Robert mckee series#

‘He has struck terror into my heart’: Esther Freud. It’s a sure recipe for formulaic writing.”

Robert mckee series#

So I have an instinctive horror of all systems which try to reduce writing to a series of rules to do with three-act structures and narrative arcs.

Jonathan Coe, for instance, straightforwardly rejects McKee’s approach to storytelling: “For me, the essence of creative writing – whether it’s in the form of a novel, a play or a screenplay – is absolute freedom. However, McKee receives a more sceptical response from most novelists, at least, most non-genre novelists like myself. The so-called “God of Story” ( as Vice magazine dubbed him) has been explaining his theory of how and why dramatic narratives emerge for 35 years, to the fascination of playwrights and screenwriters – his alumni have so far mustered 60 Oscar wins, including, among many others, William Goldman ( Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) Paul Haggis, Peter Jackson, John Cleese (who has attended the story seminar three times) and the entire writing staff of Pixar. Jacket flap.The closest we have in the contemporary world to Poetics may be the classic text Story by Robert McKee. And no one has helped more writers turn great ideas into great stories into great screenplays than Robert McKee. Hollywood studios don't buy great ideas - they buy great stories that can capture an audience's imagination. This insightful, practical book has become the gospel for screenwriters everywhere. Packed with examples from such film classics as Casablanca and Chinatown, McKee expertly dissects classic scenes, guiding us step-by-step as only he can to reveal not only how a scene works but why it works, getting beyond the fundamentals of composition to the enduring values and conflicts that separate the classics from the clichés. From concept through final manuscript, Story elevates writing from an intellectual exercise to an emotional one, transforming the craft of screenwriting into an art form by carefully exploring the subtler considerations at work in film, such as the nature of irony and the symbolic power of image systems. But this book goes well beyond the essential mechanics of screenwriting. Beginning with basic definitions (What is a beat? A scene? A scene sequence? An act climax? A film climax?), McKee not only brilliantly unravels the mysteries of standard three-act dramatic structures but also demystifies atypical structures such as two-act, seven-act, and even eight-act films, exposing the limitations of each genre spotlighting the importance of theme, setting, and atmosphere and highlighting the importance of character versus characterization. Employing examples from more than 100 films, McKee imparts a philosophy that reaches beyond rigid rules to identify the more elusive components that distinguish quality stories from the rest of the pack. Unlike other popular approaches to screenwriting, Story is about form, not formula. With Hollywood currently paying record sums for great stories - and audiences clamoring for originality - this book is the weapon you need to win the war on clichés and to get your story from page to screen. His Story Structure seminar is the ultimate class for screenwriters and filmmakers, playing to packed auditoriums across the world and boasting more than 35,000 graduates. For more than 17 years, Robert McKee's students have been taking Hollywood's top honors. For the first time in book form, Robert McKee's Story reveals the award-winning methods of the man universally regarded as the world's premier screenwriting teacher.