McKeen on shaping a story

Originality is the confluence of content and form--distinctive choices of subject plus a unique shaping of the telling. Content (setting, characters, ideas) and form (selection and arrangement of events) require, inspire, and mutually influence one another. With content in one hand and a mastery of form in the other, a writer sculpts a story. As you rework a story's substance, the telling reshapes itself. As you play with a story's shape, its intellectual and emotional spirit evolves.--Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting