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A review by ladyk23
Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
3.0
It’s not an exaggeration to say it took me two years to read this book. I added it to my ‘currently reading’ list on November 9th 2019 and I finished it in September this year. Now, I hope it goes without saying that I was not constantly reading this every day of those almost two years, but it’s also fair to say that when I did pick it up in those intervening years, it was a real slog to get through.
In part that's because of the subject matter. You do really want to take in what McKee is teaching you about the craft of screenwriting, but he really doesn't make it easy for you to do that.
There’s no synopsis for this as it’s a book that basically teaches you the dos and don’ts of writing a screenplay. And I can definitely see lots of merits with this book, so I’m in no way saying it’s bad or not to read it. Especially if you have an interest in screenwriting. But it is quite outdated in both its approach, and in what it has to say on the subject too.
Some of the recommendations contained within its pages are still relevant and pretty solid advice, but a lot of it goes into too much detail, is overly wordy, and if I am honest, as a woman, I found the authors decision to use “He/Him” pronouns whenever he was talking about “the writer” really sexist. It made it that much harder for me to relate to being the person who might be submitting said screenplay because I am not a “he/him”. How difficult would it have been to just write “they”? And how much more inclusive to your audience Mr McKee?
Around a year after I was kindly given this book by my brother (I am grateful – it was a thoughtful gift), I was gifted another writing tome, ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King. I didn’t want to start that one until I finished this book however, but now I am really keen to compare the two.
I suspect as ‘On Writing’ is more of a memoir that I will prefer that anyway. And as a fan of Mr King’s work I will be interested to find out more about him personally too. But I think I will especially prefer his book, over a book that seems to think the only writers in this world are men. *eyeroll*
It’s absolutely fascinating to me that both people I’ve heard say wonderful things about this book are men. And it also makes me wonder if other women/non-binary people who have read this (if there are any) have also struggled with it on the simple basis of the decision to use only masculine pronouns throughout (unless McKee is specifically talking about a woman in a scene that is).
It’s a shame as I think otherwise I’d have absorbed this book like a sponge, but instead I just found it seemed more like it was trying to mansplain to me, and rather archaic.
In part that's because of the subject matter. You do really want to take in what McKee is teaching you about the craft of screenwriting, but he really doesn't make it easy for you to do that.
There’s no synopsis for this as it’s a book that basically teaches you the dos and don’ts of writing a screenplay. And I can definitely see lots of merits with this book, so I’m in no way saying it’s bad or not to read it. Especially if you have an interest in screenwriting. But it is quite outdated in both its approach, and in what it has to say on the subject too.
Some of the recommendations contained within its pages are still relevant and pretty solid advice, but a lot of it goes into too much detail, is overly wordy, and if I am honest, as a woman, I found the authors decision to use “He/Him” pronouns whenever he was talking about “the writer” really sexist. It made it that much harder for me to relate to being the person who might be submitting said screenplay because I am not a “he/him”. How difficult would it have been to just write “they”? And how much more inclusive to your audience Mr McKee?
Around a year after I was kindly given this book by my brother (I am grateful – it was a thoughtful gift), I was gifted another writing tome, ‘On Writing’ by Stephen King. I didn’t want to start that one until I finished this book however, but now I am really keen to compare the two.
I suspect as ‘On Writing’ is more of a memoir that I will prefer that anyway. And as a fan of Mr King’s work I will be interested to find out more about him personally too. But I think I will especially prefer his book, over a book that seems to think the only writers in this world are men. *eyeroll*
It’s absolutely fascinating to me that both people I’ve heard say wonderful things about this book are men. And it also makes me wonder if other women/non-binary people who have read this (if there are any) have also struggled with it on the simple basis of the decision to use only masculine pronouns throughout (unless McKee is specifically talking about a woman in a scene that is).
It’s a shame as I think otherwise I’d have absorbed this book like a sponge, but instead I just found it seemed more like it was trying to mansplain to me, and rather archaic.