Book Review of Story by Robert McKee

    Story. Robert McKee. York, U.K. Methuen, 1999. 466 pages.


                                                By

                                        Patrick Charsky



Simply the best. Robert McKee’s Story is an enlightening foray into every aspect needed to achieve Screenwriting excellence. I read Story as part of a study of Screenwriting texts. I had heard it was the best book on the market about screenwriting. So I decided to put it off to the last book I read from the books about screenwriting I had received in Graduate school. The book didn’t disappoint. It was full of great advice about how to write and filled with knowledge about what to write.

I first learned about Robert McKee when I was an intern for a Contemporary Film Analysis class. The course showed Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation. The film features Brian Cox as Robert McKee in a memorable performance. This led me to his well regarded book. After several years of studying other screenwriting texts I finally read McKee’s Story. It was worth the wait.

The book is enlightening for several reasons. The first is the information about screenwriting. The amount of films he analyzes is substantial. The theories he expounds are thought through and well presented in a clear way. The second reason is the amount of writing advice he imparts. He talks about avoiding cliche or the “war on cliche that every screenwriter must struggle against.” Strong words that I had never heard before. He also expounds the law of diminishing returns. This cleared up my thinking about how I write. I hope it is easier to spot when I repeat myself

Furthermore he has deep insights into screenwriting. He touches on everything; dramatic structure, characters, how to write, what not to write, and so on. He also has deep insights into how movies work and how writers can avoid boring the audience or screenplay reader. After reading the book I had taken pages and pages of notes. It is impossible for me to go into every detail. At the end of the book McKee advises writers to keep Story accessible as a guide.

McKee covers all the bases. He talks about the three kinds of films; Archplot, Miniplot, and Anti-plot. He goes on to describe why writers must master Archplot before they get into the other two kinds of stories. He also says that many screenwriters choose to do anti-plot as a political statement against Hollywood. Furthermore McKee says screenwriters must learn to write in a genre or genres before doing anything abstract or original. This thought had occurred to me but I had never heard anyone write it in a book.

Many chapters impart advice about Films and genres and characters and how to write exposition. McKee says to save the best for last. And seventy-five percent of writing the screenplay is writing the climax. He says that Hamlet is the most complex character ever written. He talks about knowing your story. To be “God” or “authorial” to your story and characters. In addition he writes about not hating any of you characters. He says “to love them all.” In one of the last chapters he describes casting a film as creating a solar system where the sun is the star and the planets are minor characters revolving around the star.

McKee’s book is thorough and detailed. He writes incredibly well and is very intelligent. It’s no wonder people pay to go to his seminars around the World.

But how to write a screenplay that achieves excellence? McKee writes his principles out for us novices to follow hoping for celluloid glory. The first is the aforementioned “war on cliche.” Especially in action/adventure films because it seems that everything has been done and audiences expect something better than last time. McKee writes that the screenplay can’t be too original or not original enough. He goes on to write about pacing. The pacing of a screenplay can’t have too many scenes all the same length it will bore the audience to death. There has to be some variety in the scenes to keep things fast, then slow, then fast again, until the end. McKee also makes clear that the charge of the screenplay should change from positive to negative by the end. Each scene should change charge too. If not, the screenplay will be droll and monotone; boring.

I’ve heard it before, but McKee makes it crystal clear, the screenplay is only as strong as the forces of antagonism. I’ve heard it said that if you have a weak conflict it’s because the antagonist is too weak. McKee uses Empire Strikes Back as his example. Darth Vader is his antagonist. Vader is a great villain, maybe the most fearsome in Film History. It’s another great example McKee uses to illustrate his point. The way to a great climax is having the subplots conclude before the central conflict. Similar to his principles about exposition, writers should save the biggest climax for last.

My review is only a review. It couldn’t possibly reach the heights to which McKee soars in his book. The end of Story provides some great advice. As an aspiring screenwriter myself his way of describing a professional screenwriter really hit home for me. It laid out some habits that I plan to adopt in my own screenwriting. Making a step outline. Saving writing dialogue until the end. Bits of advice that I never knew before reading McKee’s Story. Great advice and valuable information. Worth reading all the way to the end of the book.

Of course I would recommend screenwriters to read Story. It is the best book about screenwriting I’ve read so far. Others have good qualities. They focus on specific aspects of writing, but none of them beats out Story. It is a great read and a great reference. Screenwriters new or experienced would benefit greatly from reading Story.