Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

4.18 of 5 stars 4.18 · rating details · 3,001 ratings · 345 reviews

Robert McKee's screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives and agents all fl...more

Hardcover, 480 pages

Published November 25th 1997 by It Books (first published November 20th 1997)

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Oct 15, 2008 A.J. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: other

I think this is the first time where I read a book solely based off a scene in a movie. The scene can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VseQe...

Lines like, "You cannot have a protagonist without desire! It doesn't make sense! ANY. F****NG. SENSE!" and "WHY THE F*** WOULD YOU WASTE MY TWO PRECIOUS HOURS WITH YOUR MOVIE? I DON'T HAVE ANY USE FOR IT! ANY. BLOODY. USE FOR IT!" more or less had me drooling. For those of you who don't know anything about Robert McKee, he's the writing tea...more I think this is the first time where I read a book solely based off a scene in a movie. The scene can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VseQe...

Lines like, "You cannot have a protagonist without desire! It doesn't make sense! ANY. F****NG. SENSE!" and "WHY THE F*** WOULD YOU WASTE MY TWO PRECIOUS HOURS WITH YOUR MOVIE? I DON'T HAVE ANY USE FOR IT! ANY. BLOODY. USE FOR IT!" more or less had me drooling. For those of you who don't know anything about Robert McKee, he's the writing teacher you wished you had all those years when you were sitting around listening to some other flaccid asshole mumble nonsense about Freudian tropes and postmodern deconstructionism when all you wanted to know was why the hell you were reading a thirty-page story about a guy counting raindrops on a window.

Successful playwrights, screenwriters, and novelists across the globe have made him a fascinating staple of the fiction community. His premise is pretty simple: storytelling has gone to hell for a number of reasons, but one of them is that we no longer teach the fundamentals of story construction. We learn about books from the outside in, never the inside out. There's a reason works like Hamlet, Casablanca, and Star Wars all have an endearing quality. They all have something in common. And that something is story.

But at risk of sounding like a cultist, I'll forego summarizing his whole approach and simply mention a few things. If you're looking for the answer to the question of What makes good writing, keep looking, because it isn't here. McKee doesn't claim he can polish a turd into Dune, but he can provide you with a very practical way to examine your own work, and a way to think about your story that puts things in perspective. If you happen to be in the editing stages of a project and just can't seem to figure out what's missing, you might find some useful tools here to see your way through.

Whether or not you buy into McKee's 'system,' you can't argue his passion. This is a book filled to the brim with insight, heart, and common sense. McKee talks Story from the heights of Shakespeare to the grit of Reservoir Dogs, discussing what works for every form of storytelling, why it works that way, and how a prospective writing talent can tap into forms, not formulas, that have worked for centuries. And he loves it all, what's more.

I can't claim any sort of midnight conversion. I haven't given my heart to McKee. But I sure as hell would shake his hand and say, Thank you, sir, for being one of few people who talks about the single, unarguable, undeniable, Lord-on-high most important part of writing: telling a story. A good one.

A very useful book. If you give a hoot about storytelling, I'd suggest you give it a glance.

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Jun 05, 2007 caroline rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those gearing up for script frenzy

as a newbie (and a scared newbie at that_ screenwriter, i thought i would give this a go before diving into script frenzy. i am very excited to approach this new challenge. the rules he presents you with are very reasuring to those of us who have little experience, but long-term writers may find them restrictive. either way, there is sure to be something thought-provoking in this book for the writer of any sort. at the very least i have to love someone who comes out and takes a stand in favor of...more

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May 30, 2008 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: writing

This is the text that went along with his three-day seminar that I attended. Although it is primarily focused on the screenplay, it is equally suitable for a novel, and there were quite a few novelists in attendance at the seminar. Although the focus is on traditional story structure—something McKee believes has become a lost art—his emphasis is so heavily on character, and writing from the inside out, that if well executed, a reader/viewer would not be consciously aware of the story's structure...more

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Jun 19, 2008 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Josh by: Charlie Kaufman's twin brother

YES! It took me six months, but I finally, finished this bitch.

The reason it took me six months was that Story is incredibly dense, and in the best possible way. If you want to understand what makes for a good story, and how and why they work, this is the book to read. But you'll need to read it slow because this is the kind of dense where you'll want to stop and think about what you just read after every few pages to make sure it really sinks in.

