# Save the Cat! *By Blake Snyder. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2005. Snyder was a Hollywood spec screenwriter (co-writer of* Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot *and* Blank Check*) who turned his working rules into a short, breezy manual for writing commercial films. The book teaches the logline and the "high concept" first, then ten home-made story genres ("Monster in the House", "Golden Fleece" and so on), then the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet: fifteen named story beats, each pinned to a page of a 110-page script. Then come "The Board" of 40 index cards, a set of cheeky rules of "screenplay physics" (the title rule among them), a script-repair checklist and marketing advice. It became the best-selling screenwriting manual of its time, and the most argued-about: critics say Hollywood now follows the beat sheet as a formula.* > **What I actually read.** The book is in copyright and there is no legal free copy. The Internet Archive scan (`savecatlastbooko0000snyd`, 2005 paperback) is restricted to print-disabled readers, but Open Library's "search inside" returns short passages from it. What I used: > - **The detailed contents note** in the Free Library of Philadelphia catalog (each chapter with its sub-topics), the eight-chapter Library of Congress contents note (Laramie County CC catalog), and the **chapter page numbers** from the Blackwell contents list shown by Better World Books. > - **About 40 short search-inside passages** from the 2005 scan, which confirm the terms, lists and examples quoted below, and give some running-head page numbers. > - The SFPL MARC record (on Internet Archive), the publisher's description, Wikipedia's chapter-by-chapter article, and Snyder's 2008 Writer Unboxed interview. > > I did **not** read the book through. Short quotations come from search-inside passages or the named source. Page numbers are given only where a running head or the contents list shows them. The beat page numbers (1, 5, 1–10, 12…) are Snyder's own targets for a 110-page script. Related in this vault: the source video [[Video Summaries/Joanna Wiebe/The Psychology of Storytelling That Will Change Your Life]], which also put Wiebe's *The Copyselling System* in the queue. Donald Miller's [[Book Summaries/Miller, Donald/Building a StoryBrand - Donald Miller|Building a StoryBrand]] applies a similar film-derived story template to marketing. Jessica Brody's *Save the Cat! Writes a Novel* (2018), the series' novel-writing adaptation, is waiting in the backlog. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need* (LC adds the variant title "Last book on screenwriting you'll ever need") | | Author | Blake Snyder (1957–2009), screenwriter (LC name heading "Snyder, Blake, 1957-2009") | | First edition | Studio City, CA: M. Wiese Productions, c2005. xvi + 195 pp., illustrations, 23 cm. Paperback, ISBN 1-932907-00-9 / 978-1-932907-00-1 (Baker & Taylor list price $19.95). LCCN 2004009134; OCLC 55095993; LC class PN1996 .S65 2005; Dewey 808.2/3. Amazon's Kindle listing gives a publication date of 25 May 2005, which I did not confirm elsewhere | | Other editions | Michael Wiese Productions, ISBN 978-1-61593-171-2 (Open Library: 1 July 2013, 216 pp.; Google Books lists it as a hardcover; I did not confirm the binding). Ebook, ISBN 978-1-61593-000-5 (Kindle print length 215 pp.). Wikipedia reports a 34th printing by 2018. Translations include Spanish (*¡Salva al gato!*, Alba, 2010), Chinese (*Jiu mao mi*, Zhejiang University Press, 2011), German, Italian, Turkish and Hebrew | | Audiobook | **Yes, unabridged.** Dreamscape Media, 29 May 2018, read by George Newbern, 5 h 22 min (Audible; ©2005 Blake Snyder, ℗2018 Dreamscape Media) | | Structure | Foreword (Sheila Hanahan Taylor); Introduction; eight chapters; Glossary ("every slangy STC expression") | | Series | First of the *Save the Cat!* books: *Goes to the Movies* (2007) and *Strikes Back* (2009) by Snyder, then *Blake's Blogs* (2016, a compilation), and books by Salva Rubio (2017), Jessica Brody (2018, 2023) and Jamie Nash (TV, 2021) | | Cover | [Open Library cover](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/960754-L.jpg) | **Where it came up.