Anyone following my Twitter feed over the weekend probably realized I spent a good part of the time reading Robert McKee's screenwriting text, Story. While my main interest writing craft-wise at the moment is fiction, I found this book to be extremely illuminating particularly as to the differences between fiction writing and screenwriting. Things that I take for granted as a movie-goer, such as the careful thought a screenwriter has to put into the non-dialogue parts of the screenplay, are illuminated in this text. Additionally, conceptions of structure and characterization were emphasized in a way that I hadn't thought about before. And the chapter of form and placement of the inciting incident was very useful for me in terms of thinking about the differences between film and novels in this respect.
While I doubt I'll ever attempt to write a screenplay, I enjoyed this book even as a movie-goer. I'm sure I won't be looking at movies the same way again because now I'll be looking for the structure of the points and counter-points, the beats within the scenes and the careful uses of protagonists, antagonists and the balance of the supporting cast to the main character's journey. For anyone who enjoys film or is in any way interested in different forms of writing craft, this is an extremely accessible book that makes you think more deeply in terms of issues you've probably taken for granted until now.
While I doubt I'll ever attempt to write a screenplay, I enjoyed this book even as a movie-goer. I'm sure I won't be looking at movies the same way again because now I'll be looking for the structure of the points and counter-points, the beats within the scenes and the careful uses of protagonists, antagonists and the balance of the supporting cast to the main character's journey. For anyone who enjoys film or is in any way interested in different forms of writing craft, this is an extremely accessible book that makes you think more deeply in terms of issues you've probably taken for granted until now.
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