Save the cat! Manuale di sceneggiatura

This book is often hyped as the bible of screenwriting, but I would take it a step further and call it the definitive go-to for all storytelling. Trade secrets are fully revealed and once you read them you can't watch a movie without seeing the formula scroll right in front of your eyes. Exactly--to Leggi tutto

My critique partner swears by this book, and in fact has been holding my revision notes ransom until I read it! :) She was kind enough to gift me with a copy, so I hunkered down and zipped through. It was a punchy, fast read--the margins are freakishly large, so it's not *really* a 150 page book; it Leggi tutto

While this book is a clever and succinct reduction of Hollywood story structure, it is not well-served by its snarky, priggish author, who with every page radiates the very same sort of smug, too-cool attitude that the rest of the world associates with Los Angeles. That he is smart, I have no doubts Leggi tutto

Hack advice given by a hack writer. While it's nice to see the business side of writing examined, it would have been better (i.e. something approaching "acceptable") to have it examined by a competent writer. If your only two credits for screenwriting are "Blank Check" and the so-bad-Sylvester-Stall Leggi tutto

As a novelist, the more I read screenwriting books, the more I love them. Straightforward, no-nonsense, and endlessly applicable, they cut through the fluff and offer practical tips for writing better stories. Snyder's beloved Save the Cat! is certainly no different. He entertains even as he shares

A lot of people swear by this book, but I think it's just terrible. If you want to write movies, there is a great deal to be gained by learning about the three-act structure. That being said, though, Blake Snyder will teach you a micro-managed form of it that forces you to meet a very specific and f Leggi tutto

Some people who can't really should teach. Blake Snyder mentions on several occasions that he sold a screenplay to Steven Spielberg for a million dollars at one point. Impressive right? Then he ruins it by describing his story. It was called "Nuclear Family" and involved a family who camped by a nucle Leggi tutto

If you didn't like a novelist's stories, would you follow their advice in crafting your own? Would you take cooking instruction from a chef if their meals didn't please your taste buds? What about a painter whose portfolio only inspired shrugs? That's the dilemma for almost everyone who reads Save t Leggi tutto