What Makes a Story Travel?
Robert McKee explains to a STORY Seminar attendee why certain stories succeed internationally, while most fail.
Why Stories Need a Small Knowable World
Robert McKee explains the dangers of making your story world too big, and how a depth of knowledge is the key to avoiding cliché.
What Is the Essence of Talent?
In this Storylogue Q&A video, Robert McKee teaches the nature of talent, and how it is meaningless without desire.
How to Define Your Story in One Sentence
Robert McKee teaches how and why, no matter how seemingly complex the story, you should be able to define your work in one sentence.
Probable Impossibilities in Story
Robert McKee explains Aristotle’s assertion that probable impossibilities in story are preferable to improbable possibilities.
How to Judge Your Own Writing
Robert McKee teaches how writers must retain some objectivity about their own writing in order to judge whether a story is working or not.
The Rhythm of Story
Robert McKee teaches how writers can manipulate rhythm and tempo by mixing up the length of scenes in a story, in order to progress and accelerate the telling to a satisfying climax.
Do You Understand Your Protagonist’s Desires?
A protagonist may want something and not know it, or may want something and be completely aware of it. Things are different for the writer. Robert McKee explains why.
Telling Stories Within a Story
Robert McKee teaches how to use a story within a story to hold the interest of your audience, with reference to THE LEGO MOVIE.
Tips for Writing with Discipline
Robert McKee shares tips and suggestions on how to get your work done.
Adaptation vs. “Movie Based On”
Robert McKee discusses the fine line between an adaptation and writing a story inspired by another work, with reference to SIDEWAYS.
The Meaninglessness of Deus Ex Machina
Robert McKee teaches how deus ex machina robs stories of meaning, and how a skilled writer can use coincidence to enrich a telling.