Book Review: Save the Cat! Strikes Back

 Last year, I reviewed the first in the Save the Cat! series by Blake Snyder. This time I’m reviewing the third and last book in the series called Save the Cat! Strikes Back. (I’ll explain why I didn’t buy the second one in a bit.)

The series was recommended by the fabulous author and writing instructor, Les Edgerton.

Years ago I took a screenwriting class, not because I wanted to write for Hollywood, but because I could see that the pace and structure of books was becoming more “movie-like.” I wanted to learn how screenplays were structured. This third book, like my copy of the first, is now part yellow from all the highlighting I did. It is full of advice that you can easily apply to your writing.

For example, here is some of what Snyder said about Loglines:
The template:

On the verge of a Stasis = Death moment, a flawed protagonist Breaks into Two; but when the Midpoint happens, he/she must learn the Theme Stated, before All is Lost.

You might read that and go, huh? But Snyder goes on to explain what each bolded word or phrase means. When you finish reading his explanation and example, you go, Ah-ha.

Here’s another quote that you already know, but when I read it, I paused and thought, of course.

All stories are about transformation.

Writers always talk about the dreaded Elevator Speech where you are called upon to pitch your book within a minute. If you’re interviewing at a conference, you may get ten minutes. For scripts, it’s called simply The Pitch. Snyder shares a Guide that came from one of his students, Betty Ryan:

1. Opening Image - A brief “who” of the hero
2. Catalyst - The thing that sets the story in motion
3. Break into Two - The essence of the story and poster
4. Midpoint - The complication that challenges the hero
5. All is Lost - How the hero loses everything
6. Break into Three - The solution to the hero’s dilemma
7. Final Image - How he is transformed by this story

The book is great, in my opinion, for both scriptwriters and bookwriters. Of course, a class with Blake Snyder would be fabulous and very intense, but we won’t get that opportunity since he passed away in 2009.

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

I like this series so much, I’m creating a new rating just for him: Hel-of-a-Teacher.

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FTC Disclaimer: I bought this book myself and while that did NOT influence my review, it did influence my reading. Dang it if I’m gonna spend money on a book and not read it. Which brings me to why I didn’t buy the 2nd in the series, Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies. When I browsed through it, I thought it would not help me much, as a book writer, since it focused on the analysis of movies. I’m not much on analyzing movies. I just go to them and enjoy them. Now, after reading Book 1 and Book 3, I will get the one in-between. I want to see how he breaks down movies, especially the ones I’ve seen. He diagrams books the way I used to diagram sentences in high school. I don’t think they even teach that anymore. But through these books, you can learn to diagram your story.