With the unprecedented events of recent months, and subsequent spread of the coronavirus, writers are increasingly stuck at home. So this spring, as we confront this global crisis together, Robert McKee is bringing his lifetime of narrative insight and legendary teaching to you…

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.