Reader questions: Save the Cat, gender-benders, and writing from abroad

Stephen writes in:

I just wanted to drop you an e-mail and let you know that I really dug your Guru Beat Sheet video from January 8th. I stumbled across it just now after doing a little bit more internet research into Beat Sheet theory and found it refreshing to find someone, let alone someone as experienced as yourself, decrying people's need to be a slave to it. 

I, like most people who message you I'm sure, have been working on my first feature script and, having sent it out for notes and thoughts to a few knowledgeable friends, was a bit taken aback by one friends insistence to not only read Save The Cat (which I did) but by his diehard, unshakable fervor in regards to the Beat Sheet. Having since gone back into my War Room to readdress some structural elements, I began to try and see how well it matched up with the Beat Sheet and, long story short, found that some elements hit it perfectly, others were maybe a page or two off and, yes, some were way off. 

I was wondering if being a page or two off truly mattered at all as long as thematically, and structurally, the story still flowed; and, integrally, if a script has a lot of dialogue, how does that translate to the Beat Sheet, if at all? I feel as though the Save The Cat theory, although sound, is heavily slanted towards more mainstream movies and may not apply so rigidly to more indie scripts/movies, which is how I would approach mine. This has been a point of debate between me and my friend, and I was wondering as to what your thoughts were in regards to it.

This is why so many professional writers hate Save the Cat, because it advances the notion that certain things HAVE to happen on precise page numbers.  Do not be a slave to this.  I think it's good to know the range of pages where these sorts of plot turns often happen, but the script's natural pacing should always, always be the first concern.

Basically, you're 100% right in what you say in the last paragraph.  Don't treat Save the Cat like it's a "paint by numbers" guide.  That's not the way drama works.  If Save the Cat says that your inciting incident needs to happen on p. 15 and in your script it happens on p. 14, that doesn't mean you need to go back and add another page of story.  If your inciting incident is happening on p. 25, though, that might be a sign the story takes too long to get going.

If you must use Save the Cat, then treat everything it explains in there as a loose guideline, not a bible.

daykinpatrick asks:

I am currently working on a couple of script and have a few questions. One I have a character who's sex is misleading I want people to believe she is a boy and then later reveal that she is a girl. Should this be written earlyer in the script so that the director is awear and not confused or reveal it at the end of the scritp when the audience will know. Also how would you do something like this when giving detail to how the character looks in a script? 

I'm of the opinion that those kinds of reveals should be reveals to the reader at the same time they are exposed to the audience.  In other words, don't put in the description "she's a woman pretending to be a boy" unless that's a disguise that's going to be extremely obvious to us when we watch it on film.

Question two what is ur thought on having a time laps as a prologue? For example I have two sequences that take place at the same place but at different years, back to back in the script how is this done and or is it a bad idea? I plan on using a visual that ages as a transition! 

That seems totally reasonable so long as you make the transition clear to the reader.  Showing the same characters at different ages sounds like a simple enough way to pull that off.

Question 3 I have a sequence where a group of kid vandlize the protagonist's house, but don't want to reveal the house until the end of the movie. So I only want to show the kids vandlizing almost like a reverse pov, how should I handle this. Let's say the reveal of the house doesn't happen until a few sequences later! Thank you if you got this far reading my dumb questions and responce would be much appricated. 

I would just note in the action that "Though we see them throwing toilet paper and eggs at the house, we never see the impact or even the house itself."  Or something of that nature.

Incidentally, when you guys write it, it really helps if you break your questions into paragraphs. I got that email as one long chunk of text.  I also left in the typos just this once because there were a lot of them and I wanted to see if it annoyed the readers as much as it did me.

Tonio writes in with a question I'm going to kick to the hive mind:

I studied and graduated with a degree in scriptwriting, and still pursue it as a career, even though it's not the most lucrative career choice, especially where I am. I live in Cape Town, South Africa and while we certainly have extensive creative talent over here, our film industry is in the early stages of development, or rather, it's stagnant in what our audiences will go see, since majority of our screened films are from the USA. As a country we are just too diverse for local films to really have box office success, unless like Leon Schuster, you focus on slapstick comedy, poking fun at all the different races and subcultures within our country (this has been my experience). 

My question then is, since it's near impossible for South Africans to get a work visa in the States, especially working in an industry that does not guarantee that you will become a contributing member of society, what advice would you give to aspiring writers who are working and living abroad, should they be interested in pursuing or furthering their careers in Hollywood?

I don't know that I really HAVE any advice for that scenario.  I've never really been in the position you've been in.  The only thing I can really think to say is to consider the example of Declan O'Dwyer, who became the Black List's first (and as far as I know, only) international success story.  This article has all the details, but basically, he posted the script from Ireland, it caught the attention of a manager, and that manager got Thunder Road to buy it.

So The Black List can work for that.  Is it likely to work?  I think your odds are longer the further you're out of the country.  Anyone else have any good suggestions?

"Stealing the burrito" - the inverse of "save the cat."

I've actually been meaning to write a post about this for a while.  This falls into the category of "Things that once I might have blogged about but got out of my system via Twitter and failed to revisit."  This has been happening more and more frequently, but I'll try to be more diligent about gathering these musings here too.

Most of you are probably familiar with the principle of "save the cat," coined by screenwriter Blake Snyder. The idea is that in order to get the audience on the side of your protagonist, you need to show them committing some sort of heroic or selfless act.  Usually, "save the cat" is a metaphorical phrase, but INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS took it rather literally.  A less literal example might be an early moment in ALADDIN, when the hero gives half of his stolen bread to some starving orphans.

Basically, if we see a guy do something nice, we'll realize he's worthy of our support and be on his side for the rest of the script.  It's simple manipulation.

BATTLESHIP has a classic example of the inverse of this, and it led me to coin the term "Stealing the Burrito."  This is when your protagonist does something so mind-blowingly stupid or awful that no power on Earth could ever get an audience to root for them again.

In an early scene, Taylor Kitsch is trying to pick up swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker in a bar.  She's hungry for a chicken burrito, but the kitchen is closed.  In an effort to impress her, he says he can do it and she gives him five minutes to make it happen.  He runs across the street to a 7-11, but it's his bad luck the place is closed. So he does what any reasonable man trying to sleep with Brooklyn Decker would do - he breaks in to steal a chicken burrito.

The scene is played for attempted screwball comedy, but it succcess only in making Kitsch's character look ridiculously foolish as he ends up making a total mess of the place as he breaks in, heats the burrito and tries to get out.  Ceiling tiles are over-turned, items on shelves are smashed... it's a total mess. By the time he's arrested, he fully deserves the taser he gets. But don't take MY word for it...




(Sidebar: I don't think any man is above committing a misdemeanor or even a minor felony on the off-chance that said infraction would offer even the possibility of sexual congress with Brooklyn Decker.  That said, I'd be more likely to respect a guy who is at least smart about his law-breaking.

Also - just because I accept a guy's libido would make him stupid enough to do this, it doesn't mean I'd respect any woman who was actually wooed by this behavior.   By extension, I question any audience member who looks at this and says, "I'm SO pulling for this guy."

No, this is a scene that makes me shake my head and say, "No, I REFUSE to accept this as our hero."

I can see the argument that starting this low gives the hero an opportunity for a redemptive moment later on.  It would be more persuasive if the action didn't require him to be so unbalanced in the first place.  This is also what undercuts the "selfless" act of him offering the burrito to Brooklyn.  Stealing food for a starving kid is one thing.  Stealing food as a down payment on some possible groping and sweaty action? That's less laudible.

So the next time you see a movie screw up its efforts to become a cheerleader for their characters, you know you can call that a "stealing the burrito" moment.

Webshow: "Lies about guru beat sheets"

There's a frequent perception that script readers base all their evaluations on the tenets discussed in Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat."  So is there any truth to this?  Hear what the Bitter puppet has to say.

Why Save the Cat didn't destroy screenwriting: it's all been done before

This is a replay post from a couple of years ago, but recent events have convinced me that it merits spotlighting again.  My buddy J.J. Patrow did an excellent comparison that placed the screenwriting philosophies of several leading "gurus" side-by-side.  One of these gurus was Blake Snyder, whose book Save the Cat was recently eviscerated in a Slate article that targeted it as the reason that Hollywood movies suck.

I detest linking to the article, but I need to pull out at least one excerpt.

When Snyder published his book in 2005, it was as if an explosion ripped through Hollywood. The book offered something previous screenplay guru tomes didn’t. Instead of a broad overview of how a screen story fits together, his book broke down the three-act structure into a detailed “beat sheet”: 15 key story “beats”—pivotal events that have to happen—and then gave each of those beats a name and a screenplay page number. Given that each page of a screenplay is expected to equal a minute of film, this makes Snyder’s guide essentially a minute-to-minute movie formula.

The problem I have with blaming Save the Cat for all of this is that there really isn't anything new in that book.  It might be presented differently, but Synder's overall philosophy isn't too dissimilar from storytelling tenants that have been around long before film itself.  So without further ado, I'll turn the floor over to J.J. Patrow:


THE SAME OLD THREE ACTS
By J.J. Patrow

Although good screenwriting isn’t easy, it can be learned through study and practice. That’s what we’re taught to believe. And we must believe it because thousands of people have been inspired to learn the craft, generating a huge market for screenwriting lectures, classes, workshops, instructional videos, and how-to books. It has also generated just as many reader opinions about which screenwriting guru offers the best advice.

Some authors champion a paint-by-the-numbers approach. The “Blake Snyder Beat Sheet” in Save The Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder comes to mind. Other authors counter that step-by-step guides are misguided. In the introduction to The Tools of Screenwriting: A Writer’s Guide to the Craft and Elements of a Screenplay, by David Howard and Edward Mabley, Frank Daniel states that ”…the worst thing a book on screenwriting can do is to instill in the mind of the beginner writer a set of rules, regulations, formulas, prescriptions, and recipes.” (xix) And yet others choose the middle of the road. Andrew Horton writes in his book, Writing the Character Centers Screenplay, that writers should blaze new paths, but still “…pay attention to story and structure and other elements.” (2)

If there’s one reality that all how-to authors seem to agree on, however, it is that there is a saturation of screenplay books, but their work is worth your time and money. It’s special. Maybe this is true. But one should question if new screenwriting books are really fresh, seeing as most of them visit – or rather, revisit – how to construct the same old three-act story.

The generic construction of the “Hollywood Three-Part Screenplay” is fairly straightforward. It doesn’t require too much discussion. I don’t mean to imply that the nuances of screenplay writing are simple, but learning to recognize the essential building blocks of the Hollywood screenplay and their proper order is fairly basic. And this basic knowledge is what most screenplay books seek to impart. The result is that they end up parroting each other. Sure, the average author may bring a more accessible voice, a particular emphasis on character or genre, a unique set of details, or even a set of fresh terms for pre-existing structural components, but the meat of the subject goes unchanged.

Most authors of popular screenwriting books spend a lot of time discussing the three-act structure, which was thoroughly explored by Syd Field in the 1970s. Odds are he inspired them to write a how-to screenwriting book in the first place. And prior to Field there was already a well-documented tradition of the workings of three-act stories, which originated in mythology. These had been discussed for centuries and can be found in the writings of Aristotle to Joseph Campbell. So it is not a stretch to imagine that a lot of what screenwriting books offer is partly a review of earlier works.

To better explore this, it is helpful to visually demonstrate the way certain authors instruct their readers to write screenplays. Each offers an interesting take on storytelling and has plenty to offer, but they are clearly dipping into the same source. Indeed, before someone declares that the “Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet” is revolutionary, they should read Field or Campbell. Even Snyder suggests this in his introduction.


Aristotle presented the basic three-act structure in Poetics. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Joseph Campbell, having spent a lifetime studying mythology, noted similarities in the story structure of the classic hero journey in A Hero With A Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth. He found that in most mythological stories there was a beginning (the Call to Adventure), a middle (the Road of Trials), and an end (The Return). George Lucas made great use of Campbell’s insights when writing Star Wars. And Stuart Voytilla, in his book Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythical Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films, outlined how the components of Campbell’s hero journey applied neatly into many Hollywood films.

Writing in the 1970s, Syd Field defined the essential components of the three-act screenplay as consisting of a set up, followed by a confrontation, and then a resolution. He also added additional story landmarks, such as the inciting incident. Whether he realized it or not, these landmarks fit quite neatly into Campbell’s model.

Blake Snyder, a fan of Campbell and Field, created a “Beat Sheet” that parrots those who came before him, though he uses his own terms. His placement of story landmarks, such as when to “show what needs to be changed,” is a variation on Campbell’s “Call to Adventure” and Field’s introduction points for the story’s “Situation” and “Premise.”

Peter Dunne, author of Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot, explores the character arc between the key three-act points, which he calls The Beginning: “Life As It Was,” The Middle: “Life Torn Apart,” and the end “Life as it Now.” Although quite detailed, these emotional markers are also in keeping with Campbell.

In his book, The 3rd Act, Drew Yanno explores the end of the film and how it relates to a question posed in the beginning, further complementing the works of his processors. He defines the three acts as the Question, the Debate, and the Answer.


