My brother got me this book Christmas of 2004. I didn't start reading it until August of 2005. Dear lord, what I was missing! Robert McKee is the screenwriting guru spoofed in Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation, and just like Kaufman in that movie, McKee revolutionized my thinking on storytelling.
Notice how I gently built up the tension in the first sentence, released it in the second sentence, then built even more tension in the third sentence, only to develop to a crisis in my fourth sentence? All McKee.
Last week I tried to read Story during my break at work. But before I could sit down, a rotund, tatooed customer saw the book in my hand and practically fell out of his seat.
"Robert McKee? That's my teacher! Oh, man, if you write a script just how Robert McKee says, you'll write a brilliant fucking script!"
"Please, this is a family restaurant," Gary, the head manager at Angelica, chastized the effusive McKee devotee.
"Sorry, a brilliant f'ing script. But seriously, you follow McKee, you've got it fucking made! I just finished a script, and it's fantastic. Every time McKee's in New York, I go to his seminars. Next time I'm going to his seminar on comedy. Comedy, now there's the real monster. I got McKee to sign my copy of Story once. He signed it, 'To Cory: Always Tell the Truth.' The man's a fucking genius."
And he went on, cutting into half of my break.
I love McKee. But I just wanted to eat.
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