The life of a screenwriter is an interesting one. One moment you’re toiling away at your latest script, the next you might make a major sale to a Hollywood studio. Over the years, plenty of screenwriters have offered their own advice for writing in the form of Skillshare classes as well as screenwriting books. The one screenwriting book that gained prominence over others is Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder.

Blake Snyder was bold enough to dub Save The Cat! “the last book on screenwriting you’ll ever need”, and it feels like that seems to be the consensus as he was able to parley its success into a whole series of books. That’s not even taking into account the people who have managed to use it to craft their own screenplays. But is Save The Cat! the pinnacle of screenwriting advice, and has it had any negative effects on the process?

Save the Cat & the “Beat Sheet”

Image via DreamWorks

The biggest element of Save The Cat! is the “beat sheet”, which features fifteen different “beats” that every film should theoretically have. Among these beats is the “All is lost” moment, where the character suffers an immense loss, as well as the “fun and games” moment which provides a respite from the main plot. Synder said in his book that he intended for the beat sheet to not only provide a template for screenwriters in order to break down plot, but to also teach them timing. There’s even breakdowns of movies using the sheet, including Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Everything Everwhere All At Once.

Save The Cat! became a modern day success, spawning a fleet of books including Save The Cat! Strikes Back and Save The Cat! Goes To The Indies. There’s even a book for television writing, appropriately titled Save The Cat! Writes For TV. It’s been quoted in film and TV, particularly a few episodes of Teen Titans Go! Overall, it looks like Snyder was able to parlay his formula into a success. But fans have discovered more than a few issues with said formula.

The Save the Cat Formula Doesn’t Work For Every Film — or Every Form of Writing

Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

One of the major issues with the formula is that it doesn’t fit every movie. Take the “Theme Stated” beat for example; it says that the film’s theme should be stated in the first fiive minutes. But sometimes it takes time for the theme of a film to become clear. Take Dead Poets Society, for example: it takes roughly fifteen minutes for Robin Williams’ John Keating to come onto the scene and start teaching his students to live life. The same goes for Minority Report and its thesis on the ideas of fate…and ironically, Snyder criticizes said film for having a “slow beginning”.

But the biggest issue is how Snyder attempted to create his own genres. Now there’s nothing wrong with mashing together different genres in a film, but those genres – action/adventure, science fiction, horror, comedy and the like – are clearly defined. Snyder’s genres aren’t, especially the ill-named “Buddy Love”. This “genre” posits that the main character is lacking a person in their life to make it truly complete – but plenty of films defy this trope. Casablanca, anyone?

I haven’t even mentioned the fact that there’s apparently a recent book titled Save The Cat! Writes A Novel, which tries to apply the formula to…well, writing a novel. Having read plenty of novels, I can say that there’s no one way to write a novel. Percy Jackson reads differently from The Dark Tower, and Lord of the Rings is a far cry from Fifty Shades of Grey. I don’t even want to get into how writing a novel is different from writing a screenplay, from the format to the length. Simply put, Blake Snyder’s formula doesn’t work for every format or even every film.

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Snyder’s Films Weren’t All That Hot at the Box Office — or Even Well-Written

You might be wondering, “Did Blake Snyder ever write great films?” After all, if someone writes a book about screenwriting that’s been a best seller for years, surely they’d have more than a few good screenplays under their belt. Snyder even managed to sell some of his screenplays, including Stop! Or My Mom WIll Shoot and Blank Check which became the subject of a heated bidding war. However, the end results leave a lot to be desired.

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot definitely lives up to its title, as police officer Joseph Bomowski (Sylvester Stallone) has to deal with his mother (Estelle Getty) getting involved in one of its cases. This is one of the most unfunny comedies I’ve had the misfortune to watch; not one joke lands, and Getty’s performance is nail on a chalkboard annoying. Blank Check is even worse. Again, there’s a solid premise at the center: Preston Waters (Brian Bonsall) ends up securing a blank check from on the run criminal Carl Quigby (Miguel Ferrier) and decides to cash it out for a million dollars, leading to plenty of hilarious hijinks. However, the hijinks aren’t so hilarious – and there is a rather disturbing subplot at the center. Preston ends up growing a crush on local bank teller Shay Stanley (Karen Duffy), who’s secretly an undercover FBI agent hoping to nab Quiqley. The film ends with them sharing a kiss. Yes, this film ends with a woman in her twenties kissing an eleven-year-old. Did I mention that this was a Disney film?

In the end, Save The Cat! has had a mixed impact on the field of screenwriting. Some love it and other do not. Even still, it remains ever-present in the screenwriting lexicon. As someone who’s read the book and written his own screenplays, I would recommend it as a template. You can use parts of it, but as a whole it’s not usually the best metric to start one’s writing career.