Written Thoughts

STORY by Robert McKee

Robert McKee has been the Mecca for screenwriters for decades. As a Producer and sometimes writer in Hollyweird, I was personally a John Truby fan, with his 22 Building Blocks that evoked Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces (and Vogler’s Writer’s Journey). When I found STORY listed on the SHU list of recommended readings, I was surprised - especially since I use this tome in my screenwriting classes at SMSU and my workshop. I’ve always thought the book was a great way to get writers to think differently - to understand how screenwriting is about the image and sound, how quite literally, a picture can say a thousand words. How dialogue may tell you the WHY of a conflict but the image can tell you the WHAT.

Of course, it’s one thing to accomplish this in script form, and entirely another in prose. I am always in awe of authors with the ability (in prose) to get inside the character’s head, indicate their body language/gestures, and a few other dozen things you have do plus, of course, provide the image descriptions (aka settings but also more - much more) which seem to vie for your attention. I’m still struggling with finding that proper balance but…

Re-reading STORY in “novelist” mode was illuminating to say the least. I’d been all worried about prose versus script issues but discovered that some truths about storytelling are universal:

The Ten Commandments According to Robert McKee

1) Thou shalt not take the crisis/climax out of the protagonist's hands. Death to the use of Deus ex machina.

I feel pretty good about this one -- I’m planning on putting both of my protagonists (Kate and Jon) through hell, make them struggle their way out of it and then come out the other side better for it. But first pain and suffering (with maybe a few doses of humor - got to bring the funny at least once in a great while). So no, I don’t see a Deus ex machine for the solution. I do, however, recognize that I’m using it as the cause of the problem.

I do, however, have insecurities about the problem appearing too convenient, too trite, too arranged. I’m hoping that in my rewrite I can get the tension and conflict tight enough that the reader won’t know what hit them.

2) Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist. Nothing progresses in a story, except through conflict.

And I agree with this, almost. 99.9% absolutely. But I do believe in the occasional need for ‘falling action’, for a brief moment every now and then where the reader (and the characters) can breathe. Not more than a paragraph or two, but an infrequent moment where the tension is not slammed up against the wall and the story can settle down. I like to think of it as a moment where the reader is able to pull the covers up further as they read the book in bed, where they can mentally sit back for just a moment and let the scene that just happened sink in.

3) Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition's sake. Dramatize it. Convert exposition to ammunition.

This is so much easier said that done and I struggle with it constantly. Show vs. Tell, death to Maid & Butler, I get it. Info dumps are boring to read. And I kick myself daily for having chosen a story to write that has so much information to get across.

The newest issue of Writer’s Digest brings up a good point about where there are appropriate times to use expository:

When a full dramatization would be repetitious.

When the scene isn’t important enough to rate a full treatment.

When a full dramatized scene would interfere with the story’s momentum.

I actually just took advantage of this and did a bit of ‘telling’ for when Burke and Kate get to the city gates of Camulodunum with Heron. Two little paragraphs. Mind you, this comes right after a scene with Jon panicking in the woods on his way to meet Queen Andra so I think this bit of telling served a few purposes: 1)A bit of falling action to let the reader settle down and 2)Gets Kate, Burke and Heron ready for a big conflicty scene where they meet Suetonius and Catus and get to see the nasty underside of the Roman Empire. Tempo wise - it helps the momentum of the story.

4) Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise.

To ask a reader to sit through a book, get emotionally charged and involved, care about the characters and then slam! Hit them on the back of the head with a cheesy, been there, done that, trick is just plain unfair. I’ve personally experienced this phenomenon a few times and there’s dents in the wall in my bedroom (from throwing books against it) and a large pile of discarded DVDs (from movies with really cheesy endings) to prove it.

I struggle with concern over doing this in my own writing and I suspect its one of the things that slows me down - into a sort of flaccid, self-doubting state. A mystery or surprise can seem original to me but overdone to someone else. Thank gods for mentors and critique partners and friends all willing to read monthly chunks of my work in progress. Anyone who writes in a vacuum is suspect to this and hackerism (see below):

5) Thou shalt respect your audience. The anti-hack commandment.

In screenwriting, this is simple - witty dialogue, stylized imagery -- maybe through odd angles and with the film treated to be super saturated or washed out. In novel writing, the dialogue still matters, the setting becomes crucial to creating a place for your reader to visit that is fresh and new… and worth the trip. Plot - that’s the tricky one. Sometimes I feel like no matter what ideas I come up with for my stories, they’ve been done before. As McKee points out, however, if you can take a plotline and turn it on its head by, blow fresh life into it by having unique characters - the story will be new and original. I love my characters and believe them to be unique - sometimes cranky but definitely unique. So fingers crossed, I don’t insult my readers and instead give them a story worth reading.

6) Thou shalt know your world as God knows this one. The pro-research commandment.

There’s two kinds of research here - not just the literal but the internal. I’ve got stacks of books on the Empire, Roman Britain, Quantum Physics, etc. But I would say my most valuable research has been on developing the plotline and characters for the story. And that research has been accomplished through digging inside to figure out what makes each of them tick.

7) Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better. Don't multiply the complications on one level. Use all three: Intra-personal, Inter-personal, Extra-personal.

Nods head - Since I’m a strong believer in character is everything, I’d say this is the only way to keep the plot moving forward. Make them 3 dimensional, give them inner conflicts, conflicts with each other and conflicts with the world around them. And I’m not entirely convinced I need to resolve ALL these complications (i.e. conflicts) but certainly growth needs to happen in the major characters by story’s end or what’s the point of the story?

8) Thou shalt seek the end of the line, the negation of the negation, taking characters to the farthest reaches and depth of conflict imaginable within the story's own realm of probability.

This sits at the core of my preference in stories. Throw everything at them, make them suffer and watch them grow. I really feel sorry for my characters.

9) Thou shalt not write on the nose. Put a subtext under every text.

Allegory, symbolism, metaphor - tools of the trade. But my favorite means of accomplishing this is through meter. My ultimate fantasy is, years from now, to become so confident in my writing that the very meter of the descriptions, the rhythm of the dialogue, taps into the subtext and gets the underlying message across to the reader on a deep, molecular level. This is probably why I’m such a huge Aaron Sorkin fan. All his dialogue, whether it be American President, Sports Night, or West Wing, is symphonic in quality. Even his actors admit they never dare change even one word because there's such strength in the meter, the pitter patter of sound, in the way he constructs dialogue, that it gave subtext to the scene, to the conflict and the internal workings of the characters.

10) Thou shalt rewrite.

Thank gods.

And I do love rewriting. I’m merciless, brutal, and almost callous with my own material. I can’t wait to get the first draft done so I can rewrite! And it's in that rewrite that I hope to insure that I've not broken any of the above commandments ...

Unless it works! Because sometimes, rules are made to be broken. But only if you've learned them first.

posted by No One You Know @ 10:37 AM 0 comments