I need to thank the lovely Marilyn Brant, author, with a book out next week~ Friday Mornings at Nine. She blogged about Blake Snyder and his "Save the Cat" series for screenwriters. I was intrigued and went to my handy dandy public library and reserved a copy of "Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies." It is the second book in the series. I opened it up began to read and thought- yes! This is good. This is great! I wish I had read this twenty years ago when I first started writing. Why? Because he talks about something I harp on a lot- Story. He says it's story that makes a great movie. When he first started out screenwriting he'd have a great idea and a couple of scenes in his head but couldn't sell them because he had no story. This is me. I usually get a character and a couple of scenes and launch into story as I go. This works most of the time for me but not always. Blake's book tells step by step how he takes an idea and creates a story around it. How those stories work in movie genres (which translate easily to book genres). He uses examples of well known movies such as Alien and Saving Private Ryan.
If you've never read this book, Go, get your hands on a copy. It just could change your life. Okay so that's a bit dramatic...but trust me it will serve you far better than "Self Editing for Writers." Why? Because you can always get help with commas but no one can fix a bad story.
Have you read it? Let me know what you think. Cheers~
I keep seeing this book - now I really want to read it!
ReplyDeleteNancy, I'm so glad you found it helpful!! I tell you, that structure and beat sheet that Blake created changed the way I approached novel writing. It was the first time a writing tool like that made sense to me... Really makes me happy to know it's useful for you, too ;).
ReplyDeleteL. Diane, do read it. I think you'll enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn, thank you!! cheers~