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

by Robert McKee

structure is character; character is structure.

This singular assemblage of traits is characterization … but it is not character.

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.

Character under pressure is better defined aand emerges

The revelation of true character in contrast or contradiction to characterization is fundamental to all fine storytelling.

Ex. Sonia Comparing her role and her final decision.

What seems is not what is.

Structure and character are interlocked.

Story is metaphor for life and life is lived in time.

STORYTELLING is the creative demonstration of truth. A story is the living proof of an idea, the conversion of idea to action. A story’s event structure is the means by which you first express, then prove your idea … without explanation.