I'm an aspiring writer interested in both screenplays and game writing. In my study of the craft, I have read the book Story by Robert McKee. In my opinion, this is the greatest book ever written on story creation of any kind, although it is for writing screenplays. Have you read this book? How do you feel it translates to game writing? I'm just interested in seeing how other people feel about this.

That book is my first choice whenever people ask me to recommend a basic how-to-write book. It may not go too in-depth into any one topic, but it very thoroughly introduces almost all the existing topics in writing theory, making it easy for anyone whose interest is caught by one concept to start researching it in more depth. If I taught a college creative writing course Story would be on my syllabus.

Everything I know about Robert McKee I learned from the movie Adaptation. I don't know what to make of it. Much of the movie does the opposite of what McKee instructs, to great comic effect.

I guess Adaptation is about creating a story that resolves the protagonists desire vs creating a story that doesn't. Can the latter be as satisfying? Here's a clip:



I'm curious enough to read one of McKees books and learn some story writing, but he comes across as somewhat rigid and bleak. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, however I guess you should know the rules before you think about breaking them.

[Edited by - abstractionline on December 18, 2009 7:31:47 PM]

I've read this and really enjoyed it. I also know people who hated it and say it leads to identikit stories. I think the trick is the approach you take. If you view it as an introduction to the theory of writing then as sunandshadow said it covers most of the bases and explains the key points really well. If you use it as a step by step tutorial then you will probably end up with something fairly uninspiring.

As to Adaptation, its been ages since I saw it, but I remember that my main impression was that it was very clever at looking like it was breaking the rules, whilst actually following them. Also, Charlie Kauffman is an exceptional screenwriter and it seems that in creative areas the people who get to the highest levels of their field eventually learn how to break the rules and still produce great work.