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dyselxic's review against another edition
3.0
A pretty good book at showing you some of the gears of what makes stories work.
samrossvolante's review against another edition
4.0
This book is almost everything it’s cracked up to be - and as a third year film student, that’s saying a lot. Treat this book like an encyclopaedia of story elements that you can refer to time and again.
My main issue with the book was its androcentrism. Its use of “he” to refer to either the generic “writer” or “character” drove me up the wall, especially bearing in mind the fact that McKee described the use of singular “they” as ungrammatical. Also, the majority of the films cited were made by and about cis, heterosexual white men. He made some effort to diversify his examples, but not nearly enough, in my opinion, even for 1999.
If you’re interested in writing for the screen, do read this book. Take some of it with a pinch of salt, because no advice on screenwriting is gospel, but on the whole it’s more than reliable.
My main issue with the book was its androcentrism. Its use of “he” to refer to either the generic “writer” or “character” drove me up the wall, especially bearing in mind the fact that McKee described the use of singular “they” as ungrammatical. Also, the majority of the films cited were made by and about cis, heterosexual white men. He made some effort to diversify his examples, but not nearly enough, in my opinion, even for 1999.
If you’re interested in writing for the screen, do read this book. Take some of it with a pinch of salt, because no advice on screenwriting is gospel, but on the whole it’s more than reliable.
emiann2023's review against another edition
4.0
This was more focused on screenwriting, but there was a lot that a traditional novelist can use.