** - Video: Joanna Wiebe, ["The Psychology of Storytelling That Will Change Your Life"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnxnaVg0bY) (about 13 min). At about [5:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnxnaVg0bY&t=334s), her fourth principle is "pick your story structure": "This is a storytelling concept called Save the Cat. It's the structure of movies that like Marvel films use." She lists the opening image, theme, catalyst, midpoint, "the big climax where all is lost" and the finale. She says her agency maps it onto email sequences and launches: the catalyst is the problem, the midpoint twist reveals the solution, "all is lost" shows what happens if the reader doesn't act, and the finale is the offer. She calls it "15 beats that hit at predictable moments the human brain craves" (third-party transcript at usetranscribe.io; not checked against the audio). Her claims are checked in the fact-check. - Requested by Video Summaries on 2026-11-07. - Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Joanna Wiebe/The Psychology of Storytelling That Will Change Your Life]]. ## 2. Book resources **Reference and catalog pages.** - Publisher: [Michael Wiese Productions, *Save the Cat*](https://mwp.com/product/save-the-cat/), which links an audio sample. - Official site: [savethecat.com](https://savethecat.com/) (Blake Snyder Enterprises), with beat-sheet articles, workshops and the software. - Open Library: work [OL5709101W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5709101W); 2005 edition [OL3291903M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3291903M). - Google Books: [WgbknQEACAAJ](https://books.google.com/books?id=WgbknQEACAAJ) (no preview). - WorldCat: [OCLC 55095993](https://search.worldcat.org/title/55095993). - Library contents notes: [Free Library of Philadelphia](http://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/2446879) (detailed) and [Laramie County CC](https://lccc.wyldcatalog.org/Record/a1370369) (chapter titles). **Free (legal).** - **No legal free full text.** The book is in copyright (2005). Project Gutenberg: not applicable. Sites offering a free PDF are pirated; I did not use or link them. - **Internet Archive lending / Open Library borrow: English edition not available.** The 2005 scan [savecatlastbooko0000snyd](https://archive.org/details/savecatlastbooko0000snyd) is print-disabled only. Open Library shows "borrowable" for the work only because of the 2011 Chinese translation ([jiumaomidianying0000blak](https://archive.org/details/jiumaomidianying0000blak)). - **Free companion material:** the beat-sheet articles on [savethecat.com](https://savethecat.com/) and the publisher's audio sample on the MWP page. - **Libby/OverDrive: ebook, yes.** It turns up in OverDrive library catalogs, for example the [Los Angeles Public Library search](https://lapl.overdrive.com/search?query=Save+the+cat%21++the+last+book+on+screenwriting+you%27ll+ever+need+Snyder) (one result). I did not get an OverDrive title ID or confirm an OverDrive audiobook; check in Libby. - **Hoopla: yes, ebook.** [Hoopla 11648238](https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/save-the-cat-blake-snyder/11648238). I found no Hoopla audiobook. **Paid.** - **Amazon print: yes.** Paperback [1932907009](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1932907009); the 2013 MWP edition [1615931716](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1615931716). - **Kindle: yes.** [B00340ESIS](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00340ESIS). - **Audible: yes (unabridged).** [Save the Cat!, B07BKMW59S](https://www.audible.com/pd/Save-the-Cat-Audiobook/B07BKMW59S), read by George Newbern, 5 h 22 min (Amazon audio ASIN B07BKR4N49). Also on [Apple Books](https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/save-the-cat/id1636908327). ## 3. Author biography **Early life.** Blake Snyder was born on 3 October 1957 and died on 4 August 2009 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Snyder); the LC heading gives 1957–2009). His father, Kenneth C. T. Snyder, was an Emmy-winning producer of children's television (*Roger Ramjet*, *Hot Wheels*, animated segments for *Sesame Street*, *Big Blue Marble*). Snyder did children's voices for his father's shows as a boy, until his voice changed. He took a B.A. in English at Georgetown University, then wrote for the Disney series *Kids Incorporated* (Wikipedia). **Screenwriter.