Book Notes: Save The Cat

I took an acting class my freshman year of college. Save The Cat by Blake Snyder is one of the books the professor talked highly of a few times. So it has been sitting on my reading list for years. I finally picked it up from the library and decided to give it a read.

I don't know much about screenwriting, or Hollywood in general, so I can't compare it to much but the book was entertaining on it's own and had some good nuggets.

Here are my notes:

• You gotta have a good hook (aka logline) and title
• High Concept - When it's easy to see what a movie is about from hook/title
• You can, and sometimes must, near cliche but you always need a twist
• Make the hero likeable
• A good structure stops people from rewriting your script too much to take credits
• Save the cat - Make the hero relatable
• Double Mumbo Jumbo - Stick to one kind of magic per movie
• Laying the pipe - telling the character backstory
• Keep the press out - preserves the magic for the audience
• If your hear is too neutral make the bad guy badder
• Touch many emotions during you movie
• Give minor characters a limp and eye patch to make them memorable

Photo by Daniel Nyman on Unsplash