Save the Cat!

The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

By: Blake Snyder

Narrated by: George Newbern

Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has 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 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 show biz veteran who's proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat.

©2005 Blake Snyder (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Don't waste your time

The author brags about selling screenplays so I looked up what he wrote. He actually won an award (a Razzie for worst screenplay). Most new screenwriters want to write a good story, not just one that will sell. He completely lost me when he started taking jabs at classic movies.

Outdated but kind of helpful I guess?

The one word to sum up Blake Snyder’s rules and advice on writing movies is “outdated.” He comes from a time of Hollywood in the 80s and 90s where family comedies were the biggest fad and that’s where he has his experience writing. While some of the references have been updated to as late as 2009 (the year he unfortunately passed away), the films he heralds as great models are generally unimpressive, heartless and forgotten comedies.

The industry has changed so much since this was written, I think there’s more of a focus now on innovative and experimental stories and ways of telling said stories, with filmmakers like Tarantino, Denis Villeneuve, and Christopher Nolan (whose breakout film Memento is detested by Snyder for the absolute dumbest reasons) breaking the mould and ushering in this new mindset of Hollywood.

At the end of the day, Snyder is more concerned with selling a screenplay than telling a good and engaging story. This is evident in his less than impressive resume. Only two of his sold scripts have ever been made, and you’ve never seen or heard of either.

However! He is a veteran of the industry and does have wisdom to share. While I didn’t agree with his ideas or rules, I found ways to adapt his lessons into guidelines that could I could make useful for myself in 2020.

So if you decide to read or listen to the book, I recommend trying to find ways to learn from his ideas rather than taking them at face value.

little full of himslef but is very helpful.

Has helpful tips if you cant figure out why somthing isnt working or dialog is lacking he gives you some nice tools to use. overall its a good one to read!

Enlightening and, frankly, disheartening

There's definitely a lot of great info here, and I would absolutely call it an invaluable resource for any aspiring screen writer.

I don't have a lot to say about the narrator. In this kind of non-fiction, the only real requirements are a reasonably pleasant voice and clear, understandable speech. Which George Newbern manages perfectly.

There are honestly a lot of great storytelling precepts herein, but there are almost as many things that I disagree with on a visceral level.

I also highly disagree with the author about his opinion of... Well... Pretty much every movie he analyzes.

I can accept, however, that the author's idea of the "perfect" movie is just about the complete opposite of mine.

I have to admit that 99% of my disappointment with this book was not the material (the value here was great), but rather with the picture he paints of the state of Hollywood and film making in general.

In short, anyone who is the least bit curious about screenwriting or script analysis could definitely benefit from reading this book.

overall really good advice

I had heard about this book from many people with stealer reviews and it lives up to the expectation. The writer gives solid advice to build a screenwriting foundation off of but there are a lot of rules I think could be more flexible that the writer insist are concrete. Overall would 100% recommend to aspiring screenwriters.

Amazing information, but I lost engagement

The information is GOLD! But as far as structure, it wasn’t as engaging. The first few chapters about structure were good. The bits of nuggets scattered throughout make it totally worth it. But it’s not fun listening to lists, or shotgun bullet points. The later half of the book is a list of his advice.

My Favorite Screenwriting Book

I've read and listened to a large number of books on screenwriting/writing. Although many of them I found helpful, this is by far my favorite. Why? It's very close to 100% usable, practical, actionable advise that makes sense and I believe works. Not only that but it's presented in a very congenial, conversational way (unlike, for example McKee's And Field's books which are so stuffy and academic it makes their books far less accessible, and difficult to even concentrate on when listening to them read).

The criticism that I often hear about this (and his other) books is that they are "cookie cutter", meaning that it's kind of a one-size-fits-all sort of approach. That is true imo, and I don't agree with all Synder's advice (he's pretty much a one-genre guy (Romantic Comedy), and it isn't the genre that I write, so some of the things he says, imo, are not that applicable to some other genres (like Sci Fi and Horror, which are mine), but still most of his stuff is applicable across the board, and it's certainly helped my writing, and will help yours too.

Nothing special

Honestly, i think the book is quite mediocre. I didn't find it particularly useful nor did i learn very much from it. Great narration, though.

Great how to book on writing

I read Save the Cat about 5 years ago and loved it. This is a great book for writers and especially for screenwriters. The narrator George Newbern did a great job with Blake Snyder's POV.

Specific and Inspiring

Very clear and concise in his writing, Blake Snyder gives a true blueprint with specific points to follow and help break up the writing process into palatable pieces.

Believe the hype!

I have learned more from this book than I did in 3 years of screenwriting classes.

simplistic

Explain it to me like I'm a 10 year old kind of book, although that might be the point of the whole thing...useful for someone just starting out.

Brilliant

A very well-organized book taking you through the writing process from idea to script completion. Blake Snyder gets what it's like to be a writer and has perfect ways of communicating his point to the reader. I'll always come back to this book if I'm stuck on an issue. It also helps that Superman is narrating.

Lots of practical advice and industry tips.

Having an audible version made life so much easier as I could listen on the move.

Some great stuff and it's worth reading but...

...it is a bit old fashioned and American film culture centric. Good to challenge your ideas against even where you disagree.

Loved it!

Full of great tips... I’ve just finished listening, and I’m just about to start again!

Inspirational

If you're not moved to start writing something, anything, you need to listen again, immediately!

Incredibly helpful

Really enjoyable and incredibly helpful would very much recommend to any kind of writer. I'd love to hear more.

Solid advice but occasionally dated.

structure and breakdown approach is a great way to assess your work and a good lense to view scripts through. However, the modern landscape of movies has changed massively and some of the advice has dated as a result. still a good read and fascinating approach.

Love it so much. perfect for screenwriters and learning on the go after reading the actual book