** He wrote full time from 1987 and was a Writers Guild member for over 20 years. Wikipedia says his first spec sale, *Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot* (1989, with William Osborne and William Davies), went for $500,000 after a bidding war. The finished film won the Razzie for worst screenplay of 1992 ([UPI, 28 March 1993](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/03/28/Razzie-Awards-dishonor-Stallone-again/6237733294800/)). Wikipedia and Writer Unboxed list million-dollar sales of *Blank Check* (with Colby Carr, Disney; released 1994) and *Nuclear Family* (with James Haggin, for Spielberg's Amblin; never produced). The book uses *Blank Check* as a running example, and admits that its "Bad Guys Close In" section is "the weakest part of *Blank Check*" (search-inside passage). **Teacher.** After *Save the Cat!* (2005) he ran Beat Sheet and Board workshops in the US, Europe and Asia. He taught at UCLA, Chapman, Vanderbilt and the Beijing Film Academy, and gave script analysis to Disney, DreamWorks, Laika and Nelvana. With Final Draft he built the *Save the Cat!* story-structure software (2008). He published *Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies* (2007) and *Save the Cat! Strikes Back* (2009). He died suddenly in August 2009, of what was reported as a pulmonary embolism or cardiac arrest, and a memorial was held at the WGA West that September. DreamWorks' *How to Train Your Dragon* (2010) is dedicated to him (all per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Snyder); I did not find a contemporary obituary). Blake Snyder Enterprises still runs the brand, workshops taught by "Master Cats", and the book series. ## 4. Author interviews and talks - **Writer Unboxed, Therese Walsh, three parts, March–April 2008:** genres and the ten story types, whether the method works for novels, the "Pope in the Pool" and other laws ([part 1](https://writerunboxed.com/2008/03/21/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-1/), [part 2](https://writerunboxed.com/2008/03/28/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-2/), [part 3](https://writerunboxed.com/2008/04/04/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-3/)). In part 3 he says his breakthrough was that "I sort of cracked Act 2". Of Syd Field's method he says "There's a lot of empty space between 25 and 85", and he advises writers to "know the structure and hide it". Parts 1 and 3 read (search extracts); part 2 summary only. - **The Movie Geeks and *The Writing Show* (Paula Berinstein), 2007:** two one-hour audio interviews from the launch of *Goes to the Movies*, collected by the official site ([savethecat.com, "2 Re-Discovered Blake Snyder Interviews"](https://savethecat.com/tips-and-tactics/2-re-discovered-blake-snyder-interviews)). Not heard. - **Creative Screenwriting, Ari Eisner, "The Cat with the Golden Fleece", 5 October 2007**, on *Goes to the Movies*. Listed by Wikipedia; I did not find or read it. - **Absolute Write (Jenna Glatzer), Hollywood Lit Sales, the *Vancouver Sun*, and a Groupee Backstage video:** further interviews listed in Wikipedia's external links. Not read. - **Joanna Wiebe, "The Psychology of Storytelling That Will Change Your Life" (YouTube):** not by the author; this is the source of the queue entry ([YouTube, 5:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnxnaVg0bY&t=334s)). Third-party transcript read. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** A screenplay sells and satisfies when it starts from a clear, ironic, high-concept idea that can be pitched in one line. It should belong recognisably to a story type and follow a proven sequence of fifteen beats, laid out in advance on forty scene cards. The title rule sums up the attitude: "It's the scene where we meet the hero and ——" (search-inside; Wikipedia completes it: the hero does something that makes us like them). The audience must be given a reason to root for the hero, and the writer must give buyers a reason to say yes. The book is about craft and selling at once. Snyder admits it is a set of tricks, but argues that every rule was proven "in the trenches of Hollywood" (contents note). **Outline** (chapter pages from the Blackwell contents list; sub-topics from the Free Library contents note). - **Foreword** by Sheila Hanahan Taylor, then a producer and development executive at Zide/Perry Entertainment: "the official stamp of approval of the Save the Cat method". - **Introduction:** why another screenwriting book, Snyder's background, and what "Save the Cat" means. - **Ch. 1, "What Is It?" (p. 1).** The idea comes first. A logline needs four things, which search-inside confirms in this order: irony; "a compelling mental picture"; audience and cost; and "a killer title" ("Title and logline are, in fact, the one-two punch"). Then "high concept" and why it still matters, test-pitching the idea to anyone who will listen, and five games for generating ideas. - **Ch. 2, "Give Me the Same Thing… Only Different!" (p. 21).