Story Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting Robert McKee

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StoryStyle, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of ScreenwritingRobert McKee

Stories are mysterious—like music, they have an emotional power over us that’s impossible to explain. However, screenwriter and storytelling expert Robert McKee argues that stories’ emotional power is not only explainable but also something you can learn to create. In Story, McKee breaks down how stories function and uses this theory to explain how you can write a gripping story. The book is intended for screenwriters, but its principles apply to any kind of storytelling.

In this guide, we’ll explain what ingredients enable stories to engage audiences on both an emotional and intellectual level. You’ll learn how “beats” of action and reaction act as the driving force of compelling scenes and how scenes, sequences, and acts fit together to form stories that hold attention. We’ll provide background from earlier works that likely inspired Story, such as Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces. We’ll also supplement McKee’s writing advice with tips from other popular books, such as Stephen King’s On Writing and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!

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