Celebrating Blake Snyder with a “Save The Cat!” GIVEAWAY

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Blake Snyder, BOLT, Jessica Brody, Jose Siliero, Save the Cat!, Story

Blake Snyder:  October 3, 1957 – August 4, 2009

If we’re lucky, at least once in our lifetime we meet a teacher who explains something in way that no one else could so that we finally “get it”. Blake Snyder was one of those teachers for me. His Save the Cat! books and Beat Sheet Workshops changed my writing career. And I know for a fact that he changed the lives of hundreds of other writers in the same way.

So that’s why I’m Celebrating Blake with a FREE GIVEAWAY of his book “Save the Cat!” Blake was all about sharing his knowledge and enriching the writing community. Now it’s my turn to pass on these essential tools that apply to fiction as well as screenplays. It’s just good storytelling.

To enter the FREE GIVEAWAY, leave a comment on this post before Midnight on Wednesday, August 8th. I’ll draw a name at random and announce the winner next Friday, August 10th.

Blake lived in the positive, always focused on moving a story forward. Jose Siliero’s spot on post encapsulates Blake’s attitude and outlook:

But don’t use Blake as a flashback. We all know Blake hated flashbacks. He thought they were a cheat. An easy way out. But more so, a flashback moves the story backwards, not forwards. When you think of Blake … make sure you’re moving your story forward. Make sure you are moving your life forward. Because that’s the only way Blake would have wanted it.

In true Blake style, the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet Workshops continue to move forward under the expert guidance of two talented Cats!

• Jose Siliero, Blake’s right-hand man, carries on the stellar Beat Sheet Workshops for screenwriters.
• Jessica Brody, author of The Karma Club, My Life Undecided, and 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, teaches awesome Novel-Writing Beat Sheet Workshops, specially tailored for fiction writers.

If you aren’t familiar with Blake Snyder and his approach to storytelling, check out the following interview.

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Blake’s Cameo in “Bolt”

Blake Snyder and Master Cat Jose Silerio worked as a team, consulting on a number of Hollywood A-List movies. BOLT, the feature animation by Walt Disney Pictures, was one such film. It’s a testament to their contributions to the film that the following scene was included in the final release: Blake, a screenwriting pigeon, and his writing partner pitching their movie idea to Bolt. When I saw this movie in the theaters, I almost jumped out of my seat and yelled, “I know Blake!”

Simply priceless!

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Have you Ever had a teacher who changed your life?

Super Glue Reader Rapport

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Blake Snyder, Clint Eastwood, Hang 'Em High, Save the Cat!

Instant Character Bonding … In One Scene

Hooking a reader’s interest starts with the first line. Getting the reader to connect with your character on an emotional level so they stay with the story has to follow immediately. But how? That’s what I wanted to know.

Who knew the answer was in the first sixty seconds of the classic Clint Eastwood film “Hang ‘Em High”?

It’s what Blake Snyder calls a Save the Cat! moment.

In Blake Snyder’s words, a Save the Cat scene is…

…where we meet the hero and he does something — like save a cat — that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him.

And OK, so Clint saves a calf, not a cat? It still has the same effect. That one simple act of compassion makes us like him. We instantly care about what happens to him. We’re rooting for him throughout the rest of one of the roughest, toughest, shoot-em-uppest westerns of all time.

We gladly signed on to Team Clint all because he waded out into the river and saved a stranded calf. (Check out the Novel Dog narration of the clip below.)

 

So… what’s your favorite Save the Cat scene?

In a movie or a book … Inquiring minds want to know!

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The Positive Power of Desperation

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Blake Snyder, Hunger Games, Jessica Brody, Positive Power of Desperation, Save the Cat!

The secret universal force

We’ve all been there … trapped in a situation/predicament and  barely hanging on. We’re so miserable/tired, that we don’t think we can stand it another second. The only problem is, we’re stuck. And someone coming to save us? Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. We’re ready to give up/give in, but some small part of us can’t and won’t. That small voice grows and morphs into a hurricane force of determination that seizes control of the situation/predicament and kicks our butt clean out of the miserable situation/predicament.

That, my friends, is the Positive Power of Desperation in action. Get to know it. It is your friend.

Desperation Transformation … Zero to Hero

The Positive Power of Desperation is as essential to your protagonist as it is to you. This is the secret force that pushes your main character to transform into the heroine she is meant to be.

Blake Snyder (Mr. Save the Cat!) gives a nod to the Positive Power of Desperation when he describes the Dark Night of the Soul moment in a story (Blake Snyder Beat Sheet). The protagonist is worse off than when the story started, plagued with confusion, doubt, and remorse. It’s a scary and painful place. The protagonist is standing on a precipice, and must face an ugly truth about themselves–a deeply buried flaw–for their transformation to happen. The Positive Power of Desperation is what propels the hero through his cocoon, transforming him into a butterfly. This is the heart of every story … what really counts. It’s the hero’s moment.

In the Hunger Games, the All Is Lost moment comes with Rue’s death. Katniss bottoms out in the Dark Night of the Soul as when prepares Rues body and sings her a parting song. Katniss has to face how she’s lived her life being satisfied with mere survival. At the end of her song to Rue, Katniss lifts her hand in a signal of defiance.  She’s done playing by the Capitol’s rules and she’s not afraid to show it. In the words of Master Cat, Jessica Brody, in her Hunger Games Beat Sheet:

She turns to the sky and lifts three fingers upward, a symbol that was established earlier during the catalyst moment as an act of defiance. Katniss’s transformation from survival-obsessed girl who will do anything to win, to the leader of a revolution is nearly complete!

How has the Positive Power of Desperation transformed your life…
Or the lives of your charcaters?