writers quote daily

McKee on what makes a unique story

A story is not only what you have to say but how you say it. If content is cliche, the telling will be cliche. But if your vision is deep and original, your story design will be unique. Conversely, if the telling is conventional and predictable, it will demand stereotypical roles to act out well-worn behaviors. But if the story design is innovative, then settings, characters, and ideas must be equally fresh to fullfil it. We shape the telling to fit the substance, rework the substance to support the design.--Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

McKee on the need for craft

Without craft, the best a writer can do is snatch the first idea off the top of his head, then sit helpless in front of his own work, unable to answer the dreaded questions: Is it good? Or is it sewage? If seage, what do I do? The conscious mind, fixated on thse terrible questions, blocks the subsconscious. But when the conscious mind is put to work on the objective task of executing the craft, the spontaneous surfaces. Mastery of craft frees the subconscious.--McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

McKee on plotting

To PLOT means to navigate through the dangerous terrain of story and when confronted by a dozen branching possibilities to choose the correct path. Plot is the writer's choice of events and their design in time.--Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

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

McKee on the importance of the story's audience

When talented people write badly it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove or they're driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They're moved by a desire to touch the audience.--Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting 

McKee on the need to write a good story

But the love of a good story, of terrific characters and a world driven by your passion, courage, and creative gifts is still not enough. Your goal must be a good story well told.--Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

McKee on archetypes and stereotypes of story

The archetypal story unearths a universally human experience, then wraps itself inside a unique, culture-specific expression. A stereotypical story reverses this pattern: It suffers a poverty of both content and form. It confines itself to a narrow, culture-specific experience and dresses in stale, nonspecific generalties.--Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting