WHY 'STORY' BY ROBERT McKEE STILL MATTERS

It was back in 2007 while working on a TV series called 'Frontier' (which was politely rejected from a local network exec, but remains one of my prouder early stabs at writing), that a good friend gifted me a copy of Robert McKee’s 'Story' with the words, “You need to read this, Jimmy. This guy is a Hollywood legend.”

Being young and busy, I naturally read the first few chapters and then allowed distractions to get in the way, negating my smarter and wiser friend's efforts. Yet, when I finally read it cover-to-cover (ten years later…), ‘Story’ ended up becoming one of those writing books I’d not only come to cherish, but also one I reference constantly.

'Story' is also a title which almost every serious writer back in the day had read, and which fewer and fewer nowdays seem to know exists. And yet it still matters. It’s a classic for good reason, because it serves as both a guide, a coach, and a waypost for little lost writers (which we all are, at times).

McKee is indeed a Hollywood legend, having trained dozens of excellent writers and actors, from Peter Jackson to the Pixar team (who consider reading McKee’s material a ‘rite of passage’). He doesn’t pretend to hand over a secret formula. Rather, he’s refreshingly open about the fact that nobody can truly teach you how to write a great story. What he can do (and does well) is explain what a story is, how it works, and how you might notice when yours isn’t.

McKee’s Story earns its place because it treats the art of storytelling with respect.

The most useful parts of the book lie in its examples (which are drawn from admittedly dated, though still critically acclaimed films), and in its layout of core mechanics: conflict, structure, causality, and change — the latter enacted through a shifting of values, either positive to negative, or vice-versa. McKee walks the reader through the scaling of scenes to sequences, sequences to acts, and acts to whole arcs — showing why conflict and change aren't just necessary for good stories, but the fuel itself, and frequently making the case that every beat in a scene must turn — that is, move a character or the story from one state to another.

A personal highlight for me was his section on writing “the negation of the negation” — stories that reach all the way to the far edge of a value spectrum (for example, not just hate, but beyond that to the rejection of love itself). This kind of escalation helps make sense of why certain moments in film or fiction hit so hard — and why others don’t. It helped me identify problems in my own early work, whose failures were previously hard to pinpoint.

McKee’s tone throughout is equal parts teacher and entertainer. You get the sense that he’s used to standing in front of packed seminars, commanding a room — which he frequently does — and providing lamplight-clarity in the sometimes misty mire that is writing. His energy and love of the art is palpable — especially if you listen to the audiobook, which I really recommend.

I should also mention that while Story was useful, I found McKee’s follow-up book 'Dialogue' to be a fantastic supplement, and yet another book I find crucial at times when I sense myself drifting. While Story offers structural foundations and remains a skeleton key, Dialogue has helped me build characters which are more agile, more authentic, and more interesting in general.

Like most writers trying to sharpen their craft, I’ve read a lot of books and researched everything from other writers’ story-grids, to Shaun Coyne’s ‘The Story Grid’, to the endless rabbit-holes of plot theory and beat discussions online. McKee’s 'Story' earns its place because it treats the art of storytelling with respect. It doesn’t promise stardom. It doesn’t dumb things down. It just gives you the tools, and trusts you to learn how to use them.

Recommended for any writer of screen, stage, or prose looking to dig a little deeper, rather than “just winging it.” You might not need all of it, but I’d be surprised if you didn’t find something in there that made each scene in a manuscript better. In a time where tv shows and movies are pumped out to make money and the art of a good story, well told, is being sidelined, 'Story' is a jewel of a book that's more relevant today than ever.

Jim :)