Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told

I'll tell you up-front that I'm a huge fan of the Save The Cat! If you want to write a sellable screenplay then it's just about the best, and friendliest, book I've read on how to build your story and it lives right next to my keyboard as a constant reference.

Anyway, I've just finished reading STC! Goes To The Movies and I have to say I wasn't left wanting. In this second book Blake Snyder digs deeper into the construction of a screenplay by helping you to know what kind of story you're writing. But it's more than just genre. I mean, sure, you're writing an action movie, but what kind of action movie are you writing? A Golden Fleece? A Dude With A Problem? A Buddy Love?

Blake expertly boils down each of these 'story types' into 3 key elements, explains the way these elements come together on the page and then illustrates it all using 4 or 5 relevant films - matching them to the BS2 beat sheet from book one - and makes it all easy to understand and much less complex. I was astonished to see how a film like 'Plains, Trains & Automobiles' can sit alongside 'Easy Rider' and actually be the same story type, but they do, and it make sense!

STC! Goes To The Movies makes a terrific accompaniment to STC! and, for me at least, is destined to become just as well thumbed a point of reference for those cold, dark nights of the keyboard.