Okay so I got this book the other day and I'm about halfway through it.

Really helpful for structuring features...and without having done one yet it's coming in very useful. He has a page set out called his 'beatlist', which is 15 plot points with an approximate page number to complete that point by.

I'm busy writing a feature version of my short 'Closure' and it's a lot more clear now where I've been going wrong in previous attempts.

I'm not sure about copyright, but if someone can let me know if it's okay, I'll post on here what the 15 points are.

Cheers

Ste

P.S The 'Save the Cat' point is something I had never heard of before, but makes total sense now.

I gotta chime in and give my two cents on this book, in the hope of deterring other writers from putting their hard-earned money down for this thing.

First let's be absolutely clear on this. This book is 'the last book you'll ever need on screenwriting' (as the cover immodestly touts) only IF your creative ambition doesn't go beyond writing straight-to-DVD "Daddy-day Care" type sequels. Blake Snyder makes it absolutely crystal clear that the kinds of films he believes are worthy of imitation are Miss Congeniality and Legally Blonde, and even goes as far as mocking unconventional films like "Memento" because it didn't rake in as much dough at the box office.

Bear in mind Snyder's only credit is the cloyingly Disney kiddie film "Blank Cheque" which he will not hesitate to plug, even if the film itself is the God of bland.

The examples from his own repetoire of unproduced scripts are downright amateurish at best and pernicious at worst. He wants to perpetuate the kind of "humor" that says "Trust me! It will be funny on the day!"

But personal taste aside, the main reason why this guy's book should be relegated to the 9th circle of hell - reserved for self-help books (because this is a self-help book) and Oprah's movies of the week -is because of his absolutely tunnelvisioned ideology of story structure. I'm not talking about his beatlist, which actually does have a use, I'm talking about his fanatical stance on page-numbers and when EXACTLY plot-points should take place (which is page 28, if you're intersted. Not page 27, not page 26, not page 29. Page 2. This kind of dogmatic code is completely useless and will only stifle a good script and won't mend a bad one.

There are plenty of decent books on screenwriting, but how on Earth this guy, his credentials in mind, got be a guru on movies is beyond me. The guys is a first-rate hack with absolutely no vision or sense of comedy. He's the Obi-Wan to the Luke Skywalkers who wrote "What Happens in Vegas" and "Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause"

So is this the last book on screenwriting you'll ever need? Well, the book isn't about screenwriting. It's about copywriting. It's about pitching. It's travel-dictionary on how to speak to Disney executives. But it's NOT about screenwriting.

Don't let this rant deter you from finding anything in his book useful. You can, with a healthy degree of skepticism, cherrypick elements from his beatlist, but especially his save-the-cat* short-cut is the biggest kind of cheat when making the audience sympathize with your character, and honestly there are better books out there.

*Note that though Snyder initially defines saving the cat as having the hero do a good deed (like saving a cat in Sea of Love) as he scrambles to make his quick-fix solution fit all good movies he expands the definition to mean "Make your characters likeable in any way". Gee, thanks Professor Obvious. He uses the scene with Jules and Vince from Pulp Fiction to illustrate his "save the cat" adage:

Here's what he writes:

"Quentin Tarantino does a very smart thing when we first meet these two potentially unlikable guys - he makes them funny. And naive. [...] In a sense Q.T. absolutely follows the Save-the-cat rule."

Yes, just like, in a sense, Paris Hilton is an award winning actress.

He could've just as well have called his book "Make your characters likable and your story interesting!" because that's the advice he's selling as if it's some novel concept.


So in closing, this book is evil, and written by Satan himself. If you read it you will die in 7 days, unless you sign my online petition.

Cheers.

So, I take it you don't like the book? haha. Fair play.

I agree with some of what you say -- such as, sticking rigourously to the page count. I was only planning on keeping that as a base to go from. For instance, in his words the mid-point must be exactly the halfway point of your script. (90 page script -- midpoint page 45).

Whereas you say things he says is obvious, it might be to you but not everyone. I think the parts on the 'set-up' helps alot. It's mainly about structure, which if you get it nailed, you have freedom to do as you please.

Ste

I think what my diatribe comes down to is this: If you only buy one screenwriting book this year, don't make it Save The Cat.

A lot of what's saying about structure does apply, because he's basically re-formulating The Hero's Journey (like all other screenwriting books), but you can tell that many of his plot points a groomed for specific types of films, or specific genres.

Wheras other books I've read may say, of their quick-fix to the perfect screenplay, "This is a good rule of thumb..." Snyder boasts his solution to be universal, when it's clearly not. Snyder's book may be directed at the newest neophytes but even then his dogmatic approach might confuse them and they might actually believe his nosense about page-numbers.

I guess it just depends on the script you wanna write. If you don't necessarily wanna do the kinds of films he gushes about (like Legally Blonde) then there are better and more inspiring authors out there, IMO.

I quite liked Linda Seeger and Alex Epstein, although they're by no means gurus.

I'm 100% with DeathMonkey on this one. The book made me vomit a little in my mouth.

The one thing I did find quite useful was his beat sheet, but it's not exactly groundbreaking, or all that different from the dozens of other beat sheet formats floating around.

His examples are excruciatingly bad, and the overall tone of the book made me queasy.

When the writer of Stop or my Mom Will Shoot starts taking swipes at Memento, you know something's up.

Yeah, that's the only thing I'm saying I'll post here if it doesn't course copyright problems.

I'm reading books that have been recommended to me (I think Rob recommended this one). 'The Screenwriters Bible' was better but I'm still finding this one useful. It's just a case of picking out the parts that you keep from each book. So far, it's the beat sheet and the parts about title and logline.

Any other books you recommend?

Someone convinced me this book would really help me. I read bits and pieces and have the software.

I can see how the beat sheet might be helpful to some, but I find it stifling. Trying to make certain things happen at certain pages doesn't work for me at all. A story to me is a living thing and writing it is the fun part. Waiting to see what's going to happen next. Snyder's way seems a bit like trying to engineer a script. But what do I know. I'm someone who seems to do my best work in five pages or less.  

Quoted from stebrown It's just a case of picking out the parts that you keep from each book. So far, it's the beat sheet and the parts about title and logline.

Absolutely. I'm not saying it's useless. There is some valid stuff in there but I think it pales in comparison to other books out there.

I'd recommend anything by Linda Seger, McKee's Story, Joseph Campbell, Christopher Vogler, and even WC Martel's Secrets of Action Screenwriting as better alternatives.

The first book I ever bought on the subject was Raymond Frensham's Teach Yourself Screenwriting and it's still one of the best I've read.

Ok --

My 2 cents. I subscribe to three books. The first choice would be Hal Ackerman, "Write Screenplays that Sell." He was a screenplay teacher at UCLA. I do like his sceneogram method. Second, Robert McKee, "Story." McKee is a classic in the business and helps you understand plot, sub plot, and character development. The third is Blake Snyder, "Save the Cat. Blake should gain some points for giving us the 15 beat model. It definitely keeps me on track. And I do agree that hitting certain things by certain page numbers is a bit much.

When you mix all three together you get a great structure of character, milepost, and scene structure to keep you on track toward your goal of character arch.

Spencer