Save the cat!
by Blake Snyder · first published 2005
32% recommend56% neutral12% critical
Why HN recommends it
Practical screenwriting guide built around a beat sheet for structuring a story, with concrete tips. Useful for aspiring screenwriters and novelists, and for spotting the shared shape of blockbuster movies.
Common criticism: Some say its formula makes movies feel samey and formulaic
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
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…into stories. The minority sidekick, token minorities, the plucky Southern Women (Steel Magnolias? Really?), the imminint danger down to the second, etc. There is a book on movie plot writing called, "Save The Cat" that is the most insightful book I've read on that subject. The plot of "Avatar" was depressingly cliche; a standard retelling of the standard action movie plot, done once again. The special effects…
on “Math Anxiety: Why Hollywood Makes Robots of Alan Turing and Other Geniuses” ↗…really; it's got a lot of genre and form specific but, though it's certainly not entirely useless outside of that focus. The Writer's Journey is better for describing the shape of Hollywood successes (Save the Cat does so even more precisely for recent ones, providing very close to a minute-by-minute breakdown.)
on “At the Blackboard: Kurt Vonnegut diagrams the shapes of stories (2005)” ↗They are, it's called "Save the cat". https://slate.com/culture/2013/07/hollywood-and-blake-snyder...
on “Movie written by algorithm turns out to be hilarious and intense” ↗The late Blake Snyder wrote a couple of books ("Save The Cat!", recommended) on screenwriting with the hypothesis that there are only ten basic story paradigms, and Alien is the classic "Monster In The House" example, along with Jaws. In short, a MITH movie has…
on “Typography in Alien (2014)” ↗If you would like a little jade in your viewing experience, read Save The Cat by Blake Snyder. Then go ahead and watch any blockbuster movie with the page open to his beat sheet. Allow around one minute per page, and tick off each step as the movie does.
on “America has never had so much TV, and even Hollywood is overwhelmed” ↗Allow me to ruin all Hollywood movies for you: "Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need". https://www.amazon.com/Save-Last-Book-Screenwriting-Youll/dp... Once you read this, you'll start seeing that every popular movie today follows this…
on “Kurt Vonnegut on 8 ‘shapes’ of stories” ↗You are trying to bypass years of experience. It doesn't work that way. Go read Blake Snyder' "Save the cat". And all the derivative works. And keep rereading them until things start clicking. The entire ecosystem of "Save the cat" is about being a writer of sorts: movies, novels, theater plays etc. But it…
on “Ask HN: Recommend resources that helped your game dev journey?” ↗…Torvalds), Elon Musk, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - How companies work: Creativity Inc (Pixar), In the Plex (Google) - On writing: Art of fiction/nonfiction by Ayn Rand, Story by Robert McKee, Save the Cat, Step by Step to Standup Comedy. - Other: The Selfish Gene, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Serious Creativity, Hackers & Painters, Hacking Growth, Angel (on angel investing, by Jason Calacanis).…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?” ↗…Musk, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - How companies work: Creativity Inc (Pixar), In the Plex (Google) - On writing: Art of fiction/nonfiction by Ayn Rand, Story (and Dialogue) by Robert McKee, Save the Cat, Step by Step to Standup Comedy. - Grokking Deep Learning - by far the simplest and clearest introduction into deep learning, starts from scratch and takes you through the whole thing, without any of…
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗Tvtropes as others have said, but for structure what you want is an intro screenwriting book. “Save the Cat” is a good one, and Syd Field is a classic (although dated).
on “Why we picture bombs as round black balls with a burning wick (2016)” ↗…helped you write better? Techniques of the Selling Writer Fantasy Fiction Formula (how I learned said elemental western story design) and its more generic Fiction Formula Plotting Scene & Structure Save the Cat writes a novel Body beats to build on Getting Things Done (not specifically writing but keeps me on track)
on “‘How to Tell a Story’ Review: Aristotle in the Writers’ Room” ↗You might want to read "Save the Cat!" which gives a lot of practical tips for structuring your screenplay so people won't automatically nix it. A friend from a top film school (for whatever that's worth) had it as part of his curriculum.
on “Lessons Learned from Trying to Break into Professional Screenwriting” ↗Seconding Save the Cat, my favorite book on Screenwriting (and I've read most of them). Terry Rossio's columns at Wordplayer[1] are also fantastic. Rossio is half the team that wrote Zorro, Shrek and Pirates of the Carribean.…
on “Lessons Learned from Trying to Break into Professional Screenwriting” ↗Blockbuster movies were ruined for me when I read "Save the cat". I then went on to ruin them for others by recommending the book :-) In all honesty though, the most enjoyment I get from large-budget movies now is the visual effects. The plot is basically the same…
on “Kurt Vonnegut on the “shapes” of stories” ↗So the problem with media conglomerates (including big studios) is they want predictable returns. More specifically, they want a formula. Let me introduce you to Save the Cat [1]. This book has become so influential that you can read this book and then watch pretty much any movie and you'll be able to tick off everything in the movie to this structure. It's why studios love…
on “Netflix’s bad habits have caught up with it” ↗