Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

Blake Snyder (1957-2009) began his career in show business at an early age. His father, Kenneth Snyder, was an award-winning producer for children’s television shows, including The Funny Company, Roger Ramjet, and Sesame Street. His father hired Blake to do voice acting for various projects at the age of eight but fired him after a few years when his voice changed. After Blake Snyder graduated from Georgetown University, where he majored in English, he landed a job writing for Kids Incorporated, a Disney television series. In 1989, he sold his first “spec” script (spec refers to an unsolicited and therefore “speculative” screenplay that a screenwriter hopes to sell) for the 1992 movie Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, starring Sylvester Stallone and Estelle Getty. Snyder also co-wrote and sold scripts for Blank Check (Walt Disney Pictures) and Nuclear Family (Amblin Entertainment), each for a million dollars. Snyder firmly places his work in the “family comedy” category, as his successes suggest.

Though Snyder was one of the more successful spec screenwriters, critics do not hold his movies in esteem. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, for example, was widely panned by critics but grossed over $70 million worldwide (“Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992).” Box Office Mojo). However, in Save the Cat! Snyder makes clear that the target audience for his book is not the person interested in producing an art-house film or indie project but the person interested in creating a sellable, easy-to-promote Hollywood hit. While the concept of a three-act movie existed for decades before Save the Cat!, some reviewers decry the over-reliance on formula to make art. Peter Suderman states:

In practice, Snyder’s beat sheet has taken over Hollywood screenwriting. Movies big and small stick closely to his beats and page counts. Intentionally or not, it’s become a formula—a formula that threatens the world of original screenwriting as we know it (Suderman, Peter. “Save the Movie!” Slate, 19 Jul. 2013).

Nonetheless, many writers outside of the film industry find value in the lessons in Save the Cat! The work of analyzing each scene for emotional arc and conflict and understanding pacing and the underlying deep story structure is helpful for novel writers. From the classes Snyder taught on screenwriting, there is now a version of his craft guide for novelists.

Snyder authored two follow-up books to his screenwriting guide, titled Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies (2007), which dissects 50 movies based on Snyder’s BS2, and Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get Into … And Out Of (2009). In 2016, a compilation of Snyder’s writings was published as Save the Cat! Blake’s Blogs: More Information and Inspiration for Writers. Students of his, Salva Rubio and Jessica Brody, wrote other follow-up books titled Save the Cat! Goes to the Indies (2017) and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need (2018), respectively.

Blake Snyder died in 2009 at the age of 51. Because he had been a long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America, a public memorial was held for him there after his death. Movies by screenwriters who respected him have also been dedicated to him: How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and Whispers Under Ground (2012).