Save Your Cat

Save the Cat is the best book on screenwriting I've ever read.

There are lots of good books out there, and they give lots of good advice. Different writers have different weaknesses. Most writers have problems with structure. Save the Cat will solve your structure problems*.

Save the Cat is the standard text for Pandora Machine now. I've bought six copies of it so far -- and handed them around. It's the only book on screenwriting which I would use as a tool which which to model a screenplay.

The author, Blake Snyder, doesn't make the mistake of saying that your lead character must have an arc. But he does specify how to make sure you make a story that someone wants to actually watch. And he is quite specific in breaking down the form of virtually any movie story-type.

So read it. Love it. Learn it.

So say I. So say we All.

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I just read his follow-up book, Save the Cat Goes to the Movies. In essence it expands the second chapter of Save the Cat and give a lot more story examples and breaks down the stories of many more popular movies. It's a good book and it's helpful for its examples of stories but not absolutely necessary.

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You could buy Fender Custom Shop '54 pickups for your Stratocaster or Strat copy. They might cost more than your guitar though.

Oh, and I gave up and put 10's "regular" slinkys on my Squire Strat. The lighter strings were just too buzzy. Phphthththth.

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*Most of your other problems can be solved by having good actors make up better stuff on set. Ha! ;-)