Though oriented primarily towards screenwriting,...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Lena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: writing

Robert McKee is the famous Hollywood screenwriting teacher gently poked fun at in the movie "Adaptation." Though that film could leave one with the impression that McKee teaches formula storytelling, this book is about how good stories transcend formula to become great art.

McKee has a masterful understanding of the fundamentals of story itself, and he writes with clarity about the basic story tools every writer must develop in order to move beyond cliche and into something original. Using examp...more

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Jul 09, 2009 Wightknyte11 rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book did have some really great consideration of building and structuring conflict and how that formed a fundamental part of story. I think parts were a little less enjoyable to read because the author seemed so bitter. I guess he's had to read so many badly written scripts that he's gotten frustrated. I can understand, but it still made parts a little less enjoyable. Parts also got a little too abstract, to the point I followed the pattern of his example but not the underlying thing we wer...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Ugh rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm often not the most perceptive person. For example, I managed to watch a film I like about half a dozen times without realising that one of the main characters kills himself. I probably would never have realised if my friend hadn't said to me, "Isn't it sad when..."

Which is why I wish I'd found Story 10 years ago. I've harboured the desire to write, on and off, pretty much ever since I learned to read, but aside from enjoying Stephen King's On Writing and, more recently, bookmarking useful we...more

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Mar 10, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here is a book of wider interest than might be imagined at first glance. Story is a how-to bible for most wannabe screenplay writers. (Along with the work of Syd Fields and maybe Linda Seger)Okay, so at first glance one might think Story is limited fare for those addicted to scribbling for the silver screen. But I don't think so. It is my opinion - and disregard it at your convenience for what I think is not highly regarded in the studios of Tinseltown, the high towers of Manhattan, or for that...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like to write. Well, there’s an old adage that some authors use that says, “I hate to write… almost as much as I hate not writing.” That might fit me a bit better.

But the reason that I *hate* to write is because as I’m doing it, except for brief moments of insanity, I know that what I’m putting out there is going to need a lot of work before anyone seriously considers it good. Then it would probably be lots more work before I could convince anyone of literary merit, or of exacting standards,...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Alexander H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book borrows heavily from its predecessors such as Howard and Mabley's "The tools of screenwriting", and perhaps going as far as works by Aristotle. As the saying goes, we all stand on the shoulders of giants, so why not? In this work McKee uses successful films to illustrate script successes and failures in a way that made me ponder issues such as significance of paradoxes and irony, sources of antagonism, inherent risks of subplots, value of character vs characterization. His exploration...more

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Jun 18, 2012 S. Baker rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read this twice and I've recently put the audio book (narrated by the man himself) on my iPod so I can exercise my thoughts while I drag my over-fed carcass around the landscape. When I first read it, I wanted to reject almost everything in it, but then I hadn't written a feature-length screenplay at that time. By the time I'd read it again I'd written one and half screenplays and was wondering why my brilliant outline wasn't currently turning itself into a masterpiece. That's when it start...more

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May 08, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

For a long time I thought that this book was about how to write the kind of story that makes a best-seller, or a big Hollywood movie. But when McKee started talking (I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author) about the structure of Tender Mercies as his idea of a tightly plotted story, I had to revise that opinion. By the time I got a quarter through the book, I had to take the hardcover (which I also had bought at some time) and put it in the bag I'm taking on my writing retreat later...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Jerilyn Marler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: writing-editing-publishing

As a freelance editor of any type of writing, I am always searching for insight, wisdom, guidance, illumination about the many forms of writing that cross my desk. I'd heard about McKee's "Story" but shied away because screenwriting is so far removed from my usual work. Or so I thought. I bought the digital version on a whim thinking that it might prove useful someday as a reference book. I was immediately hooked and read it straight through. Then I went back and highlighted many passages for fu...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: landmark-books, storytelling

If you're a writer of drama or fiction, you need to master these rules before you consider breaking them.

I knew from an early age that I wanted to write stories, but it wasn't till I was about 17 that I learned that there are actual methods, principles, and techniques involved in storytelling, when I received as a gift a copy of The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. Wow! What a revelation! I read it greedily.

Flash-forward to 1990. I was 31 and now had my own TV series, The Odyssey, in devel...more If you're a writer of drama or fiction, you need to master these rules before you consider breaking them.

