He’s made millions of dollars selling screenplays to Hollywood and now screenwriter Blake Snyder tells all. “Save the Cat” is just one of Snyder’s many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying – and saleable, including: the four elements of every winning logline; the seven immutable laws of screenplay physics; the ten genres and why they’re important to your movie; why your Hero must serve your idea; and, how to get back on track with ironclad and proven rules for script repair. This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by an industry veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat. It helps you learn the seven immutable laws of screenplay physics, and discover 10 genres and why they’re important. It also helps you to get back on track with ironclad and proven rules for script repair.
Blake Snyder takes you through the process of crafting a screenplay stage by stage based on his many year experience in the business. His beat sheet setting out the key milestones in the films narrative structure has been used successfully in many, many films and is referred to regularly. There are other templates for screenplays, of course, but this is a very accessible and essential guide to help you get the structure right and your ideas in order to make sure your screenplay hits the high notes along each of the beats, instead of being a bum note in a one-man orchestra.
The sections in the book are as follows. These are my headings as they represent what Blake talks about in each of the chapters. The order of thinking is key also – though it can be tempting to dive in and just start writing (as many writers do) – but the key to a successful script is the order of the process and the thinking that goes behind the development process. Any snippets your have in your scrapbook are always welcome and could slot in somewhere in the beats, but you may often find them tossed out or rewritten to fit better once you start with a helicopter view.
- Logline & Title
- Genre
- Hero
- Structure
- The Board
- Immutable Laws
- Fixing Problems
- Final Fade In
If you want to write screenplays, pick up this book.
