I open up Robert McKee’s Story to a random page and write about what I find.
McKee says:
Storytelling is the creative demonstration of a truth. A story is the living proof of an idea, the conversion of idea into action. A story’s event structure is the means by which you first express, then prove your idea… without explanation. Master storytellers never explain.
What I love about McKee is that sprinkled through the 400 pages of Story are these nuggets of pure truth that every writer should take to heart. It is by no means original, Seger and Field say the same thing, but nobody does it with the same dramatic flair as McKee.
I have been carrying Story around with me for the last couple of weeks just waiting for an opportunity to open it. I was delighted that this was the random selection this go-around because it is typically one of the very first things I explain to students who are just beginning their journey as screenwriters or filmmakers.
We all commit the crime of falling in love with an idea. Many times we also try hard to write the idea, or pitch the idea when in fact we should be trying to write or pitch the story — the action. When a student begins to talk about their screenplay by saying “my story is about” I stop them and remind them that their job is to communicate action. Tell me what happens in the story, not what it’s about. To exemplify why they should do this I show them the scene from Sideways when Miles explains his novel. It goes like this:
MAYA
So what's your novel about?
MILES
Well, it's a little difficult to
summarize. It begins as a first-person
account of a guy taking care of his
father after a stroke. Kind of based
on personal experience, but only
loosely.
MAYA
What's the title?
MILES
"The Day After Yesterday."
MAYA
Oh. You mean... today?
MILES
Um... yeah but it's more...
MAYA
So is it kind of about death and
mortality, or...?
MILES
Mrnmm, yeah... but not really. It
shifts around a lot. Like you also
start to see everything from the
point of view of the father. And
some other stuff happens, some
parallel narrative, and then it
evolves -- or devolves -- into a
kind of a Robbe-Grillet mystery --
you know, with no real resolution.
MAYA
Wow. Anyway, I think it's amazing
you're getting it published. Really.
I know how hard it is. Just to write
it even.
MILES
(squeezing it out)
Yeah. Thanks.
After saying all of this, he has said nothing at all. It’s what typically happens when the writer believes it is the idea that communicates. In truth, it is the other way around. Like McKee says, story is the conversion of an idea into action. It is the summation of all events, from Inciting Incident to Resolution, which allows you to communicate the idea.
The act of understanding comes from the interpretation of action. What did the character do? How did he relate? What was the result? It is the answers to these questions that allow the viewer to understand what the movie is about. Without action there is no meaning … there is no art. Without action there is no idea, just the ramblings of a writer who doesn’t know what he/she just wrote.
Sometimes a Good Notion 