I knew from an early age that I wanted to write stories, but it wasn't till I was about 17 that I learned that there are actual methods, principles, and techniques involved in storytelling, when I received as a gift a copy of The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. Wow! What a revelation! I read it greedily.

Flash-forward to 1990. I was 31 and now had my own TV series, The Odyssey, in development with the CBC in Canada. My writing partner Warren Easton and I were under pressure to come up with a pilot script and 12 more stories to flesh out a possible first season of the show. We'd bought a copy of The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves and The Complete Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm, Volume 1 to search for story ideas for our mythologically based fantasy series, but were not really finding stories that would fill our action-packed half hours. One of the CBC executives offered to let me have a photocopy of a set of notes from McKee's workshop, taken by a fellow participant. I'd heard of McKee and so I gratefully accepted them.

Back home I started reading, and was immediately electrified. (The notes themselves were excellent, typed by this person on a laptop and capturing most of what McKee said.) Here was everything I wanted and needed to know: genre, character, structure, controlling idea, protagonist, acts, turning points, and much, much else. McKee came across as definite and authoritative. Here was no "well, some people say this, but on the other hand other people say this other thing...." As far as McKee is concerned, the principles of sound story design have long since been established; they are simply not widely known, and he sees his task as remedying that deficit as much as he can.

Years later I saw a copy of McKee's book in a store and snapped it up. It is well read and well highlighted. When I read Poetics I realized that McKee's work is essentially applied Aristotle. Aristotle regarded plot--story--as the most important element in contributing to the effects of the most powerful form of poetry at that time: tragic drama. He analyzed what makes for an effective story, and McKee has applied that analysis to the most powerful form of storytelling in our own time: motion pictures.

But while the book is aimed at screenwriters, the principles apply to all forms of storytelling, including prose fiction. I continue to study this book and keep striving to apply its principles. As observed by the late philosopher Mortimer J. Adler, it is knowledge of principles that transforms a knack into an art. This book provides such knowledge. As far as I'm concerned, if you're serious about telling stories, in whatever medium, you'll get much better results, much faster, if you get this book and apply its principles. This knowledge is what will separate you from the army of dilettantes.(less)

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Aug 17, 2010 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: education, language, literature, writing

In a past life I did a professional writing degree for my undergraduate BA – half of which was in script writing. I wish we had been taught the stuff that is contained in this book. This is such a good book it is hard to praise it too highly. The advice is clear and all of it good. From avoiding adverbs and adjectives in your treatment to the psychology of interesting characters this book has many very important things to say to anyone thinking about writing a screenplay (or anything else, if yo...more In a past life I did a professional writing degree for my undergraduate BA – half of which was in script writing. I wish we had been taught the stuff that is contained in this book. This is such a good book it is hard to praise it too highly. The advice is clear and all of it good. From avoiding adverbs and adjectives in your treatment to the psychology of interesting characters this book has many very important things to say to anyone thinking about writing a screenplay (or anything else, if you ask me).

The best of this is a quote from Hitchcock about his finishing writing the script for a film and then putting in the dialogue. Hitchcock was fairly obsessed with this idea, saying somewhere that a good film is one where the sound could be turned off and you would still know what the film was about. Film is about images. Perhaps this is going a little too far (although, too far is hardly far enough sometimes). This book is at its best when it explains how scenes need to have beats and that these beats need to be the natural beats of emotion between characters in conflict and in change. He explains this with reference to a number of films (including one of my all time favourite films, China Town). He also uses Kramer Vs Kramer (one of the least impressive films I’ve ever seen) discussing the French toast scene (sort of slapstick masquerading as drama) and even the ‘Use the force, Luke’ scene from Star Wars. Beats is a really interesting way to think about drama and I will use this stuff when teaching.

There is also wonderful stuff about writing films from the inside out – that is, get the story right before you get the scenes or dialogue right. His point being that those ‘great scenes’ you have written will stop you being able to write a great film. Why? Because great films are so much more than great scenes. A great film is a whole and all of it works to build that whole. This guy knows his Hegel (even talks about the negation of the negation at one point, and qualitative and quantitative change). Change is the key here, change that leads to completeness. I know that is sounding vague, but his point is that you should know the end of your film before you start writing and then write the film to get to the end. Everything in the film should lead, of necessity, to that end – but the paradox is that the end should also come as a surprise.

