Writing STC! and teaching my method to others has been the best experience of my life.
Those words flow so easily — and with joy.
As I finish up the manuscript of the sequel to “The Last Book On Screenwriiting You’ll Ever Need” (ha!), I am so grateful for everything that has happened so far. I have the world’s greatest publisher, Michael Wiese, and the best business partner, Brett Jay Markel, and the greatest Marketing Director ever, Isabel Holtreman, who is, like me, mostly concerned with offering service with integrity — and with fun! (And btw, she’s a genius!) Some things that are happening, that I am biting my tongue wanting to reveal, are simply amazing.
But to me the key is the joy.
I wake up singing most days. I zip over to my computer to answer email from writers I’ve met (or haven’t yet) — and now get to assist. I write my 1000 words a day. I meet with other writers who are working on projects. I get out there and seek opportunities. But in fact the opportunities seek me.
Why?
Because I am doing the thing I was meant to do.
I look back on my whole career and realize that my greatest joy was always helping other writers and being, for lack of a better term, an enthusiast. And the sweet spot of that sweet spot was always talking about story. Even more than writing on my own or with a partner, learning about story has always been my passion. This may not be the career I set out to have, but it’s me. And with what we are doing with STC!, I feel personally like a lifetime of braking devices, governors of what it’s “supposed to look like” that have held me back, are gone, and I am finally free.
I bring this up not to cause you to roll your eyes and say, “How very nice for you Blake… Get the net for Mr. Snyder!” but to take note of the fact that when you are on the right track, things happen.
Are you bucking the system, swimming against the river, or swimming with it? Is this writing thing a joy? Do you get up every day singing, wondering what new tidbit you are going to learn about your story or your career? Are opportunities coming to you?
Take your temperature on this.
Sometimes we stand in our own way and are the ones blocking our best self from coming out due to fear or some pre-conceived notion of how it’s supposed to look. If so, let go. Take a break. Take a walk. Take a nap.
And when you wake up, start singing, damn it. It’s the joy that lets us know we’re on the right track.
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Blake,
Thank you so much.
For what, you ask? For waking me up. I’ve always to be a writer. Much like little kids say they want to be Firemen or Astronauts (albeit not the kind that drive 900 miles with adult diapers on in order to kill someone) I have always wanted to write stories. I’ve always had this wierd feeling that that was what I was supposed to do. I’ve always felt that to entertain people was the highest, most honorable thing I could aspire to. I don’t know why, I just have always felt that way. But…there’s always been a block. I could just never find the right way to do that. I’ve been an actor, an improv comedian, a singer/songwriter, and all those things have been great…but I’ve always felt there was something else I was supposed to do – to create stories that would be made into films and plays that would affect people’s lives like I’ve been affected by so many great writers.
I know it sounds corny, but reading Save The Cat! confirmed my “raison d’etre” and showed me a way to achieve it. STC just resonates with me (and with so many others!)
Thank you, Mr. Snyder, for providing a guiding light for me to express my innermost desire of writing compelling, honest, visceral, inspiring, funny, stories for humanity to enjoy. You are amazing, Blake. You are a special human and I hope this doesn’t sound too maudlin – actually, fuck it, I know it sounds maudlin but I don’t care – You’ve had a huge impact on my life and I thank you for it. I look forward to knowing you for the rest of my life, and sharing with you this gift of storytelling.
Cheers,
Joe White
Thank you, Joe! God man! I am honored! And speechless! Imagine that!!?
But it’s true, Blake! You are GREAT at the rare art of encouragement!
Every time I recommend your book to someone new (and I recommend it AT LEAST once a month to yet another person), one of the things I really focus on about STC! (and you), is how encouraging you are. Your enthusiasm is infectious in the best possible way. You re-energize one’s love of storytelling.
In a word, you ROCK!
Yes, and now I’ll get back to getting my own proposal together. Heh.
Blake:
Yes, that’s EXACTLY it!
Marion Zimmer Bradley quoted Sterling Moss/ Ken Purdy (in ALL BUT MY LIFE by Stirling Moss and Ken W. Purdy, Copyright (c) 1963 by Stirling Moss ) in an epigraph in the front of her novel The Catch Trap and I think this is what you’re saying:
“The full terror and the full reward of this fantastic game are given only to those who bring to it talent honed by obsessive practice into great skill, a fiercely competitive will, and high intelligence, with the flagellating sensitivity which so often accompanies it. In these men a terrible and profound change sometimes takes place; the game becomes life. They understand what Karl Wallenda meant when he said, going back to the high wire after the tragic fall that killed two of his troupe and left another a paraplegic, “To be on the wire is life; all the rest is waiting.” ”
And that’s very much what writing is to me — LIFE — and all the rest is waiting to get back up on the wire, on the trapeze, on the stage.
Alma Hill my first professional writing teacher taught me that Writing is a Performing Art, as is race driving. And so I think the quote is apt.
In any event, I believe The Catch Trap and All But My Life are two books everyone interested in screenwriting should have read.
In case anyone doesn’t think there’s a parallel between screenwriting (or any writing) and life-risking artforms, consider that what you risk when you write is far more precious to you than life itself — it’s your personal, inner LIFE that you put out there naked for all to see.
And you, yourself, can’t see that you’re naked.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg