Mike and Ira Save the Cat
Our guest blogger, Rick Drew, began as an assistant director, working on such films as Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, the original Superman, and Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians. Since attending The American Film Institute to pursue a career as a writer/producer, he has...
The Most Common Pitch Meeting Mistake (That You Don’t Know You’re Making)
Blake was a big fan of Stephanie Palmer, a pitch consultant who helps creative people sell their work. She was a studio executive for MGM where she had more than 3,000 pitch meetings. You can sign up for her free course, “7 Days To Creating A Better...
Creating an Anti-Hero: Save the Cat! Saves the Day
Guest blogger Master Cat! Anne Lower has had a very busy time lately. She is moving her project They Live Among Us episodes 4-6 through post, shopping a reality/adventure show and a one-hour cable drama with her partner, Geoff Reeves, recently Line Produced the indie...
A Safe Place
BJ Markel here. I wrote this 40 years ago, in the early ’70s — just for myself. It’s never been published. Blake and I shared the feeling that we can go into the theatre to be entertained, to laugh, to be inspired… and to be safe....
Best of Blake: His “Second Take” on Christopher Nolan’s Memento
If there’s a single section in Save the Cat! that riles up readers, it’s Blake’s comments on Memento. Boy, did he get emails about that! As time wore on, Blake solidified his opinions about the film and what he wanted to say about it in...
From the Best of Blake’s Blogs: Cliché Alert!!
This blog, originally posted on January 8, 2006, now links to the 2012 List of Banished Words from Lake Superior State University. So read on for the latest clichés to avoid: As stated repeatedly in Save the Cat!, the screenwriter’s job is to constantly scour...
Tips from the Trenches: Rewriting
BJ Markel worked with Blake beginning in 1986 and misses him every day. He edited Blake’s three books, his blogs, and together they started Blake Snyder Enterprises soon after the publication of Save the Cat! in May, 2005. BJ continues editing today, and realized that...
Salva Rubio’s 15 Beats of Success
Our guest blogger, Salva Rubio, is a Spanish author and screenwriter. After reading Save the Cat!, the first script he ever wrote, Saborafuego, was optioned, and he is currently hired to develop three more films. He has published essays, a comic book, and his first...
Why Your Writing Process Shouldn’t Be Sacred
How a writer developed a process that worked for her.
Writing for a Genre That Doesn’t Exist (Yet)
How Hilary Weisman Graham used "Save the Cat!" to sell screenplays and a novel.
