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

Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need is a 2005 non-fiction book on screenwriting by spec-screenwriter Blake Snyder, exploring plot structure in mainstream film. Snyder's approach has been widely adopted throughout the film industry and the book has remained a bestseller since publication, though it has received criticism for sexism and for offering what is perceived as an overly formulaic view of structure.
Snyder begins by arguing for the importance of developing a logline prior to writing the script. He defines a logline as a one- or two-sentence summary of a film that encapsulates its tone, potential, dilemma, characters, and audience. Snyder states that the ideal logline must satisfy four requirements:
All of this, Snyder suggests, relates to the idea of high-concept, a term describing works that can be easily pitched to potential audiences. Snyder states that the best way to test loglines is by pitching your movies to anyone that will listen and adjusting accordingly.
Snyder stresses the importance of screening movies similar to yours and to analyzing them for their strengths and weaknesses. He suggests that dividing movies into categories based on their story types is more valuable than using traditional genre (e.g. romance or action). The categories that he uses are:
In this section, Snyder discusses character and the importance of finding the right hero for each story. The ideal hero, he argues, experiences the most conflict in the story's situation, has the longest emotional journey, and has a primal goal (e.g. survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones).
Here Snyder introduces what Save the Cat! is most famous for: the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (or the BS2, as he calls it). The BS2 follows classic three-act structure but is more specific. Snyder refers to each act as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, respectively.
Snyder introduces his method of story planning, which he refers to as The Board: a cork board or similar divided into four rows (Act One, the first half of Act Two, the second half of Act Two, and Act Three), on which are pinned index cards corresponding to scenes. The writer creates an index card for each scene which are also written emotional change, and conflict. Snyder encourages color-coding these cards based on characters, storylines, and themes.
Here Snyder lists tricks and rules that he has collected over the years, including the eponymous Save the Cat rule: the hero must do something that makes the audience like them and want them to win (for example, in Disney's Aladdin, Aladdin shares his stolen food with some hungry kids). Other rules and tricks include The Pope in the Pool (a trick for introducing exposition without boring audiences),
In this section, Snyder offers methods for troubleshooting a finished script by identifying weak points and fixing them.
In the final chapter, Snyder discusses strategies for selling a script and making it in the film industry.
Save the Cat! is the first in the Save the Cat! book series, and was followed by two books also written by Blake Snyder: Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies (2007) and Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get Into . . . and Out Of (2009).
After Snyder's death in 2009, the series continued with Save the Cat! Blake's Blogs: More Information and Inspiration for Writers (2016), which is a compilation of Blake Snyder's blog posts and other writings on the subject of screenwriting.
The first book in the series not to feature Snyder's writing was Save the Cat! Goes to the Indies, a 2017 book by Salva Rubio that analyzes independent films according to Snyder's principles. It was followed in 2018 by Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing That You'll Ever Need by Jessica Brody.
Save the Cat! has been commercially successful, and has remained a bestseller on Amazon for fifteen years. As late as 2020, Save the Cat! remained Amazon's number-one bestseller in both the Screenplay and Screenwriting categories. The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet has become "a staple in writing classes," and critics have argued (positively and negatively) that the book differs from other screenwriting books due to "the absolute specificity of Snyder's formula, as well as its widespread adoption by the film industry."
Peter Suderman, writing for Slate magazine, suggested that the book is responsible for a decline in creative storytelling in contemporary film:
Suderman goes on to argue that many pre-Snyder blockbusters, such as Jurassic Park, do hit all of Snyder's beats, but out of order and out of proportion. He suggests that the real issue is the film industry's current adherence to Synder's exact beats, order, and page counts, making movies feel formulaic.
Critics have also argued that Snyder's analysis is sexist. Mary M. Dalton, writing in the Journal of Film and Video, described Save the Cat! as "pithy and almost unbelievably sexist in its central assertions." This criticism was echoed by Suderman in his Slate review: "Save the Cat! doesn't go so far as to require that protagonists be men. But . . . It's not an accident that the chapter on creating a hero is called 'It's About A Guy Who . . .' not 'It's About A Person Who . . .'"
Other reviewers have been more positive. Screentalk Magazine described Save the Cat! as "quite simply one of the most practical guides to writing mainstream spec scripts on the market," and Baptiste Charles, writing for Raindance, praised Save the Cat! for being "one of the most to the point books you can get your hands on."