Creative Writing, Novels, Books that Overpromise, and why we write
This is a review of Save the Cat Writes a Novel (SCWAN) Our screenwriting instructor at the college where I teach recommended, sort of, the Save the Cat book for screenwriting. Actually, I am not sure that it was a recommendation; it was more of an “it has some good ideas…” comment. He himself uses the Syd Field book, The Foundations of Screenwriting, to teach the course. Since I sat in on his class in 2021, I can say I read the book but it’s time to read it again. Of course, I haven’t really touched my screenplay in a couple of years. I am a novelist. That is my form, along with some short fiction. However, Jessica Brody took the concepts of Save the Cat and applied them to novel writing. I bought it. I read it. I liked it, sort of. It promises a lot more than it delivers. The website Mythcreants ( https://mythcreants.com/ ) tears it apart in several blog posts. I see their point, but everyone is in a different place in their writing career and development. Her major
