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
After reading half the book, I asked myself "Why are you listening to advice from the guy who wrote 'Blank Check' and 'Stop or My Mom Will Shoot'? Why are you listening to a guy who's justification for why you should listen is that he got paid a lot, not that his screenplays were great?
I couldn't answer those questions, so I put the book down. . .
I couldn't answer those questions, so I put the book down. . .
funny
informative
medium-paced
funny
informative
fast-paced
Snyder is as cocky as he could possibly be. All of the time. He knows stuff cause he's made a lot of money, you see.
Everything is a simple dichotomy to him. Some things are good. Somethings are bad. You must do some things. You must not do others.
Also film references are almost entirely within the 90s, when I was not alive and therefore not watching movies. I also find his worldview is overly naturalistic.
Story, theme, and architype, in Snyder's view, are never representations of anything spiritual or transcendent, only primal desires hard-wired into our monkey-brains.
However, I can't deny that his ten plots cover pretty much any wide-appeal movie ever made, and that his beat sheet makes good movies. His methods are worth employing if you want to be a professional screenwriter. Though the medium of film is very different than it was in Snyder's day. The internet is changing everything, and we don't exactly know where the industry will go next.
Everything is a simple dichotomy to him. Some things are good. Somethings are bad. You must do some things. You must not do others.
Also film references are almost entirely within the 90s, when I was not alive and therefore not watching movies. I also find his worldview is overly naturalistic.
Story, theme, and architype, in Snyder's view, are never representations of anything spiritual or transcendent, only primal desires hard-wired into our monkey-brains.
However, I can't deny that his ten plots cover pretty much any wide-appeal movie ever made, and that his beat sheet makes good movies. His methods are worth employing if you want to be a professional screenwriter. Though the medium of film is very different than it was in Snyder's day. The internet is changing everything, and we don't exactly know where the industry will go next.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content
I’ve tried to get started writing fiction many times in my life. Too many books tell you what doesn’t work and leave you paralyzed. I loved Save The Cat because he’s cheering you on and offering practical guidance in plain language. I’d love to see similar books that focus on character, though. This is just about plot.
Fascinating way to think about plotting. I’ll want to re-read this regularly. It has a lot of one off tips, especially near the end, and it’s short enough to re-read it without too much trouble.
The writing style of the book is slightly annoying. He really likes one line paragraphs and the chatty style is a little trying at the beginning. I gave him a pass because he’s a screenwriter and so hitting the return key must be second nature by now.
I’m really interested in the Save the Cat writes a Novel book now because I want to compare this screenwriting one to one for longer works.
The writing style of the book is slightly annoying. He really likes one line paragraphs and the chatty style is a little trying at the beginning. I gave him a pass because he’s a screenwriter and so hitting the return key must be second nature by now.
I’m really interested in the Save the Cat writes a Novel book now because I want to compare this screenwriting one to one for longer works.
I didn't find all of it super valuable, but the parts that are helpful to me are very helpful. Definitely worth reading for screenwriters and novelists.
I used this in my writing books tools, for writing novels. It has helped me pin down some beats that help round out my plot.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
there are many components of this book i find helpful for conceiving and executing a screenplay. first of these chronologically is its discussion of the logline, which is the brief one or two sentence descriptor given for a title of movie either in an ad or on a title screen for streaming. next, while i dont believe it is applicable for all screenplays to the letter, i appreciate the template the author provides for writing a screenplay, with the individual aspects of this template being discussed in more detail in following sections. out of the describing sections, i find most helpful that of the first and last 10 pages of the script, and how these sections reflect a change, almost to the effect of an opposite pole, within a successful script. i also like the sections discussing the importance of turning points, both between act 1 and 2, along with that between act 2 and 3, occurring with the former around page 25 and the latter around page 75. further, to backtrack some within the sequence of the book, the author also lists some categories all movie scripts might be assigned, with some difference between these categories he suggests and traditional movie genres. that said, i dont find these distinctions he makes particularly helpful anymore than standard movie genre distinctions. i also find the majority of references to movie scripts made in this book to be out of date. thus, although this book contains several helpful recommendations for an aspiring screenwriter, including the titular section about the importance of writing scenes to secure character likeability, a la cat from a tree, it is not a must-read or definitive book for writers in this position, in my opinion.