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

by Blake Snyder

I also value Joseph Campbell’s work. Hero With A Thousand Faces remains the best book about storytelling ever.

Because liking the person we go on a journey with is the single

most important element in drawing us into the story.

I call it the “Save the Cat” scene. They don’t put it into movies anymore. And it’s basic. It’s the scene where we meet the hero and the hero does something — like saving a cat — that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him.

“What is it?” is the name of the game. “What is it?” is the movie. A good “What is it?” is the coin of the realm.

The number one thing a good logline must have, the single most important element, is: irony.

The second most important element that a good logline has is that you must be able to see a whole movie in it.

In order to better create a good “What is it?” the spec screenwriter must be able to tell a good one-line or logline — a one- or two-sentence grabber that tells us everything. It must satisfy four basic elements to be effective:

EXERCISES

Listen to Spielberg or Scorsese talk about movies. They know and can quote from hundreds. And I don’t mean quote as in “recite lines from,” I mean quote as in “explain how each movie works.” Movies are intricately made emotion machines.

EXERCISES

Make the hero want something real and simple: survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death.

The rule of thumb in all these cases is to stick to the basics no matter what. Tell me a story about a guy who… > I can identify with.

> I can learn from. > I have compelling reason to follow. > I believe deserves to win and… > Has stakes that are primal and ring true for me.

The perfect hero is the one who offers the most conflict in the situation, has the longest emotional journey, and has a primal goal we can all root for. Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, and fear of death grab us. It is usually someone we can identify with primally, too,

and that’s why mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives make better characters than mere strangers facing the same situations and storylines.

The adjunct to Save the Cat says: “A screenwriter must be mindful of getting the audience ‘in sync’ with the plight of the hero from the very start.”