** Genre as story type rather than setting. The ten types, with the book's own examples: - Monster in the House (*Jaws*, *Tremors*, *Alien*, *The Exorcist*); - Golden Fleece (the road or quest story); - Out of the Bottle (wish or curse); - Dude with a Problem (an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances); - Rites of Passage (life's painful transitions); - Buddy Love ("about more than the buddy movie": *Rain Man*, "but also every love story ever made!"); - Whydunit ("Who cares who, it's why that counts": *Citizen Kane*, *Chinatown*); - The Fool Triumphant ("One of the oldest story types": the underdog Fool against a bigger institution); - Institutionalized (the group versus the individual); - Superhero ("the exact opposite of Dude with a Problem"). Each type has rules to obey; the people behind *Arachnophobia*, he says, broke the Monster in the House rules and "wound up with a mishmash". The running head puts the Fool Triumphant entry on p. 26. - **Ch. 3, "It's About a Guy Who…" (p. 47).** The hero must serve the idea: pick the character who has the most conflict, the longest emotional journey and a primal goal. Adjust the hero to make the idea work better. Also "the myth of casting your movie" and Jungian archetypes "and why we need 'em". - **Ch. 4, "Let's Beat It Out!" (p. 67).** The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (BS2), with page targets for a 110-page script: - Opening Image (1); Theme Stated (5); Set-up (1–10), which plants the hero's "Six Things That Need Fixing" ("This is my phrase, six is an arbitrary" number); Catalyst (12); Debate (12–25); Break into Two (25); - B Story (30); Fun and Games (30–55), "the promise of the premise"; Midpoint (55), a false victory or false defeat; Bad Guys Close In (55–75), which the running head puts at p. 85; - All Is Lost (75); Dark Night of the Soul (75–85); Break into Three (85); Finale (85–110); Final Image (110). The worked example is *Miss Congeniality*, "a $100 million hit comedy in 15 beats". Search-inside shows the beats applied scene by scene ("Theme Stated: When Sandra declares that she doesn't need…"; "Break into Three: With help from friends she's made in Girl…"; the film "closes with the opposite of the opening" image). The Break into Two, Midpoint and Break into Three "are where the turns are". - **Ch. 5, "Building the Perfect Beast" (p. 97).** "The Board": a corkboard in four horizontal rows (Act One, the first half of Act Two, the second half of Act Two, Act Three) and "40 index cards and 40 only?" Each card is a scene that should carry an emotional change (+/−) and a conflict. Colour-code the cards by storyline, and troubleshoot by looking at the layout. A screenplay is like a business plan, and you can write one that sells. - **Ch. 6, "The Immutable Laws of Screenplay Physics" (p. 119).** Rules from experience: - *Save the Cat* (make the hero likable early); - *The Pope in the Pool* ("more of a trick than a rule": bury exposition under something entertaining); - *Double Mumbo Jumbo* (only one piece of magic per movie; p. 126; the passages mention a story with "both aliens and undead" and *Spider-Man*); - *Laying Pipe* (too much set-up before the story gets going; my gloss, not confirmed by search-inside); - *Too Much Marzipan*, a.k.a. *Black Vet* (piling one concept on another: "a little goes a long way"); - *Watch Out for That Glacier!* (the threat must feel real and present; p. 133; gloss from the passages, not full text); - *The Covenant of the Arc* (characters must change over the story; a "quick Covenant of the Arc check" shows where more work is needed). - **Ch. 7, "What's Wrong with This Picture?" (p. 143).** "Despite everything, you've written 110 pages of nada." Six checks for script repair: - *The Hero Leads* (the hero must drive the action; the passage opens "A common mistake in a lot of rough drafts is…"); - *Make the Bad Guy Badder* (p. 149); - *Turn, Turn, Turn* (keep the story turning; gloss not confirmed); - *The Emotional Color Wheel* (p. 152: hit many emotions, not "one-note funny"); - *"Hi How Are You I'm Fine"* (flat dialogue: "amping up even the most 'Hi how are you I'm fine' kind of dialogue revealed everything"); - *Take a Step Back* (start the hero further back so the arc is bigger; compare "taking the character all the way back", Writer Unboxed pt 3). - **Ch. 8, "Final Fade In" (p. 163).** Before sending the script out: marketing ideas for newcomers and professionals, with examples from Snyder's own career. - **Glossary.