STORY is all about how to write a screenplay. But it’s also useful to those in the novel-writing business. I have A Writer Friend who doesn’t much care for STORY, but I think that’s because she never really got past the first part about structure and genre. (She didn’t feel she really needed help trying to decide between writing a mockumentary or a social drama.) It contains so much information that I think it can be intimidating, perhaps, to someone who has never actually been through the writing process before. It might seem like a lot of theory, but it’s actually the result of a lot of practice, practice, practice.
STORY was most useful to me in terms of its discussion of plot, in the section called “The Principle of Story Design.” It’s the clearest description I’ve ever found of how to construct a plot so that focus on the main conflict is never lost; it also reminds us that the level of conflict has to increase progressively from the first act to the last.
I went to McKee’s STORY seminar (you can find out where the next seminar will be held here), but I have to admit that the book was the best value. Everytime I sit down to write a new book proposal, I flip through its pages to remind myself to keep my focus and not get lost in the plotting woods.
