Save the Cat!®

Writer and teacher C. David (Cory) Milles

Our Guest Blogger is Cory Milles, who has been teaching for nearly a decade. In his spare time, he writes Young Adult novels that seek to entertain as well as resonate with his teen audience. When he’s not writing, teaching, or listening to his collection of movie scores, he can usually be found reading more on the craft of writing or watching his favorite television shows, Lost and Fringe. He is currently preparing to write his fourth YA novel, tentatively titled Paradox. He lives in Missouri with his wife and two children. He recently began a blog on writing to connect with his YA audience called “Attacking Ideas 101.”

I’m always trying to grow as a writer. I think that all good writers seek to improve their craft, to tell better stories. As a writer of Young Adult novels, I’ve read my fair share of books on the craft of writing techniques and structure. Every time I went to a bookstore, my eyes were drawn to the cover of a book that featured a simple white background with a dangling cat. Eventually, I picked it up, curious of its contents. As I flipped through its pages, I realized that this was a book on screenwriting. But I wrote novels. Apparently, this book was not meant for me.

I couldn’t be more wrong.

Every time I browsed the shelves, Blake Snyder’s book jumped out at me, and I felt the urge to buy it. But a little voice inside my head resisted. How could a book on screenwriting work with novel writing? After all, they were different styles and used a different medium to tell a story. Yet something told me that this book was a key to writing good stories. After all, my Young Adult audience devoured movies, and so I thought that maybe the book would help to give my novels the feel of a fast-paced, well-plotted film. After all, no one walks away from a movie with those qualities and complains. I wanted my writing to burst with those same features. So I bought the book, hoping that it would at least give me some good ideas.

Boy, did it. As I delved into the book, I was drawn into Blake’s ideas on reinventing genres, his beat sheet for story structure, and his examination on what makes a story work, and what makes it feel “not right.” Immediately, I bought Save the Cat! Strikes Back, and by using the techniques and ideas Blake presents, my writing took off. So did my ideas for more stories.

I took Blake’s advice, and turned my writer’s notebook into a place not just to house my ideas and thoughts, but to

Cory's notebook of beats

create basic storyboards as well. Opening up the pages, you will find several idea in various stages of development, all of which have small Post-Its where certain scenes fall into place on Blake Snyder’s Beat Sheet. This temporary storyboard helps me see where I need to flesh out my ideas more, and what key scenes are missing. For example, in a novel I will soon be writing, I knew I needed to flesh out the Bad Guys Close In beat, and this helped me create more conflict for the protagonist. I was able to identify the moment my A Story and my B Story joined at the Midpoint, melding what the protagonist wants with what he needs.

For me, it’s always been easy to come up with an idea for the Catalyst and the Final Image. I also generally know what I want to have happen in the climax. But when I would outline it, something didn’t “seem right.” Blake’s 5-Point Finale fixed that. Now, my Finale is more powerful and better-structured.

But my writing is not the only area that was affected by Blake’s books. I can honestly say that I will never view movies the same way again. And this is a good thing. Now, whenever I go to the theater or sit at home and watch a DVD, I approach movies not only through the eyes of an audience member, but through the lens of a story writer as well. This summer, as I watched movie after movie, my mind placed the scenes into the structure Blake laid out, and they fit.

My favorite film of the summer has to be Super 8. It reminded me of so many of my favorite movies, both fun to watch and frightening at the same time. But instead of just watching it, I experienced it now that I know the beats. And whether it was intentional or not, the movie fit pretty well. I remember the title coming on the screen, followed by the Opening Image of a small-town factory, the emotional Michael Giacchino score playing as a factory employee changed the number in the “days without an accident” sign to zero. I knew the film would be about loss for the protagonist, and that what he lost would be what he wanted in the story, but not necessarily what he needed. That would make itself clear at the Midpoint.  And it did. As the two main characters sat watching an old filmstrip of the protagonist’s deceased mother, something magical happened that took the characters in a new direction in their lives.

I believe that this knowledge of the basic story structure made it more enjoyable for me. And I think it helped me to connect with the characters more because I knew the shape of the path that their journey would take. And I was along for the ride.

There is another remarkable way that Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! books have changed me. As a middle school Communication Arts teacher, I am always seeking new ways to make reading and writing more engaging for this age group that is continually being immersed in all forms of media. It’s always been a challenge to get reluctant readers and writers to perform the task at hand. But I knew there had to be a way to make it more accessible for them. So I began to approach the subject as something a bit different. Both reading and writing are ways to examine the concept of story.

I have always sought ways to connect with students when teaching a concept such as genre or conflict or plot. But

Cory's classroom poster of Blake's genres

when 100 different students have 100 different tastes and interests, and are reading different books and materials, I had to find some common ground. Once again, Save the Cat! saved me.

I decided that the best way to help students access the material was through something they all had in common: film. After all, they pretty much had all seen the same movies, even though they were reading different books. So we approached it that way. Instead of looking at the typical genres, I taught students that it might be easier to consider stories as types instead. We discussed the different story types Blake lays out in Save the Cat!, and students immediately connected to this. It made sense. It was fun. And best of all, it gave us a common language we could use together.

Now, when I discuss the books my students are reading, this new story language is giving students a better way to build new knowledge. For example, if a student thinks the story type of the book is a “Dude With A Problem” story, we can talk about the problem, how the character got thrown into it, what issues it has caused them, what solutions they have tried to overcome it, evaluate the effectiveness of their actions… you get the picture. When summer films like Cowboys & Aliens come out, it’s easier for students to see it as a “Dude With A Problem” story than as a science fiction or a western.

Our media today is evolving so rapidly that our way of thinking about things needs to catch up with it. We need a new way to look at stories. And Blake Snyder’s books have done that, not just for me, but for my students as well. I look forward to the day when I can talk to students about plot structure, not just as the basic five stages we’ve traditionally known. But I feel that if I can help them see it through a different structure like Blake’s Beat Sheet, it will help them be more aware of the story’s events. I believe this will seep into their own writing as well, helping struggling writers have a better plan for their story than just writing the “rising action” parts.

Just yesterday, a student came running up to me. With excitement in her eyes, she said, “Mr. Milles! The movie Miracle isn’t just a sports movie, is it? It’s a ‘Golden Fleece’ movie!” I smiled. Any time a middle school student makes a connection like that, it shows that they’re transferring their learning to new and authentic levels.

It also shows that Blake Snyder’s influence reaches farther than he probably ever dreamed it would.