** "From A to Z, a review of every slangy STC expression and Hollywood-inside-the-310-area-code term." **Key ideas.** - **Pitch before you write.** If the logline and title don't work, the script won't either, and you should test them on real listeners. This is his most widely borrowed lesson outside film, as in Wiebe's marketing use. - **Genre means story mechanics.** His ten types sort films by the engine of the story (monster, quest, wish, etc.) rather than by setting or tone. The 2007 sequel applies them to 50 films. - **Structure is a map with page numbers.** The BS2 refines the three-act paradigm by naming what must happen across Act Two (Fun and Games, Midpoint, Bad Guys Close In), the stretch he said he had "cracked". Because one script page is roughly one screen minute, the beat sheet is effectively a minute-by-minute template, and that is the root of the "formula" criticism. - **Likability and change.** The hero must be someone we root for (Save the Cat) and everyone must change (Covenant of the Arc). The finale should show that the lessons learned change the world, not just the hero. - **Commercial frankness.** The book is openly about selling spec scripts to studios: audience, cost, titles, casting myths. It is a handbook for the studio system Snyder worked in, not a theory of narrative. **Reception.** - **Commercial success.** Wikipedia reports it as Amazon's top screenwriting manual for some fifteen years. In November 2026, the Amazon.ca Kindle listing ranked it #2 in Screenwriting (Books). - **The "formula" critique.** Peter Suderman's *Slate* essay ["Save the Movie!"](https://slate.com/culture/2013/07/hollywood-and-blake-snyders-screenwriting-book-save-the-cat.html) (19 July 2013) argued that the beat sheet "has taken over Hollywood screenwriting" and made "every movie feel the same". He granted that Snyder himself called it "a structure, not a formula". IndieWire replied that Suderman "doesn't really prove" causation, since *Star Wars*, *Die Hard* and *The Matrix* fit the beats too ([IndieWire](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/the-not-so-secret-formula-behind-every-hollywood-movie-127655/)). - **The sexism critique.** Mary M. Dalton called the book "pithy and almost unbelievably sexist in its central assertions" ([*Journal of Film and Video* 65(1–2), 2013](https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.65.1-2.0023), as quoted by Wikipedia). Suderman noted the chapter title "It's About a Guy Who…". - **Praise.** *Screentalk* called it "quite simply one of the most practical guides to writing mainstream spec scripts on the market" (quoted on the Amazon listing and in Wikipedia). ## 6. Fact-check The book is mostly advice rather than factual claims. I checked its factual statements, its claims about its own method, and the source video's claims about it. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | *Miss Congeniality* is "a $100 million hit comedy" | **Supported.** US domestic gross $106.8 million (2000) | [Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0212346/) (via search summary) | | *Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life* (2003) flopped relative to the first film because it made Lara "cool" rather than likable (per Wikipedia's account of the title chapter) | **Figures supported; the cause is opinion.** Budget about $95 million; about $65.7 million domestic. Worldwide figures vary by source ($156.5 million in Wikipedia's Snyder article, $160.1 million at Box Office Mojo), against $274.7 million for the 2001 original (Wikipedia's Snyder article). The likability explanation is Snyder's view, not something that can be checked | [Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0325703/); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft:_Tomb_Raider_%E2%80%93_The_Cradle_of_Life) | | The author is a showbiz veteran who has sold many spec scripts, including million-dollar sales | **Supported by secondary sources only.** *Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot* was produced (1992) and *Blank Check* (1994). The prices ($500,000; seven figures for *Blank Check* and *Nuclear Family*) come from Wikipedia and Writer Unboxed, not from trade-press reports I could see. *Stop!* won the Razzie for Worst Screenplay | [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Snyder); [Writer Unboxed 2008](https://writerunboxed.com/2008/03/21/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-1/); [UPI 1993](https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/03/28/Razzie-Awards-dishonor-Stallone-again/6237733294800/) | | "The 10 genres that every movie ever made can be categorized by" (publisher's description) | **Disputed / not testable.