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

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Customer Reviews:

The best book on crafting a story [Posted on 2008-02-08]
By far the best book about the crafting of stories. McKee provides insights into story development that I haven't found in any other volume on screenwriting. Helped me immensely to be able to recognize viable plot lines, and understand why some stories just don't work. This is not a book for the beginning writer; it doesn't deal with such 101 stuff as script formatting. Rather, it's a higher level text for writers who have some knowledge of the craft. I go back again and again to this book.

Bible for screenwriting [Posted on 2008-02-10]
Mckee's book is famous and hardly needs someone like me to review it. This is the bible of screenwriting. With that said, there are a lot of basics in here that advanced screenwriters always follow, but are beyond. It is a quick and interesting read that you will benefit from. After reading it, pick up the film Adaptation and laugh out loud.

Let me tell you a Story [Posted on 2008-04-06]
Fantastic content and narrative! McGee's book is awesome however the Audio CD really brings it all to life. Candidly, I'm surprised Robert is also so talented narrating the audio - this is a must-have purchase, even if you've already bought is book "Story".

Beware of the Snake Oil Salesman [Posted on 2008-06-16]
I'm sorry but I find it almost insulting that someone would stand up on an orange box and preach about a subject that he knows NOTHING about. To me that's the definition of a scam artist.

I have dozens upon dozens of screenwriting books and most of them are mediocre at best. The problem: Most are also written by people who haven't sold anything! How do these publishing companies keep allowing these non-screenwriters to publish books about screenwriting?

Ask yourself this: If you are trying to put together a model airplane, would you read the instructions by someone who has never done it before? If you were trying to rebuild a carburetor, would you read the book by the dude who knows nothing about cars or carburetors?

No, you wouldn't! (I hope.)

After wasting so much money on these wannabe snakeoil salesmen who are selling books about writing and yet have never sold anything, I've learned to stick with ONLY those who have been successful. After all, many of us who are aspiring to make it as writers don't want to read about other wannabe's 'theories' on how to make it as a writer, do we?

I've found two successful screenwriters who are worth reading: Blake Snyder and Cynthia Whitcomb. Their books are exceptional and worth reading several times over.

My advice: Instead of wasting your time reading books by people who TEACH and DON'T DO, find books only by people who have actually done it and are successful. Why read anything else? Doesn't make sense, does it?

Regarding Robert McKee, the guy hasn't 'done it' so why bother with him to begin with? If his 'theories' are so fabulous then why hasn't he been successful? Theories sound nice on paper but unless they are workable and something you can actually be successful with, they're worthless.

I just feel sorry for all the people who have been duped by McKee and who think the guy knows what he's talking about. Being that blinded could easily set your career back a decade or more. Beware of the snakeoil salesman. He can make you believe you are on the right track when really you are wasting a ton of time.

Invaluable Resource [Posted on 2008-07-07]
This is the only book on screenwriting I have read thus far, and, frankly, it would take a lot for me to read another. I have gained invaluable understanding of the screenwriting process with this book. I reference it continuously and am not disappointed. I find McKee's advice to be straight forward, easy to understand, and adapt.

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