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The stars were aligned when I found a writing class called The Creative Gym in Los Angeles. The teacher was a master of story structure, Marty Papazian. Marty suggested we read Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder. Even though we had one person writing a one-woman show with music, and I was writing a memoir, this was really a screenwriting class.
And yes, we did have to read our work out loud. Buck up writers, it's a bonding experience!
What I liked about Marty was his ability to cut a whole page of dialogue and give the writer a quick image or a bit of action (show not tell) that "said" it all.
Screenwriting is difficult because it's all about structure, you're plugging in different characters, snappy dialogue and good visuals, but it is mostly plot, plot, plot. Great scripts have the same structure, only the details change. Mess with structure at your own peril.
Save the Cat! is the best screenwriting book I have ever read because it's so specific and comprehensive (not to mention fun). It gives 10 main story "types" as well as specific page numbers for each story "beat."
All scenes are to be outlined on 3x5 cards and placed on (cue the angelic music and say this with reverence) "The Board." No boardy, no writey. A good board saves time, heartache and even career, so your out-of-bounds precious scenes and zippy dialogue will not end up in the trash.
So board-ward went my scenes for my memoir and it gave me such clarity. When I spoke with a fine artist friend of mine, she said the same thing was true with painting. An artist has to map out a structure before she puts paint to canvas.
Other forms or writing have varying amounts of structure. A play has less, a novel, even less and a memoir, way less.
There is more license to play and go off on funny or interesting tangents or descriptive paragraphs in a novel. And a memoir, by its very nature, can focus on whatever it wants to in your life: your work or love life, family themes or your Mount Everest adventure.
Save the Cat! is so clear-eyed, with fresh examples of why some movies work and why others go wrong. It comes with a warning sticker from me, however: once you read it, you will recognize common structure and plots, and you'll never be able to watch films the same way again.
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