He suggests you do this by focusing on two fantastic questions. The first is, what is the worst of all possible things that could happen to my central character – and yet at the same time how could this end up being the best thing that could have happened to them? And the second is, what is the best thing my character could hope for and then, when achieved, how could that end up being the worst of all possible things?

The other fantastic advice he offers is to not have any ‘bad guys’ in your films. Like every character in Shakespeare (except possibly Iago) every character must be real – must make decisions based on what is real to them and in their own best interests. As he says, you have to like all of your characters. By liking them you allow them to have wants and needs and if you drive the action of the film by expressions of these characters’ wants and needs – how could you possibly go wrong?

He also has a wonderful metaphor of a film as solar system - based on a central star and other characters being like planets around the star and minor characters revolving around the planets like moons.

But the best advice is – if you can say it without dialogue, then do. This is actually great advice for any kind of writing. It is the ‘show, don’t tell’ advice with some substance added to it. Because sometimes you can’t show – sometimes you do need to use dialogue – but you never need to ‘just tell’, there is always a better way.

This is a text well worth reading, not just if you think you have a film in you, but also if you want to enjoy film more or you just want to write better in general. The advice that 90% of what you write is written to be thrown away is the best advice on writing you are ever likely to read.
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Oct 05, 2012 Jeffrey McKinley rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have read this book twice over the past two years. I have no desire to write screenplays. My passion is being a novelist. However there are things you can take away from this and use in honing your skills at character development and plotting your story. McKee made me see the reason the movie is seldom better than the book is because writing and adapting a screenplay from a novel is a Herculean task. Novelist can go inside characters heads and paint a picture with paragraphs of breathtaking pr...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Monkey rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of stories and movies

everything from robert mc kee "story" workshop but without the profanity! "story" offers a view of "good story, well told" and how it can be archived. aspiring screenwriters, playwrights, novelists, watercooler raconteurs or cinephile should have a copy or in their writing toolbox. if you can't afford spending 3 days at the feet of mc kee learning the art of story, this is the next best thing. (you'll miss the amazing 6 hour scene by scene analysis of casablanca, but, you won't have to sit in an...more

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Jan 18, 2012 S.C. Skillman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Several years ago, I nearly signed on for Robert McKee’s “Story Structure” workshop in London – tempted by the testimonial from John Cleese, who attri...moreSeveral years ago, I nearly signed on for Robert McKee’s “Story Structure” workshop in London – tempted by the testimonial from John Cleese, who attributed his success in creating the Fawlty Towers scripts to what he learned from this workshop. But I saw it was essentially for screenwriters, and chose to pass on it. I have since recognised...more "Several years ago, I nearly signed on for Robert McKee’s “Story Structure” workshop in London – tempted by the testimonial from John Cleese, who attri...moreSeveral years ago, I nearly signed on for Robert McKee’s “Story Structure” workshop in London – tempted by the testimonial from John Cleese, who attributed his success in creating the Fawlty Towers scripts to what he learned from this workshop. But I saw it was essentially for screenwriters, and chose to pass on it. I have since recognised that story structure is universal, and applies not only to screenwriters, but also novelists. When I recently found this book in Waterstones Piccadilly, the inner voice said “Buy it!” And I obeyed. Now I’ve absorbed all that McKee has to say about story, it will transform the way I work on the second draft of my new novel.

Story saturates our lives, through books, plays, the theatre, TV and radio drama, and movies; and we all respond to story instinctively. And yet if we were asked to explain why we respond as we do, and why something works or not, many of us would fall silent. But Robert McKee does explain. One thing that has long mystified me is: “How is it that we are satisfied by a story where the protagonist does not achieve his desire?” McKee replies that “the flood of insight that pours from the gap delivers the hoped-for emotion, but in a way we could never have foreseen.” He illustrates his points with many references to famous movies. “Story” is a huge challenge; dense and even overwhelming, its author acknowledges this at the end: “You have pursued “Story” to its final chapter and, with this step, taken your career in a direction many writers fear… I know that when confronted with a rush of insights even the most experienced writer can be knocked off stride.” I hope that, having studied thoughtfully, as I “follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty,” I too may “write boldly” and produce stories that “will dazzle the world.”

