Story

Screenwriter Robert McKee's $450 seminars have earned him a reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. His lecture series has drawn thousands of writers, producers, development executives and agents, who say McKee's lessons are mesmerizing and intense. The most prestigious among writing programs, the seminar offers insights into creating a winning screenplay with Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. In the book's introduction, McKee writes admiringly of three great scenes—the final scene in Casablanca, the shooting party scene in A Room with a View and the restaurant scene in Annie Hall—and he goes on to discuss romance at length. In one particularly memorable section, he writes that “when lovers embrace in a movie… their feeling of togetherness is expressed by an image of two halves becoming one. ” Elsewhere, McKee describes his own work habits (he writes only by hand) and talks about some of his favorite movies (Chinatown is his favorite). Above all else, Story makes clear that no single blueprint for good storytelling exists; rather, there are many ways to create an effective story.