Can the Inciting Incident Come From Within the Protagonist?
Robert McKee clarifies the role of the inciting incident and answers whether it is possible for it to come from inside your main character.
How To Design the Perfect Crime
Robert McKee, who wrote television crime stories early in his career, outlines one of his points from Crime Story Day in the GENRE Festival: making your crime unsolvable, then solving...Can Conventional Protagonist vs. Antagonist Roles Be Reversed?
Robert McKee teaches that the hero-at-the-mercy-of-the-villain scene is an important convention in the thriller because it demonstrates the power, resourcefulness, or ingenuity of the hero. What happens if we give that moment to the villain instead? Featured...COMING HOME (2014)
Stories created for the page demand a special talent for retelling in film. And as COMING HOME once again demonstrates, Zhang Yimou is one of the world’s most brilliant conveyers of prose to the screen.
How Does Story Affect Life?
If you wish to understand the Primacy of Story – why story is essential to human motivation and decision-making – Robert McKee will get you started in this in-depth presentation for Thinking Digital. Quotes of the Week “The Business story is...Robert McKee’s STORY-in-BUSINESS Tips
1. LOOK FOR TROUBLE The starting point of all stories is a moment of disruption. A negative event throws the protagonist’s life out of balance, hooking the audience’s curiosity: How will this turn out? The protagonist’s quest to restore life’s...How Can I Develop My Character Quickly?
When asked how to accelerate the development of characters, Robert McKee explains how every turning point, even those without a character in them, can reveal something about a character. Quote of the Week “Stories are not made of words. Stories are not...EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)
Robert McKee gives a short review of the film EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014), starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.
What Is a Testing Plot?
In this two-part Q&A, Robert McKee discusses the inciting incident and struggle of this somewhat rare story. In Part 1 McKee explains the nature of a testing plot. If you’re considering using a testing plot, recall that these can often be mixed...How Do I Write the Opposite Sex?
Robert McKee debunks the myth that men cannot write female characters, and vice versa, and encourages writers to put themselves in the minds of their cast.