Comedy is the angry art. It attacks the institutions in the world, social behaviour and the conduct of society. But comedians know that if you harangue people with how awful the world is, no one will listen to you. As a comedy writer, if you can pull the mask away from hypocrisy and greed, expose pretentiousness, stupidity, cruelty for what it is and get people to laugh, then maybe things will balance. In this series of three webinars, Robert McKee dives deep into the nature, principles and structure of this pointed genre.

Every writer must strive towards this ideal: Include no scene that doesn’t turn. You must work to round every scene from beginning to end by turning a value at stake in a character’s life from positive to negative, or vice versa. Adherence to this principle may be difficult, but it’s by no means impossible.

The Inciting Incident is the first major incident in your story. At some point, as you write, you will need to answer these questions: How do I set my story in action? Where do I place this crucial event?

Without expressive dialogue, story events lack depth, characters lose dimension, and story flattens. More than any other technique of characterization, dialogue has the power to lift a merely complicated telling into the full array of complexity.

A protagonist and their story can only be as intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism make them. The more powerful and complex the forces opposing the character, the more completely realized character and story must become.

Learn from Hollywood’s most sought-after writing instructor, Robert McKee, at the LA STORY and LOVE STORY DAY Seminars in October.

Robert McKee returns to New York City this October to deliver his STORY Seminar and all-new TV DAY, focusing on long-form storytelling.