Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need (original 2005; edition 2005)

by Blake Snyder

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,189	32	16,546	(3.92)	10
Here's what started the phenomenon: the bestseller, for over fifteen years, that's been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying, others include these: -The four elements of every winning logline -The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics -The ten genres that every movie ever made can be categorized by-and why they're important to your script -Why your hero must serve your idea -Mastering the fifteen beats -Creating the Perfect Beast by using The Board to map forty scenes with conflict and emotional change -How to get back on track with proven rules for script repair This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a showbiz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat.… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	clevercelt
Title:	Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
Authors:	Blake Snyder
Info:	Michael Wiese Productions (2005), Paperback, 195 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	Analysis, comedy, writing, textbook, theory, reference, craft, screenwriting, nonfiction, humor

Work Information

Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder (2005)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

zer0c00l, zacchaeus23, FatimaElf, Anthony_Nunez, uitkijker, lotoyat, RealEvanJohn, Lin19512, SCViBookRoom

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

Books Read in 2023 (1,418)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 10 mentions

▾Member reviews

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 32 (next | show all)

I've heard authors recommend this book, and say that it's helpful for writing/structuring your novel. While I do see some helpful points in here, I also see a lot that doesn't pertain to novelists, so I'm confused as to why this book is recommended so much. World building is such an important part of a novel, especially a high fantasy novel. The "bad guy" doesn't necessarily have to stay bad, they can grow and change too. You don't have to avoid complexity with your characters or plot. Overall, I didn't see this one being as helpful as some people claim. I noticed there is another Save the Cat book, but that one is Save the Cat Writes a Novel, and it looks like it's written specifically for authors/novelists, so I'll probably check that one out and hopefully it's more helpful than this one. (

)

VanessaMarieBooks | Dec 10, 2023 |

This is a good fundamental overview of story telling. it is aimed primarily at screenwriters. He gives a sort of template into which most successful films must fit. It's not a how-to but useful as goad to thinking clearly about what a writer is doing and how he's got stuck. (

)

brianstagner | Nov 16, 2023 |

Wow, oh, wow! I learned SO much about story structure from this book. I devoured it on the beach in Mexico, then read it a second time on the plane home, highlighting and furiously taking notes. I've never had so many "aha!" moments when reading anything before. I don't think I'll ever watch movies without trying to break them down into Snyder's "beats" -- and that's a good thing! There's so much here I can apply to structuring my work. A truly inspirational book that I'll be reading again and again. (A ) (

)

Elizabeth_Cooper | Oct 27, 2023 |

Is it helpful? Yeah, it's helpful. And at times, it's even enjoyably clever. But for the most part, Snyder is a misogynistic asshat whose mouth I want to shove a very stinky sock inside. And then use duct tape. And then put on ear muffs just in case he can still talk. And then maybe break his fingers or something so he cant' write any more self-help books.

This is a Harvey Weinstein sort of DIY on screenwriting. The obvious misogyny is just way too blatant to ignore or move past, if you're a female writer (a notion that apparently never crosses Snyder's mind).

I would not recommend this book. To anyone. For any reason - even if it was the last book on screenwriting on the planet. (

)

BreePye | Oct 6, 2023 |

It's definitely about screen-writing, but is a great beginner book for general story-telling and fiction-writing.

It has a handful of basic realities about screenwriting that are good to think about (eg at the time of writing, men under 25 are the main target group so things have to appeal to them) but much more than that is basic advice about keeping your characters' motivations relatable, keeping side-characters memorable and other good advice about structuring fiction that's presented with the right amount of structure-your-creativity to make it resonate well with me. (

)

nimishg | Apr 12, 2023 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 32 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (2 possible)

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2005

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

We've all had this experience...

It's Saturday night.

You and your friends have decided to see a movie.

One of you is picked to read the choices from the newspaper while the others listen and decide. And if you are an inspiring spec screenwriter, you're about to learn a very important lesson.

If you've ever had the honor, if you've ever been the one elected to read the film choices for a group of gathered friends...

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

Here's what started the phenomenon: the bestseller, for over fifteen years, that's been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying, others include these: -The four elements of every winning logline -The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics -The ten genres that every movie ever made can be categorized by-and why they're important to your script -Why your hero must serve your idea -Mastering the fifteen beats -Creating the Perfect Beast by using The Board to map forty scenes with conflict and emotional change -How to get back on track with proven rules for script repair This ultimate insider's guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a showbiz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary