Welcome!
Thanks to you, Save the Cat! continues to be the #1-selling set of books on both screenwriting and novel writing. Founded in 2005 by screenwriter Blake Snyder, and later adapted by novelist Jessica Brody and writer Jamie Nash, the Save the Cat! principles represent the standards by which working writers, studio executives, publishers, and entertainment professionals develop and evaluate scripts and manuscripts.
Now we have created a set of online classes designed to simplify the complexities of storytelling. The Save the Cat! online courses take you step by step through the Save the Cat! methodology to help you discover, organize, and tighten your story.
As the late great Blake Snyder said, ““The worst thing that can happen in screenwriting is not to finish. Half-written screenplays never sell!”
Let’s help start and finish your story.
NEW! Beat2Board
In the self-paced Beat2Board course, you'll discover a story-breaking strategy to go beyond the beat sheet and develop the scene cards that will become the backbone of your screenplay or novel.
You’ll achieve a working understanding of Save the Cat! and an inside look at how professional writers break story, giving each scene meaning by serving a well-paced plot on a writer’s board.
The board is a way for you to "see" your story before you start writing. It is a means to easily test different scenes, story arcs, ideas, bits of dialogue, and story rhythms to work out the kinks of your story.
Once you’ve wrestled your board into shape, you can dive into writing your screenplay or novel with the confidence that your story works.
Cracking the Beat Sheet Workshop
Our Cracking the Beat Sheet Workshop teaches you how to develop the 15 key “beats” or “plot points” of your story. The beats are markers along the path of the story that are used to track a character’s journey and ultimate transformation. Strung together, in the right order, these 15 beats make up a blueprint that you can follow to write a successful movie or novel.
The Cracking the Beat Sheet Workshop includes over 3 hours of video lessons and 9 downloadable PDFs.
The Cracking the Beat Sheet Workshop allows you to view at your own pace as often as you'd like for a period of one year.
Crash Course 1
Learn the key elements of each story beat in this breakdown of the films BLACK PANTHER, COCO, and LADY BIRD in 15 informative videos -- one per beat.
In each video, see how the writers structured their very different stories in a very similar fashion, so that you can do the same when you write your film or novel.
Also included is a downloadable PDF with definitions of each beat and key Save the Cat! vocabulary.
The Save the Cat! Crash Course 1 allows you to view at your own pace as often as you want for a period of one year.
Crash Course 2
Learn the key elements of each story beat in this breakdown of the films KNIVES OUT, JOJO RABBIT, and the first season of the TV series, THE MANDALORIAN, in 15 informative videos -- one per beat.
In each video, see how the writers structured their very different stories in a very similar fashion, so that you can do the same when you write your film or novel.
Also included is a downloadable PDF with definitions of each beat and key Save the Cat! vocabulary.
The Save the Cat! Crash Course 2 allows you to view at your own pace as often as you want for a period of one year.
