Save the Cat!®

one of Blake's favorite photos: his lightbulb moment

Every once in a while, we’ll reach into the archives for one of Blake Snyder’s inspirational blogs. The following was first published on March 17, 2008, after Blake spoke to a very large gathering at Disney Animation:

I had the opportunity to speak to an amazing group of creative professionals on Friday. They come from a tradition of real greatness. And this tradition continues with the same verve, excitement, and frontier spirit in the films these artists are making now. I was honored to be able to spend some time with them.

I have a lot of good friends among this group and felt very welcome, but this was different. Something special happened Friday, and I’ve been walking on Cloud 9 ever since.

In my one hour talk I focused on Save the Cat!® Goes to the Movies and the 10 unique genres I feel break open the discussion of story in a new way. I was originally scheduled to give my talk this fall when the book first came out but the Writers Strike compelled us to postpone. I feel like I had even more information packed into my presentation thanks to the delay.

I keep finding new tidbits to add into my discussion about Cat! 2, and I am boosted even more by the flood of emails I’ve gotten from writers who’ve had a chance to read it more than once and get more from it every time. Just like the BS2 and its useful “handles” like “Fun and Games” and “All Is Lost,” having these 10 genres lets us reference story by type, so when you say “Oh, it’s mostly Golden Fleece with a little Buddy Love,” I know exactly what you mean.

But ultimately, what really hit home for me on Friday is there really is only one story: the story of something amazing!

The more I work at this, the more I see how no matter what genre we’re working in, every story is about being touched by the divine. The difference between just an entertaining movie and a great one is finding that place in it when the hero realizes he’s changed for the experience, that he gave up something he thought was true and found lacking, only to find faith in something beyond himself that he needed to take that last step to triumph. Love, friendship, gratitude, and yes, the death of old ideas, are divine and can change us, and change our lives.

I joked with the audience that I find these moments everywhere, even in unlikely places. While watching Galaxy Quest the other night, I was struck by Alan Rickman’s character. He plays a Shakespearean actor doomed to portray a Mr. Spock-ish icon on a Star Trek-like series and has a corny line he is known for — and hates saying. It isn’t until the end when an admiring alien dies in his arms that he says the line again, his performance suddenly not a perfomance, the line suddenly flooded with meaning. It catches us off guard, and fills us with emotion for a simple reason: It isn’t what this character expected when he woke up that morning; he didn’t know he’d find meaning in the mundane, but he did. And the experience transforms him, and us.

I need a miracle every day. As a human being I just want to know it’s worth going on. Tell me one story, again and again, I don’t care how many times I hear it, that lets me know it is.

As writers our mission is to tap into that deeper source and put it right into our stories, no matter how silly, or how epic, or how intellectual a story we think we’re telling.

This map to meaning is found in the 10 genres of Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies and we will be posting a new handy-dandy printout in the Tools section this week: a three-page breakout of the 10 genres, indicating the features and 500 reference movies of each that our good buddy J.D. Scruggs created and that I distributed for my talk.

Thanks again to all the good folks who made my appearance possible Friday.

And thank you for letting me have my own transforming experience!

Next week’s blog: “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” Beat Sheet