Here’s what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 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, including: The four elements of every winning logline The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics The 10 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 15 Beats Creating the “Perfect Beast” by using The Board to map 40 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 …
Here’s what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 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, including: The four elements of every winning logline The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics The 10 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 15 Beats Creating the “Perfect Beast” by using The Board to map 40 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.
Of all the books about writing and story structure I’ve read, this one was one of the most vacuous. To top that off, when I heard Blake Snyder died (the book’s author) I mentioned it to film director John Landis. John said, “Who the f@&¢ is that?” “He mentions working with you in his book,” I said. John replied, “I have no idea who that is.”
It is a great book for fans of cookie cutter story telling though.
I am not a screenplay writer, but I have seen enough novelists using the approach of outlining via "beats" that I was interested in reading this book's take. His writing approach certainly makes the approach of outlining something less intimidating, and making it an interesting alternative to too much "pantsing" -- a term used to imply no plot outlining, and writing something while flying by the seat of your pants (I am across the term the first year I did NaNoWriMo).
I imagine one could get rather formulaic if applying to NaNoWriMo: - Taking the NaNoWriMo minimum novel length goal: 50k words - Outlined into three acts, which is more like four sections of equal length: Act 1, Act 2a, Act 2b, Act 3 - Breaking this down further, it could mean ~12,500 words per act - If a chapter is 2,000 - 2,500 words each, the book would be …
I am not a screenplay writer, but I have seen enough novelists using the approach of outlining via "beats" that I was interested in reading this book's take. His writing approach certainly makes the approach of outlining something less intimidating, and making it an interesting alternative to too much "pantsing" -- a term used to imply no plot outlining, and writing something while flying by the seat of your pants (I am across the term the first year I did NaNoWriMo).
I imagine one could get rather formulaic if applying to NaNoWriMo: - Taking the NaNoWriMo minimum novel length goal: 50k words - Outlined into three acts, which is more like four sections of equal length: Act 1, Act 2a, Act 2b, Act 3 - Breaking this down further, it could mean ~12,500 words per act - If a chapter is 2,000 - 2,500 words each, the book would be 5 - 6 chapters per quarter, being 20 - 24 chapters in total: (5 * 2500 = 12,500 and 12,500 * 4 = 50,000) - If using 40 "beats" to outline the story as writing prompts, this would come out to about 2 beats per chapter -- being around 1,250 words in length
So, as a recap: 50k word novel / 20 - 24 chapters / 2,000 - 2,500 words per chapter / two beats outlining two "scenes" that need to happen in each chapter
This way of outlining can really make the approach easier, since one is able to look at the outline of 40 sentences and get a better idea of whether the plot sucks, has plot holes, etc. before even beginning to write the novel.
The overall approach seems to be: Paragraph idea for a story -> Create a "logline" (single sentence) as a pitch/hook describing the premise -> Create a title that best pairs with the logline -> Create character outlines -> Extrapolate the plot idea into the 15 most important parts -> Extrapolate further into 40 beats to create the entire story outline, filling in the gaps -> Transform 40 sentences into 20 - 24 chapters
I'm looking forward to reading through the Save the Cat! book focusing on novel writing, by Jessica Brody, slated to come out in October 2018.
Granted, the approach above is just one, it can make the process of writing a novel far easier if one is able to start with a writing prompt to write out as a path to the next writing prompt. I will be interested in seeing Brody's insight into her novel writing.
