A review by sofijakryz
Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder

3.0

A clear and concise summary on how to write yet another, standard screenplay. And I was wondering why so many movies or books watch/read the same these days. The book is strongly focused on writing as a craft - like making shoes or cheese, or baking bagels. Which does explain a lot about screenwriting or writing industry and the market this industry supplies. No, I would not be able to write even half the things the author has written. But even so, I suspect that even if one practices the tips within the book by a rule, unless the person is very talented, they will hardly go very far. The market is competitive and you have to be able to do more than average thing to get published these days. Perhaps that's the reason so many newer books I pick up contain the elements of weird. The tips themselves are quite good though: thinking about the structure, characters, audience, knowing one's aims and goals as an author, studying examples of movies one likes. There are even exercises at the end if each chapter. Which is nice. What I did not like, though, was that hyperfocus on "let's bake another something using the formula" - I've read a few books too many by Dan Brown (I read 4 and they were all the same) and saw a few Hollywood movies too many. Perhaps that's why I don't watch them any more.

I also suspect the gentleman knows more tricks than he has betrayed.