** This is a taxonomy, not a finding. Snyder's sequel assigns 50 films to the types, but the categories are flexible enough to fit almost anything. Critics treat the scheme as a heuristic. No independent study has tested it | [Writer Unboxed 2008](https://writerunboxed.com/2008/03/21/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-1/); [Slate 2013](https://slate.com/culture/2013/07/hollywood-and-blake-snyders-screenwriting-book-save-the-cat.html) | | The BS2 is new: Snyder "cracked Act 2" | **Partly supported.** The named Act Two beats and page targets are his. The frame is Syd Field's paradigm (*Screenplay*, 1979), whose act breaks Snyder himself places at 25 and 85. Field had already introduced a Midpoint in *The Screenwriter's Workbook* (1984, per secondary sources). My own observation: beats such as the Catalyst and the Dark Night of the Soul also echo the hero's-journey tradition | [Writer Unboxed pt 3](https://writerunboxed.com/2008/04/04/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-3/); [Field, *Screenwriter's Workbook* (IA)](https://archive.org/details/screenwriterswor00fiel); [Syd Field](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Field) | | Page targets work as minute targets (one script page ≈ one screen minute) | **Supported as an industry rule of thumb.** It is approximate and varies with action and dialogue density. Suderman timed 2013 films against the beats and found close matches, for example Theme Stated at about 7 minutes in *Gangster Squad* | [Slate 2013](https://slate.com/culture/2013/07/hollywood-and-blake-snyders-screenwriting-book-save-the-cat.html) | | The book made Hollywood formulaic (critics' claim about the book) | **Disputed.** Correlation with recent blockbusters is shown, causation is not. Earlier films fit the beats, and the book was distilled from them. Wikipedia notes that a *New York Times* piece asked whether the book caused the trend or reflected it | [Slate 2013](https://slate.com/culture/2013/07/hollywood-and-blake-snyders-screenwriting-book-save-the-cat.html); [IndieWire 2013](https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/the-not-so-secret-formula-behind-every-hollywood-movie-127655/) | | Best seller "for over 15 years"; #1 screenwriting book on Amazon (publisher copy; Wikipedia) | **Supported in substance.** It has been a long-running category leader; the Amazon.ca Kindle listing showed it at #2 in Screenwriting (Books) in November 2026 (search result). The "34th printing (2018)" is from Wikipedia and unverified | [Amazon.ca Kindle listing](https://www.amazon.ca/Save-Cat-Last-Screenwriting-Youll-ebook/dp/B00340ESIS); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Cat!:_The_Last_Book_on_Screenwriting_You%27ll_Ever_Need) | | Source video: Save the Cat is "the structure of movies that like Marvel films use" | **Unverified.** I found no statement from Marvel Studios that it uses the BS2. That many blockbusters fit the beats is Suderman's general point, not a Marvel-specific finding | [Wiebe transcript](https://www.usetranscribe.io/yt/oCnxnaVg0bY/psychology-of) | | Source video: "the big climax where all is lost", then the finale | **Inaccurate in detail.** In the book, All Is Lost (p. 75) is the low point before the Dark Night and Break into Three. The climax is the Finale (85–110) | Book, ch. 4 (search-inside: beat list) | | Source video: "15 beats"; "your brain gets a dopamine hit at each expected milestone" | **15 beats supported. The dopamine claim is unverified:** no source given, and the neuroscience of reward prediction is more complicated than "a hit per milestone". I did not research it further | [Wiebe transcript](https://www.usetranscribe.io/yt/oCnxnaVg0bY/psychology-of) | **Since 2005.** The beat sheet escaped screenwriting. Brody's *Writes a Novel* (2018) made it a novelist's tool, and marketers such as Wiebe and Miller (*StoryBrand*) use film structure for sales copy. Within film, the 2013 backlash fixed its reputation as both indispensable and stifling. Read the book as a commercial screenwriter's practical heuristics, stated with a salesman's confidence. It is not an empirical account of how stories work. ## 7. Citations and references **The book's notable references** (from the search-inside passages and the contents note): Syd Field's three-act paradigm (implicitly); Jungian archetypes; the films used as examples, including *Miss Congeniality*, *Blank Check*, *Jaws*, *Tremors*, *Alien*, *The Exorcist*, *Arachnophobia*, *Rain Man*, *Citizen Kane*, *Chinatown*, *Forrest Gump*, *Spider-Man*, *Sea of Love*, *Die Hard*, *Legally Blonde* and *Signs*. The book has no formal bibliography; its Glossary defines its own terms. **Responses and context.