Robert McKee's book "Story"

[Ann Feehan]

I love Robert McKee's book on screenwriting called "Story". There are so many ideas about how to be a good writer (how to handle exposition, creating strong antagonists, reinventing genre, etc.).

If you understand a theory, you can design a game/exercise to practice it. So many of his ideas easily lent themselves to design exercises that can make you both a better storyteller as well as being a better improviser.

DETAIL vs CLICHE
pg. 4 “An archetypal story creates settings and characters so rare that our eyes feast on every detail.”

pg 8 “If the content is cliché, the telling will be cliché.”

pg. 74 “Talent must be stimulated by facts and ideas. Do research. Fed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliché, it's the key to victory over fear and its cousin, depression.”

TAKEAWAY: It is important to exercise our ability to give out specific details about environments. This will lead to us feeling like we have permission to explore the details of a scene instead of rushing into plot.

Exercise: describe a “real” location – a library, a café, a laundromat, a restaurant. Notice how different they are from the typical renderings we see of them on stage.

Exercise: describe a very unusual world that you have been part of – e.g. at a court trial of a famous person, visiting a minimum security prison.

Exercise: Play a scene but you must describe three things in the environment during the course of the scene. (This will really bring a location to life and can bring an emotional connection to the enviornment).

Exercise: Play a historical scene but each person tries to subtly bring up at least one specific fact about the historical period.

Exercise: Play a historical scene but try to make up half the facts. Be very specific – instead of the new law, it's the “Mandle Henro Act”. Have fun with your "facts"!

[Drew Tarvin]

I second the awesomeness of the book--great for anyone who wants to get better at storytelling = ).