Writing Lesson in "Hang 'Em High"

"How to make your readers love your character."

In the first few seconds of the Clint Eastwood flick "Hang 'Em High," we see a beautiful example of a dramatic tool Blake Snyder calls a "save the cat" scene. This connects the viewer emotionally to the main character, and makes us care about and enjoy the story.

This tool can work for screenwriters and novelists. It's simple and quick, and can transform your story from something dull into something undeniably compelling.

Learn more at http://noveldog.com.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Blake
• Snyder
• save
• the
• cat
• novel
• screenwriting
• writing
• fiction
• Hang
• em
• High
• noveldog
• character

[mozeus5]

So he could have saved a ladybug from the river as well and still been our

hero?

[Coneybuck]

@mozeus5 Probably not. It's all about the viewer's psychology, and in this case, along with "charismatic megafauna" being more sympathetic than insects, he saves a helpless animal that he's responsible for.

Would an adult cow have been as effective as the calf? I don't think so, and the writers knew better than to try it.

[Coneybuck]

Although it might have been funny. :)

[KevanRCraft]

@A01002401 NeoTRP - who are you? Are you some kind of authority on screenwriting or something? I think not! And the Robert McKee book and his seminars are a pile of crap.. At least a few movies have sprang from using Blake Snyder's Save the Cat system which is more than I can say for McKee and his nonsense! You're an aborant little turd, NeoTRP suggesting Blake is better off dead! What a boring little fart you are! Do us all a favour and bugger off!

[A01002401]

@NeoTRP Ugh. What kind of person says that they're GLAD someone died just because they wrote a a couple of lfops? Honestly. How meanhearted can you be?

And also, "following a formula" is not the same as being a hack. That's just something people who can't write in a formula say.

[A01002401]

This is a GREAT example of a "SOC" moment.

For the benefit of others who have not read the book, another sort of Save the Cat moment is when you put your hero in a dangerous situation in which they could easily be hurt and have them overcome odds and come out on top. A good example of this is in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID in which Paul Newman as Butch must fight against a much more physically imposing man and has Paul win out.

[mozeus5]

@Coneybuck I was saying it in Jest.