** - Peter Suderman, "Save the Movie!", *Slate*, 19 July 2013. - Mary M. Dalton, "Conquer or Connect: Power, Patterns, and the Gendered Narrative", *Journal of Film and Video* 65(1–2) (2013): 23ff. - IndieWire and No Film School responses to Suderman (July 2013). - Syd Field, *Screenplay* (1979) and *The Screenwriter's Workbook* (1984). - Blake Snyder, *Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies* (2007) and *Save the Cat! Strikes Back* (2009); Jessica Brody, *Save the Cat! Writes a Novel* (2018). **Links used in this dossier.** - Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnxnaVg0bY (5:34: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCnxnaVg0bY&t=334s) ; transcript https://www.usetranscribe.io/yt/oCnxnaVg0bY/psychology-of - Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5709101W ; https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3291903M ; cover https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/960754-L.jpg ; search inside https://openlibrary.org/search/inside?q=%22Pope+in+the+Pool%22 - Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/savecatlastbooko0000snyd (print-disabled) ; https://archive.org/details/jiumaomidianying0000blak (Chinese ed.) - SFPL MARC (bulk MARC on IA): https://archive.org/download/marc_openlibraries_sanfranciscopubliclibrary/sfpl_chq_2018_12_24_run03.mrc - Contents: http://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/2446879 ; https://lccc.wyldcatalog.org/Record/a1370369 ; https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/save-the-cat-the-last-book-on-screenwriting-you-ll-ever-need-9781932907001/ebook - Syndetics summary: https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=1932907009/summary.html&client=sfpl - Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=WgbknQEACAAJ - WorldCat: https://search.worldcat.org/title/55095993 - Publisher: https://mwp.com/product/save-the-cat/ ; official site https://savethecat.com/ - OverDrive (LAPL search): https://lapl.overdrive.com/search?query=Save+the+cat%21++the+last+book+on+screenwriting+you%27ll+ever+need+Snyder - Hoopla: https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/save-the-cat-blake-snyder/11648238 - Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Save-Cat-Last-Screenwriting-Youll-ebook/dp/B00340ESIS ; https://www.amazon.com/dp/1932907009 ; https://www.amazon.com/dp/1615931716 ; Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00340ESIS - Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Save-the-Cat-Audiobook/B07BKMW59S ; series https://www.audible.com/series/Save-the-Cat-Audiobooks/B0937CRR3B ; Apple Books https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/save-the-cat/id1636908327 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_the_Cat!:_The_Last_Book_on_Screenwriting_You%27ll_Ever_Need ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Snyder ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Field ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft:_Tomb_Raider_%E2%80%93_The_Cradle_of_Life - Interviews: https://writerunboxed.com/2008/03/21/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-1/ ; https://writerunboxed.com/2008/03/28/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-2/ ; https://writerunboxed.com/2008/04/04/interview-a-conversation-with-blake-snyder-part-3/ ; https://savethecat.com/tips-and-tactics/2-re-discovered-blake-snyder-interviews - Criticism: https://slate.com/culture/2013/07/hollywood-and-blake-snyders-screenwriting-book-save-the-cat.html ; https://www.indiewire.com/news/general-news/the-not-so-secret-formula-behind-every-hollywood-movie-127655/ ; https://nofilmschool.com/2013/07/screenwriter-reliance-story-structure-ruined-movies ; Dalton https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.65.1-2.0023 - Box office: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0212346/ ; https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0325703/ - Razzies: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/03/28/Razzie-Awards-dishonor-Stallone-again/6237733294800/ - Syd Field, *The Screenwriter's Workbook* (IA): https://archive.org/details/screenwriterswor00fiel