SC Skillman(less)

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S.C. Skillman Several years ago, I nearly signed on for Robert McKee’s “Story Structure” workshop in London – tempted by the testimonial from John Cleese, who attri...more
16 de Ene 04:16

Lance Greenfield Mitchell Hi Sheila - perhaps you need to edit the beginning of your review. You have obviously cut and pasted from your comment, and the first few lines have b...more
20 de Ene 03:51

Jun 18, 2008 Adam Page rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: potential screenwriters

I can understand how this book would be good for potential screenwriters; in fact, that's who this book is for exactly. However, the book does get tedious and has a lot of personal bias involved (a tendency that spills over into McKee's seminar, unfortunately). There is no story in "Story," so unless you are gung-ho about becoming a Hollywood writer, stay away from this one.

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Feb 01, 2013 Coral rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, writing

This book gave me several really helpful insights. The first of which is:

If you have writer's block, that means you don't know enough. Do more research.

Also, to give a character depth, give the character not a random assortment of traits, but rather contradictory traits, and then introduce characters and situations that bring out the contradictions.

Most crucially, this book has the extensive discussion I've been looking for on how to construct a plot, amp it up, think about pacing and tension, e...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

By reputation this is THE book on screenwriting, but I have tried and failed to get into it several times. In the past, I blamed it on my own exhaustion. Today, perhaps it's no more than my cranky mood since I am no less exhausted than normal, but I'm going to blame it instead on the author's style, so self-consciously pretty, so calculated to impress, that makes me dizzy (or is that sleepy?), and most problematically, actually gets in the way of the information the author is trying to present....more

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Feb 28, 2010 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book covers general principles related to plot, characters, and conflict. I'd suggest reading this if you've ever listened to a director's commentary. But be aware that it will cause you to look at movies a bit little differently. (Soon after I read it, I watched "Born on the Fourth of July" and all I could think about was whether or not Kyra Sedgwick's character was really needed, what happened to her, does he still think about her, etc.)

"Story" is more about scenes and plots and how to ev...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Cory rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book, it is readily evident why McKee hasn't sold any screenplays. He overthinks the construction of a simple story; trying to make a scientific formula for something inherently unscientific.

Where do we writers get ideas? Who knows.

What's the best way to put them on paper to write a novel or a screenplay? Whatever works.

How do you create tension? Organically, but it can become contrived if you work too hard at it.

If you're interested in the answers to these questions, this is your b...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Riitta Toivonen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: narrative

This book has touched me more than almost any other non-fiction book, because McKee's approach so utterly relies on human emotion, and on communication without a word. Screenwriting, excluding some artistic European movies and the bad scripts that never make it, works with the triggers that make the roller coaster of experience roll. McKee explains what makes a story different from real life, and teaches the reader how to build and resolve tensions. Make up your world, know your world, and live...more

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Jan 31, 2009 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Oct 28, 2012 G.Y. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-book

A solid book. Seemed to jump around a bit, but McKee manages to balance a line between creative mysticism and literary nuts-and-bolts. I sensed a feeling of inspiration similar to Pressfield's spiritual War of Art, especially with lines like "talent without craft is like fuel without an engine - it burns wildly but accomplishes little", but I learned a bit more on the mechanics of writing from McKee's work. Recommend this to any writer, really, not just those interest in screenwriting. I have wr...more

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Jul 09, 2012 M a y a rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: writing, non-fiction, own

My mind is officially blown!

Make no mistake: this bible to story-telling is dense and intensely analytical. The first time I tried reading it, I gave up. I think if I thought too much about these principles on a first draft, my creativity would shrivel up and die (though there's no unlearning it now).

Yet, to revise a novel, McKee offers incredible insight into pacing, story arc, characters, climactic scenes, and more. If something isn't working, you can probably find some tool here to help you t...more

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Apr 08, 2012 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

McKee is infuriatingly opinionated. He is stubborn, insulting and sometimes dead wrong, but, wow, I loved this book!

This is the most thorough and knowledgeable investigation into the creation of story for the screen. And while some screenwriters disagree with McKee's structural preparation for writing a screenplay, few would disagree that the man understands storytelling. He completely dissects what makes a screenplay great and lays out a roadmap of how to create a solid script.

