Blake Snyder > Quotes

“True originality can’t begin until you know what you’re breaking away from.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“To be a screenwriter is to deal with an ongoing tug of war between breathtaking megalomania and insecurity so deep it takes years of therapy just to be able to say “I’m a writer” out loud.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“To know how to avoid the cliche, to know what tradition you are pushing forward, begins with knowing what that tradition is.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“Save the what? I call it the “Save the Cat” scene. They don’t put it into movies anymore. And it’s basic. It’s the scene where we meet the hero and the hero does something — like saving a cat — that defines who he is and makes us, the audience, like him.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“But here’s my little trade secret that I put into every All Is Lost moment just for added spice, and it’s something that many hit movies have. I call it the whiff of death. I started to notice how many great movies use the All Is Lost point to kill someone. Obi Wan in Star Wars is the best example — what will Luke do now?? All Is Lost is the place where mentors go to die, presumably so their students can discover “they had it in them all along.” The mentor’s death clears the way to prove that. But what if you don’t have an Obi Wan character? What if death isn’t anywhere near your story? Doesn’t matter. At the All Is Lost moment, stick in something, anything that involves a death. It works every time. Whether it’s integral to the story or just something symbolic, hint at something dead here. It could be anything. A flower in a flower pot. A goldfish. News that a beloved aunt has passed away. It’s all the same.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“You can be near the cliché, you can dance around it, you can run right up to it and almost embrace it. But at the last second you must turn away.
You must give it a twist.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“Because liking the person we go on a journey with is the single most important element in drawing us into the story.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“The point is that a good logline, in addition to pulling you in, has to offer the promise of more.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“The Covenant of the Arc is the screenwriting law that says: Every single character in your movie must change in the course of your story. The only characters who don’t change are the bad guys. But the hero and his friends change a lot.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“follow the money”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told

“Danger must be present danger. Stakes must be stakes for people we care about. And what might happen to them must be shown from the get-go so we know the consequences of the imminent threat.”
― Blake Snyder, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“Like eating too much marzipan, a little goes a long way where ideas are concerned. And more does not always mean better.”
― Blake Snyder, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“Stupid Screenwriter Tricks - However clever we think we are, sometimes we go too far in our enthusiasm. We are creative people and think everyone will get it - well, they don't. Stunts don't work. Lame attempts to get attention don't work. Here are some other don'ts: Don't package yourself in a big crate and mail yourself to William Morris. Don't take out a full-page advertisement in Variety with your picture and phone number with the slogan: Will Write for Food. Don't have your picture taken with a cut-out photo of your favorite movie star and send to him autographed with the phrase: We should be in business together! And whatever you do, don't threaten to leap off the Hollywood sign as leverage to get someone to read your screenplay. It's been done, babe, it's been done.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“PÚBLICO Y COSTE”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Ironía. Debe ser irónica e involucrar emocionalmente al destinatario: presentar una situación dramática que sea como un picor que uno ha de rascarse.”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Público y coste. Debe delimitar el tono, el público al que se dirige y el coste aproximado, para que los compradores sepan si puede dar beneficios.”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Un nuevo empleado de una gran compañía asiste a una convivencia de fin de semana de la empresa y no tarda en descubrir que alguien intenta matarle: The Retreat (Convivencia de empresa).1”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Tom finds a new skill: ping-pong. Why? Because he does what’s put in front of him without judgment.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies: The Screenwriter's Guide to Every Story Ever Told

“QUÉ IRONÍA, ¿NO?”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“الأصالة الحقيقية في كتاباتك لا يمكنها أن تظهر حتى تعرف ما الذي تحاول أن تتحرر منه.”
― Blake Snyder, ‫أنقذ القطة!: لن تحتاج إلى كتاب بعده لكتابة السيناريو‬

“Para crear un buen «¿De qué va?», el guionista independiente ha de ser capaz de formular una buena premisa: una explicación que enganche y lo diga todo en sólo una frase o dos. Para ser efectiva debe cumplir cuatro requisitos:”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Si no pasa la prueba del «¿Dice de qué va?», no has dado con tu título. Ni tienes aún el doble gancho que constituye junto a una gran premisa.”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Un policía va a Los Ángeles a visitar a su mujer, de la que está separado, y unos terroristas asaltan el edificio en que ella trabaja: La jungla de cristal.”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“UNA IMAGEN MENTAL SUGERENTE”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“The template: On the verge of a Stasis = Death moment, a flawed protagonist Breaks into Two; but when the Midpoint happens, he/she must learn the Theme Stated, before All Is Lost.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!® Strikes Back

“The number one thing a good logline must have, the single most important element, is: irony. My good friend and former writing partner, the funny and fast-typing Colby Carr, pointed this out to me one time and he’s 100% correct. And that goes for whether it’s a comedy or a drama. A cop comes to L.A. to visit his estranged wife and her office building is taken over by terrorists – Die Hard A businessman falls in love with a hooker he hires to be his date for the weekend – Pretty Woman I don’t know about you, but I think both of these loglines, one from a drama, one from a romantic comedy, fairly reek of irony. And irony gets my attention. It’s what we who struggle with loglines like to call the hook, because that’s what it does. It hooks your interest. What is intriguing about each of the spec sales I’ve cited above is that they, too, have that same ironic touch. A holiday season of supposed family joy is turned on its cynical head in the 4 Christmases example. What could be more unexpected (another way to say “ironic”) for a new employee, instead of being welcomed to a company, to be faced with a threat on his life during The Retreat? What Colby identified is the fact that a good logline must be emotionally intriguing, like an itch you have to scratch. A logline is like the cover of a book; a good one makes you want to open it, right now, to find out what’s inside. In identifying the ironic elements of your story and putting them into a logline, you may discover that you don’t have that. Well, if you don’t, then there may not only be something wrong with your logline — maybe your story’s off, too. And maybe it’s time to go back and rethink it. Insisting on irony in your logline is a good place to find out what’s missing. Maybe you don’t have a good movie yet.”
― Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

“Me gusta uno de Viki King, que lleva el aventurado título de How to Write a Movie in 21 Days”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“فكل كُتَّاب السيناريو الجيدين هم أناس عنيدون ومتصلبو الرأي.”
― Blake Snyder, ‫أنقذ القطة!: لن تحتاج إلى كتاب بعده لكتابة السيناريو‬

“También valoro la obra de Joseph Campbell. El héroe de las mil caras: psicoanálisis del mito”
― Blake Snyder, ¡Salva al gato!

“Once you learn to think like the people with the checkbook, you’re one step closer to success.”
― Blake Snyder, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need