"Story" (book) by Robert McKee

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
Just received in the mail my paperback copy of Story by Robert McKee. Read the first 100 pages thus far. Fascinating, profound. I am very impressed. I am excited to keep reading Story. I can tell I am going to have to read this book at least a second time once I finish it!
 
How is it so far in comparison to Syd Field's Screenplay and Blake Snyder's Save the Cat?

I can never find Story in paperback. It is always a hardcover and Border's wants like $35.00 for it.
 
All are good, I have read Field and Blake, their books are more about structuring, cause and effect plot chain, beats. McKee's book Story takes the reader to a deeper level of understanding of story, a more organic approach, but also structural. Mckee's book imho is a great follow up to other books that approach plotting on a more formulaic methodology. But McKee explains for example why and how some stories could be told and should be told in one act (shorts), three acts, but perhaps five acts. It has been a page turner, I have almost read all 400 pages, and I have only had the book for a few days now. McKee's book is dense, 400+ pages filled with dense text, all gems of wisdom.

I just ordered another paperback copy for a friend. Yeah, almost $30 with shipping taken into account, but well worth it. Actually I see one copy for $19 plus shipping, new, as I type this message. Here is the link to the out of print paperback edition that I bought, still available from a few sellers:
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Substan...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233327074&sr=8-1

The hardcover edition of Story is of course widely available.
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Substan...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233328016&sr=8-1
I am just preferential to paperbacks.

I also ordered the abridged audiobook version of Story, so I can rip it to mp3 and listen to it while I am out hiking or on a treadmill at the gym.
:beer: randall



Nektonic said:
How is it so far in comparison to Syd Field's Screenplay and Blake Snyder's Save the Cat?

I can never find Story in paperback. It is always a hardcover and Border's wants like $35.00 for it.
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Thanks for the detailed synopsis/overview of Story Randall. I've read, enjoyed, and learned a lot from both Screenplay and Save the Cat. The thing with Save the Cat was that it was too gung ho about sticking to a formulaic plot. It opened my eyes to structure, but at the same time it killed some excitement because it was just so darn rigid in a certain sense. Not that I regret reading it though.

I'm about to get cracking on a new feature script in the next week, and I've wanted to read Story for a while now, so I suppose I should just dive into McKee's book headfirst. Thanks for the Amazon link, which I will check out to see if it is still available.

And I'm a paperback fan as well. Hardcovers are nice but I can do without them if it saves some dough. Although, this seems like a case of it being worth it for the hardcover.
 
Perhaps overly simplistic, but I would say Field and Blake in their essence discuss moreso WHAT you should do (turning points, plot cause and effect chain), whereas MCKEE goes moreso into great depth as to the WHY you do the inciting incident, turning points, arcs, theme, etc, and the HOW to do it.

Nektonic said:
Thanks for the detailed synopsis/overview of Story Randall. I've read, enjoyed, and learned a lot from both Screenplay and Save the Cat. The thing with Save the Cat was that it was too gung ho about sticking to a formulaic plot. It opened my eyes to structure, but at the same time it killed some excitement because it was just so darn rigid in a certain sense. Not that I regret reading it though.

I'm about to get cracking on a new feature script in the next week, and I've wanted to read Story for a while now, so I suppose I should just dive into McKee's book headfirst. Thanks for the Amazon link, which I will check out to see if it is still available.

And I'm a paperback fan as well. Hardcovers are nice but I can do without them if it saves some dough. Although, this seems like a case of it being worth it for the hardcover.
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Randall. Does McKee talk about any Tarkovsky movies?

It'd be interesting to hear what he thinks about the story in those.
 
Psss.... Its the bible... I've read it 3 times and have listened to it on audio book about a hundred times. I can look at a movie the same way now that I've introduced that book into my life.
 
Mailliw87 said:
Randall. Does McKee talk about any Tarkovsky movies?

It'd be interesting to hear what he thinks about the story in those.
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very, very briefly. on page 85, he makes reference to Tarkovsky's Solaris using the sci-fi genre to "act out the inner conflicts of the disillusionment plot."

that's all you get for old andrei t.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
Perhaps overly simplistic, but I would say Field and Blake in their essence discuss moreso WHAT you should do (turning points, plot cause and effect chain), whereas MCKEE goes moreso into great depth as to the WHY you do the inciting incident, turning points, arcs, theme, etc, and the HOW to do it.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good read then. I hope I didn't come across as negative towards Snyder's and Fields books in my previous posts, I just feel that no one book has all the answers.

Mailliw87 said:
Randall. Does McKee talk about any Tarkovsky movies?

It'd be interesting to hear what he thinks about the story in those.
Click to expand...

I found a whole bunch of books on Tarkovsky at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=tarkovsky&x=0&y=0
 
No worries. And it seems I keep finding better and better books, each book I read (Syd Field, then Blake, then Hauge, then ....) I think "This is fantastic, best book yet on screenwriting!" So what is next after McKee, hmm. Maybe his will be "it', LOL.

Nektonic said:
Sounds like a good read then. I hope I didn't come across as negative towards Snyder's and Fields books in my previous posts, I just feel that no one book has all the answers.
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