When all the graphs are overlaid there are clearly similarities between each book. 

Unfortunately, following this chart will not guarantee a blockbuster, but it will illustrate a point. Each of these how-to authors is not as different from each other as some might expect. Consider this the next time you read a new screenplay book and, when you sit down to write, remember the words of Robert McKee: “Your work needn’t be modeled after the “well-made” play; rather, it must be well made within the principles that shape our art. Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.” (Story, 3)

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Note: I've long had problems getting Blogger to display images properly.  For those of you who want these charts in their complete sizes you can download a zip file of them here. 

Books for a young aspiring screenwriter

I got a Twitter question from @JulianRamos_

Any books or novels you would recommend a high school senior / aspiring screenwriter to read?

Boy, did you come to the right place. Thanks to membership at several very well-stocked libraries, I pretty much read every screenwriting book published by the time I was in my early-to-mid twenties. After reading dozens of those books, I came away with the feeling that many of the books were saying exactly the same thing. That theory was somewhat proven by my friend J.J. Patrow in this blog post. He compares the storytelling philosophies of Aristotle, Joseph Campbell, Syd Field, Blake Snyder, Peter Dunne, Drew Yanno and then visually demonstrates the similarities via chart. So know that while there are probably hundreds of screenwriting books out there, a lot of them are going to tread on the same ground.

First, formatting is something you want to have drilled into you early on so you don't screw it up. For that reason, I'd make The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script by David Trottier one of your first reads.

From there, I'd say that it helps to get a sense of three-act structure and what that means in terms of breaking and developing your story. There are at least a hundred books that'll cover this in some form - I recommend Blake Snyder's Save the Cat. He's taken some flack for the way he somewhat rigidly adheres to a formula, but I think it helps to give beginners some structure. His 15-point beat sheet is a good way to get the hang of writing a film. It also can be of use in helping you dissect films that you like, making it a stepping stone to getting inside the story and understanding why some screenplays work and some don't.

After that, I'd suggest immersing yourself in some more personal memoirs from working writers. It's always good to balance the nuts and bolts education with straight talk about what it's really like not just to develop screenplays, but also work in the industry. There's more to being a screenwriter than just writing scripts, if you know what I mean. To that end, these are among what I'd consider required reading:

Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek by Jeffrey Stepakoff
Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories

Go to your local library and find where those books are. I can almost guarantee that you'll probably find a dozen other worthwhile books in a similar vein right next to those on the shelves.

Also, for extra credit, read Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. It's not a screenwriting book. You'll find it in True Crime. Then, go watch the first season of Homicide: Life on the Street, the NBC series inspired by the book. There are a great many storylines and characters that are adapted quite closely from the book, but you'll also notice at least as many differences in character and plot. Some characters are merged, others are invented out of whole cloth. Make yourself aware of what changes have been made and ask yourself why those changes were necessary.

Hopefully, that'll give you some insight into how even the most interesting real-life stories often need to be restructured and re-conceived when adapted as drama. A lot of first-time writers try to adapt things from their lives without understanding that real life is boring and often without the construction that makes drama interesting.

That and Homicide's just an awesome show. David Simon wrote the book when he was a journalist for The Baltimore Sun, but when it became a series, he wrote a few episodes and this started his career as a TV writer/producer. He's since gone on to create The Wire and Treme.

That should be enough to get you started. Be warned that the more screenwriting books you find, the more tempting it is to say, "Well, I'll write my script after I read one or two more of these, just so I'm REALLY prepared." Don't allow reading these books to become an exercise in procrastination.

Does anyone else have what they'd consider essential reading?

RIP Blake Synder

Just read on Go Into the Story that screenwriter and Save the Cat author Blake Snyder died this morning.

One suspects he'll be remembered more for his Save the Cat books than his two produced films, Stop or My Mom Will Shoot and Blank Check. I've found his Save the Cat to be one of the new standards in screenwriting books. I've read a lot of screenwriting books over the years, but Save the Cat is the only one I pull from and cite on a fairly regular basis. It's one of the few books to make me reexamine my own writing process, and even when the book rehashed stuff I already knew, he found a way to make it entertaining.

If you are interested, you can check out his blog here.

I never met the man. My closest connection to him came a while back when I had the opportunity to cover one of his specs. But given that I've made use of his beat sheet templates and his tropes like "Pope in the Pool" at times in my own writing, I felt it appropriate to mark his passing here.