The Elements of Story
Summary of "Story" by Robert McKee
📚 There are tons of great books that will help you level-up your writing.
🕒 I’m saving you countless hours by summarizing a new one every single month.
✍️ Story by Robert McKee will teach you the eternal principles of crafting compelling narratives. It is one of the most valuable books I’ve ever read.
My summary is broken into four posts:
Part 1: The Writer And The Art Of Story
Part 2: The Elements Of Story
Part 3: A Guide To Creating Protagonists
Part 4: How To Design A Story
Here is Part 2:
The writer must study the elements of story as if they were instruments of an orchestra— first separately, then in concert.
Story = Change
It’s important to think about a story in terms change.
Your protagonist is one way in the beginning
He/she is the opposite at the end
Think about Michael Corleone in The Godfather:
Starts as a son uninterested in the family business
Ends as the head of the crime family
A story is a great sweep of change.
But it’s built up of smaller units of change:
Beats
Scenes
Sequences
Acts
Let’t take a look at each one 👇
Beat - An exchange of behavior in action/reaction.
This is when a character:
Does something
Says something
And there’s a reaction from someone or something else.
« Beats build scenes.
Scene - An action through conflict that changes the value-charged condition of a character’s life.
In a scene, a character wants something but there are forces opposed to him that he must encounter.
Ideally, every scene should feature change expressed in terms of a value.
Values - The universal qualities of human experience that may shift from one moment to the next.
Values can shift from:
Positive —> Negative
Negative —> Positive
Values may be:
Moral (Good vs. Evil)
Ethical (Right vs. Wrong)
Or any binary quality of experience
Examples of values that could be showcased in a story.:
Alive / Dead (Positive / Negative)
Love / Hate
Freedom / Slavery
Truth / Lie
Courage / Cowardice
Loyalty / Betrayal
Wisdom / Stupidity
Strength / Weaknesses
Excitement / Boredom
Every scene should turn a value at stake in a character’s life.
If exposition is a scene’s sole justification, you should trash it and weave its information into the story elsewhere.
« Scenes build sequences.
Sequence - A series of scenes (generally two to five) that culminates with greater impact than any previous scene.
Here’s an example of a three-scene sequence:
A woman works up the nerve to leave her apartment for a job interview on the other side of New York City.
Values: Doubt (-) —> Confidence (+)
It starts pouring rain outside. She realizes that to get to the interview on time, she’ll have to run through a dangerous part of the city. She takes the risk and makes it out alive.
Values: Death (-) —> Alive (+)
Arriving at the interview, she realizes that the rain has ruined her makeup. But she still interviews and gets the job.
Values: Defeat (Negative) —> Success (Positive)
« Sequences build acts.
Act - A series of sequences that peaks in a climactic scene which causes a major reversal of values.
Continuing our example of the woman in NYC:
Act I = Rises up the ranks and becomes CEO of the company.
Act II = Gets fired from the company.
Act III = Forms a rival company that becomes successful.
Act IV = Executes a hostile takeover of the first company.
« Acts build the story.
A story is simply one huge master event (or “change”).
When you look at the value-charged in the life of the character at the beginning, then compare it to the value-charge at the end, you should see the arc of the story.
Arc - The great sweep of change that takes life from one condition at the beginning to a changed condition at the end.
With the woman in New York City example:
The story arcs from:
Optimistic young professional —> Cynical executive
The change at the end must be absolute and irreversible.
Story Climax - A story is a series of acts that build to the climax of the final act, which brings about absolute and irreversible change.
The elements of story vary by the degree of change:
Scenes = Minor change
Sequences = Moderate change
Acts = Major change
Story Climax (climax of the final act) = Irreversible change
Think about Michael Corleone at the end of The Godfather.
There was no going back.
Continue reading the other parts of the Story summary:
Part 1: The Writer And The Art Of Story
Part 2: The Elements Of Story
Part 3: A Guide To Creating Protagonists
Part 4: How To Design A Story
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