Here's our roundup of the best screenwriting books. We've interviewed all the top experts - from book authors to award-winning screenwriters. You should read a couple different ones, maybe even this whole list, before you decide what screenwriting 'rules' to embrace and which ones to discard. Some ways might be too rigid, some too loose. But don't stress if the first book you read doesn't completely speak to you. The next best way to improve your screenwriting skills is to read books that are written for the sole purpose of teaching new writers how to write. We'd like to plug ScreenCraft's downloadable ebooks on this page! Sometimes they're released before the nominations come out, so always do a quick search online, or visit our partner The Script Lab's Free Screenplay Library and search for the scripts you want to read. Every year around awards season, the nominated screenplays are released for anyone to download for free. One of the best ways to improve your screenwriting skills is to read great scripts, and the other is to read great screenwriting books. Blank Check and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, the two produced features penned by Snyder, sit at a 9% and an 11% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.Understanding how to write a great screenplay takes time and practice. Some detractors also point to the critically reviled films written by Snyder as reason to distrust his advice offered in the book. Detractors of the book point to its advice as leading to formulaic storytelling and criticize the book for encouraging writers to rely on writing that is familiar and successful rather than encouraging creativity and originality.

The advice within Save the Cat has been highly acclaimed but has also met with pushback from some critics.

Some of the sequels were written by Snyder as well, though others were written posthumously by students of Snyder after his sudden passing in 2009. Several sequels to Save the Cat were written including the likes of Save the Cat Strikes Back and Save the Cat Writes for TV. Snyder pulled from his experiences in the film industry when writing what he hoped would be the definitive insider’s guide to making it as a professional screenwriter. Two feature films written by Snyder were produced and released. After Save the Cat was published in 2005, it quickly grew to be considered one of the definitive screenwriting books.īlake Snyder was a successful Hollywood screenwriter who sold several scripts, sometimes for amounts in the seven-figure range. Save the Cat is a bestselling non-fiction book on the craft of screenwriting written by Blake Snyder. SAVE THE CAT DEFINITION What is Save the Cat?

Cat screenplay book