Writing Book Giveaway : Save the Cat!
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Books, books, glorious books!
Who doesn’t love a good giveaway?
It’s about time for another book giveaway, wouldn’t you say?
Writers, this one’s for you. I received a copy of Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder from the amazing and wonderful Holly Bodger.
I’ve read this book cover-to-cover (please note the “character” lines on the cover) and I can promise that for the right writer, this is going to be a GREAT resource.
You Want This Book If…
- You love movies as well as books
- You want to learn more about a very structured method of building a story
- You want to write what I’d call “traditional, sellable*” stories—which I’ll define as stories with a traditional story arc of goal, rising conflict, climax, closure.
- You like specific examples to illustrate rules
- You’re looking for an organizational method to keep track of your plot—one that allows for easy modification as the writing process changes things. (Note: I first read this book shortly after I developed my Outlining Method, and I find it hilarious how similar the process in this book is. They’re not exact, but it was definitely a warmfuzzy for me.
You do NOT want this book if…
- You are not a writer
- You dislike movies or movie storylines
- You dislike structured plotting and outlining
- You find the idea of writing a “commercial” storyline repellant
My Goal
My goal is to get this book into the hands of someone who will read it and learn from it. Hopefully the above list will help YOU decide whether or not this book will help you.
How To Enter
1) Comment here and tell me you want the book
AND
2) Let me know what your favorite post from:
The post can be anything at all…a piece of art, a piece of flash fiction, a random real life tidbit, or a piece of writing advice.
Each person may only enter one time.
Winner will be random-number-generated.
Please comment with a good contact email so I can get the mailing address for the winner privately via email. If I don’t hear from the winner in one week, I’ll pick a backup winner.
I want to know what I’ve written that you guys have either enjoyed the most or found the most valuable. This way we both win!
Contest Close
Contest will close ONE WEEK from the day this post goes live.
*this is not to say that stories which follow a different path are not sellable, simply that the traditional storyline is more EASILY sold, most of the time.
I certainly would love to obtain a copy of such a book. While I certainly love your series on NaNoWriMo, I’ll have to tip my hat off specifically to that TED talk for writers from the author of Eat Pray Love. Such an amazing talk, and by the end of it, I was yelling Ole! at my screen towards her.
I love TED talks. I think I’ve got another one set up in my queue of ready-to-post stuff. I do need to get better about linking to the world outside this blog more often and sharing great things I find. Sometimes I worry that I’m “cheating” when I do that, but clearly the ones I do share are well-received. Thank you!
One entry in the hat for Krizz!
I LOVE THIS BOOK! (I already own it, so I don’t want to enter the contest)
Between this book and Tami’s guidelines, I was able, for the first time in my life, to structure a story that can actually be completed! (I’m almost there – 65,000 words out of a projected 100,000 with a solid plan through to conclusion)
I was very skeptical when Tami (who else?) recommended it to me, but it’s really fun to read and it just makes sense. I took my outline sheets (taught by Tami) and added the “beats” to it from this book, and they integrated perfectly. When I finally decided to put aside my skepticism and follow the advice, my story planning and writing really took off.
I can’t thank you enough, Tami!!
I am so VERY glad to hear that it’s working out for you so well. I do think it’s a lovely book with a lot of fantastic info in it. I hope the winner feels the same way!
I’d love to read that book.
You did a post many moons ago about starting to write again after a long layoff. You talked about it like getting a train going after it has stopped. I loved the imagery and it’s helped me a couple times when I’ve had to get started over again.
I loved the post on the morality of Pokemon. My daughter had just gotten into watching it, and as a Dad, I watch it with her. Your take on the Pokemon morality answered some of my own questions and led to an interesting discussion with my little girl.
But my absolute favorite was flaming bears. You really hit the nail on the head with that one. We juggle all these priorities and they are all so very important and all things we love.
Woot! One entry in the hat for Ted.
I wish the stopping and starting got easier with time. I think it helps having experienced it working again, but uff da, getting it back going is never easy.
It’s too bad there’s not really a good market for fanfic. I have fantastic ideas in my “alternate past” pokemon!
I’m so glad that the flaming bears post hit the right spot for you. I remember reading your follow-up post and cheering because someone seemed to totally “get” what I was saying. <3
I like to read this book. I was very skeptical when Tami (who else?) recommended it to me, but it’s really fun to read and it just makes sense. I took my outline sheets (taught by Tami) and added the “beats” to it from this book, and they integrated perfectly.
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Clearly, I did too good a job pimping this out to my friends. So few folks left to enter!
:D
I think if there’s anything I need to learn more about, it would be the process of structuring a larger work and keeping it in hand until you can actually get to the end of the writing. Thus far, I haven’t made it all the way, yet.
I’d be really interested in reading about how to save the cat.
As for a favorite post… I find these things so hard to define. I like a lot of your different posts for different reasons.
One of the posts I identified most with would have to be the one about The Art of Juggling Flaming Bears. Plus, the imagery was just funny. :)
Yay, another entrant! *tosses name into hat*
Wow, two fans of the flaming bears! Isn’t it funny, that wasn’t even a post I spent a ton of time on. Never know what’s going to strike the right chord with readers. =]
With regards to the structuring a larger work, I highly recommend Holly Lisle’s two longer writing courses. Email me if you’d like details — otherwise I’ll end up with a giant wall of unrelated comment text here. *laugh*
Oooh! Oooh! I’d like to enter!
I love a good deal of your posts but a recent one that comes to mind is about putting “Bandaids” into your writing. I started doing something similar in my NaNo after reading your post and I must say that it’s quite helpful!
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Yay, another name in the hat! If your name isn’t pulled up, I could totally see you picking up a copy yourself, just for the movie-aspects of it. :D
[...] Remember how I’m giving away my copy of Save the Cat? Today’s the day it learns who its new owner shall be! [...]