What is Save the Cat? (And why so many writers love it) 

Hero’s Journey story structure is thousands of years old and based on the myth story form which is still the most popular story form of all today. I guarantee somebody “observed” its existence before Campbell but he secured the book deal. None of this stuff is new. For anyone to say they’ve created or discovered anything new about story at this point is like saying Columbus “discovered” North America. Tell that to the Native Peoples who were already living here. We should all be discerning of the narratives that people want to push and realize that it’s not about whether someone discovered anything first - it’s about who is sufficiently equipped to teach and disperse the tools and various methods of effectively telling stories. Those are the people that are best to write these books and they should receive credit for propagating the knowledge and not disparagement because not all doers of a thing can teach it to other people. Ms. Brody can and does. There’s a reason her book on the subject is so successful. Also, Hero’s journey doesn’t work for every genre…not even close. Save the Cat has a much better and wider range of use over more genres. What can’t be disputed is that the Save The Cat method has worked very well for Ms. Brody. Her established career as a traditionally published author speaks for itself. She gives credit to Blake Snyder for the original Save The Cat. She isn’t claiming she came up with his names for the beats or anything. She simply adopted the material for the written medium of storytelling while also providing examples and adding her own experiences to the mix. I don’t understand the disparagement going on in the comments.

Nvm, it's in the description.

Nvm, she didn't even put it into the description.

Most gurus say you don’t have to make your hero likable. But you do have to make him relatable. He might be a terrible person; but give him a limp from an old injury that keeps him in constant pain and he becomes relatable. In that case the reader is thinking “Gosh, if I was in pain almost all the time I probably wouldn’t be the nicest person all the time either. I wouldn’t want to hang out with him; but I kind of understand him. I wonder if anything happens to him to change his life for the better?” 😂. Better yet give him a more universal problem and even if we don’t like him, we’ll stick around to see what his solution was to that same problem we have or that’s similar. I think unlikeable characters can be wonderfully complex. You just have to give the reader a reason to want to see what happens to them - even if it’s comeuppance. Remember J.R. Ewing from the TV show Dallas? People loved to hate him but that’s why you watched - to see if anybody would ever get the best of him. His redeeming quality was the love and respect he had for his parents. And he could fight with his brothers; but nobody else better mess with them. Then there was his son as well. His family was his Cat.

OMG you're soooo right.. burn the world down to revenge the death of his dog. Now I get it

Let’s not leave out the part about the dog being a loving gift from his wife that she arranged to be delivered to him after her death. It was her way to remind him how to keep living and to keep love in his heart after she was gone. That is what was taken away from him. To this day I cannot watch the demise of Daisy scene. John Wick is a quintessential thriller structurally in that the protagonist is often a shady, initially unsympathetic or even villainous criminal (retired hit man) that has been very personally targeted / victimized. The villain is known to the audience right from the start. There’s no real mystery about who the bad guy is and the protagonist’s story goal is revenge or to avenge or pursue Justice. These are hallmarks of the thriller genre which works well with Save The Cat - as most genres do.