Again, there is f...more

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Jul 03, 2009 H. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: movie-lovers, story-tellers

Recommended to H. by: Amazon ratings

Shelves: film, research

By far the best book on screenwriting I have read or expect to read, and one of the best on film in general. McKee is a very eloquent writer who communicates a mastery of difficult concepts, ideas, and conceits, summarizing in an instructive paragraph what I have many times only vaguely approached in hour-long discussions with fellow fledgling writers and film-lovers. McKee himself is a true lover of film, revisiting the same glorious and complex scenes from favorite movies such as Casablanca an...more

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Aug 06, 2012 John Fanning rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-writing, film, screenwriting

The maths of story telling? Is that possible? How can you teach that?

The fact that in 2011 he was teaching his 4 day seminar in Bogotá, Colombia and the following year in Hyderabad, India suggests McKee has something of value to say.

Perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say this a sensible, practical book.

What's good is that McKee channels The Poetics and others. But what's better is that he's not afraid to say it. He knows he's not saying anything new and he'll admit it too: "The worl...more

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About Robert McKee

Robert McKee began his show business career at age nine playing the title role in a community theatre production of MARTIN THE SHOEMAKER. He continued acting as a teenager in theatre productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans Scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in...more Robert McKee began his show business career at age nine playing the title role in a community theatre production of MARTIN THE SHOEMAKER. He continued acting as a teenager in theatre productions in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Upon receiving the Evans Scholarship, he attended the University of Michigan and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature. While an undergraduate, he acted in and directed over thirty productions. McKee's creative writing professor was the noted Kenneth Rowe whose former students include Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan.

After completing his B.A., McKee toured with the APA (Association of Producing Artists) Repertory Company, appearing on Broadway with such luminaries as Helen Hayes, Rosemary Harris and Will Geer. He then received the Professional Theatre Fellowship and returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan to earn his Master's Degree in Theatre Arts.

Upon graduating, McKee directed the Toledo Repertory Company, acted with the American Drama Festival, and became Artistic Director of the Aaron Deroy Theatre. From there he traveled to London to accept the position of Artist-In-Residence at the National Theatre where he studied Shakespearean production at the Old Vic. He then returned to New York and spent the next seven years as an actor/director in various Off-Broadway, repertory and stock companies.

After deciding to move his career to film, McKee attended Cinema School at the University of Michigan. While there, he directed two short films - A DAY OFF, which he also wrote, and TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. These two films won the Cine Eagle Award, awards at the Brussels and Grenoble Film Festivals, and various prizes at the Delta, Rochester, Chicago and Baltimore Film Festivals.

In 1979, McKee moved to Los Angeles, California where he began to write screenplays and work as a story analyst for United Artists and NBC. He sold his first screenplay, DEAD FILES, to AVCO/Embassy Films, after which he joined the WGA (Writers Guild of America). His next screenplay, HARD KNOCKS, won the National Screenwriting Contest, and since then McKee has had over eight feature film screenplays purchased or optioned, including the feature film script TROPHY for Warner Bros. In addition to his screenplays, McKee has had a number of scripts produced for such critically acclaimed dramatic television series as QUINCY, M.D. (starring Jack Klugman), COLUMBO (starring Peter Falk), SPENSER: FOR HIRE and KOJAK (starring Telly Savalas).

In 1983, McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, joined the faculty of the School of Cinema and Television at the University of Southern California (USC), where he began offering his now famous STORY SEMINAR class. A year later, McKee opened the course to the public and he now teaches the 3-day, 30-hour STORY SEMINAR to sold-out audiences around the world. From Los Angeles (where his course is only taught two times a year) to New York (two times a year) to Paris, Sydney, Toronto, Boston, San Francisco, Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Singapore, Barcelona and 12 other film capitals around the world, more than 50,000 students have taken the course over the last 15+ years.

Through it all, McKee continues to be a project consultant to major film and television production companies, as well major software firms (Microsoft, etc.), news departments (ABC, etc.) and more. In addition, several companies such as ABC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount regularly send their entire creative and writing staffs to his lectures.

In 2000, McKee won the prestigious 1999 International Moving Image Book Award for his best-selling book STORY (Regan Books/HarperCollins). The book, currently in its 32nd printing in the U.S. and its 19th printing in the U.K., has become required reading for film and cinema schools at such top Universities as Harvard, Yale, UCLA, and USC, and was on the LOS ANGELES TIMES best-seller list for 20 weeks.

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“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.” — 13 people liked it

“A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.” — 12 people liked it

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Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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