What is story?

What is story?

That’s one of the prickly questions tackled by screenwriting guru Robert McKee in his book Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, which does a remarkable job of both dissecting the craft of the storyteller, and inspiring the reader to stop shirking and get to work.

At the heart of the book is McKee’s core thinking about what constitutes the basic building block of story. He’s in no doubt that such a thing exists, but before revealing it he make...