FREE TOOL ALERT: The Save the Cat! Beat Mapper
We’ve improved our Beat Mapper, which calculates where the beats fall in your story according to its length.
Play with the Cat: Experimenting with Layers, Loops, and Chopped Harmonies in Story Structure
Learn how to experiment in storytelling using story structure in playful ways, as in Mario Moreno’s KILLA, A Mixtape Novella
Developing a Meta-Theatre Comedy – The Play with Speeches
See how UK playwright James Woolf uses Blake Snyder’s story beats to create his hit South London play, The Play with Speeches.
Can Your B Story Be a Buddy Love, While Your A Story Is Another Genre?
I love systems. I’ve studied many throughout my life including improv, Meisner-based film acting, and Kenpo karate. And the big a-ha with any good system is that once you learn the rules and practice them constantly, you eventually get to the point where you do…
Best of Blake: Why Clear Story Structure = Clear Thinking
This blog was originally posted on April 16, 2009. If we can tell a story well, we can communicate on every level in a quicker, more effective way! One thing I hear from audiences I get to speak to, from writers in class or in…
Best of Blake: Act Zero
Deciding what is important in any story we tell—no matter how we tell it—is the writer’s job.
David Heska Wanbli Weiden “Beat Out” His Award-Winning Novel, Winter Counts
Read how acclaimed novelist David Heska Wanbli Weiden, author of the best-selling “Winter Counts,” used the Blake Snyder beat sheet to write the novel.
Best of Blake: The Checklist
Blake Snyder reveals the checklist writers can reference to see what makes a successful story.
What Writers Can Learn From tick, tick… BOOM!
See how tick, tick…BOOM! demonstrates to writers the power of ticking clocks to raise the stakes of their stories.
How to Use the Parallel Beats of the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet
Understand how the parallel beats of Catalyst/Debate/Break into Two and All Is Lost/Dark Night of the Soul/Break into Three can be used to powerfully demonstrate a hero’s transformation.
