Here are the latest newsletters with details of upcoming seminars:
"You must go wide enough and/or deep enough to bring the story to an ending beyond which the audience cannot imagine another." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
Your Protagonist’s Actions Have Consequences |
When a story’s inciting incident throws life out of kilter, the protagonist conceives an objective that he feels would restore life’s equilibrium. From this moment on, your protagonist does all he can to pursue his object of desire. He may or may not get what he wants but his actions have consequences. To ramify events outward into a story’s social and physical setting, many writers find their protagonists among the elites: doctors, lawyers, warriors, politicians, scientists, detectives, executives, crime lords, celebrities and the like. An elite’s elevated status in the social hierarchy gives his actions broad consequence, driving events into more and more lives. To ramify events inward into a protagonist’s hidden life, a character from any walk of life will do, so long as he is complex enough to reward explorations of his depths and flexible enough to undergo change. Alternatively, a story can take its protagonist both wide and deep at once, as with Jimmy McGill in the long-form series BREAKING BAD and its prequel BETTER CALL SAUL. The efforts of your protagonist cast a stone into the still pool of your story. As the author, it’s your job to decide which direction the ripples travel. |
Developing Character Dimensions |
Robert McKee teaches the principle of character dimensions and how to develop them in your cast. |
Quote of the Week |
"Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences." |
- ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON - |
Novelist |
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE TREASURE ISLAND |
The McKee Collection |
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"Your Inciting Incident is one of the most difficult scenes to write." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
Mastering Your Story’s Most Integral Scene |
As the audience sits in the dark of a theater, turns the pages of a novel, begins a TV show or sits down to play a new video game, it places its emotions in the storyteller’s hands. The first major event of any storyline is the Inciting Incident. This integral scene radically upsets the balance of forces in your protagonist’s life. It must hook and hold the emotion of the audience, causing them to seek the answer to one question above all else: “How will this turn out?” Countless stories have fallen flat due to ineffective telling of this integral scene. If you feel the opening of your story is lacking, ask yourself this: “What’s the worst possible thing that could happen to this character, and how could it turn into the best thing?” Alternatively, “What’s the best thing that could happen to the protagonist, and how could it turn into the worst possible thing?” If writers have a common fault, it’s that we habitually give our beloved protagonist an easy ride. Your obligation is to jolt your characters from their equilibrium, and invade their universe with conflict. Where you take your protagonist from there is up to you. |
2026 Winter Program |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
Are you ready to shake up your creative equilibrium? |
Over the course of five weeks this winter, students from around the globe will join Robert McKee live online for his STORY Webinar Series. Join Hollywood’s most sought-after screenwriting instructor to master the timeless principles of storytelling. Lift your talent beyond convention and create stories of unique substance, structure, and style. |
Student, Union, and Repeater discounts available. |
Placing Your Inciting Incident |
Robert McKee teaches the benefits and pitfalls of delaying your Inciting Incident, with reference to KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN and THE SIXTH SENSE. |
Quote of the Week |
"The trick is to get on the same side as the audience. Make them lean forward, make them want to know." |
- AARON SORKIN - |
Academy Award-Winning Screenwriter |
THE SOCIAL NETWORK THE NEWSROOM THE WEST WING MONEYBALL |
The McKee Collection |
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"Within the first pages of a screenplay a reader can judge the relative skill of a writer." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
The Purpose of a Script |
A literary work is finished and complete within itself. Screenplays wait for the camera. What then is a scriptwriter’s ambition? What is the purpose of their carefully crafted words? The goal of a script is to project a fully realized story into the mind of the reader. The first step to achieving this is to recognize exactly what it is we describe - the sensation of looking at the screen. Ninety percent of verbal expression has no filmic equivalent. “He’s been sitting there for a long time” can’t be filmed. So we constantly discipline ourselves with this question: What would we see on screen? Describe only what is photographic. If your protagonist has indeed been sitting there a while, perhaps “He stubs out his tenth cigarette,” or "He nervously glances at his watch,” or “He yawns, trying to stay awake.” Read any book on screenwriting, take any class, and each will tell you the same thing: eliminate literary devices from your writing. Avoid metaphor, simile, assonance, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, synecdoche or metonymy. And yet, your screenplay must contain all the substance of literature. The goal of your script is the key. Keep this purpose in mind, and the words will follow. |
2026 Winter Program |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
A fine work of art has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place. Robert McKee’s award-winning STORY masterclass helps you conquer the principles of writing, from design and structure, to complex character design and effective description. Whether you’re a screenwriter, novelist, playwright, producer or director, STORY is the “college screenwriting class you always wished you'd taken,” empowering you to create something the world craves - a fine work of art. |
Write with purpose. Join McKee in January. |
How to Start Your Story |
Robert McKee discusses how to approach a new project, and methods writers can use to inspire their creativity. |
Quote of the Week |
"When I'm writing the script, I'm not thinking about the viewer watching the movie. I'm thinking about the reader reading the script." |
- QUENTIN TARANTINO - |
Award-winning Director, Writer, Actor |
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD DJANGO UNCHAINED PULP FICTION |
The McKee Collection |
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"There is no greater dissatisfaction than watching a story unfold with scenes, settings, and characters we’ve seen countless times." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
Writing Stories the World Has Never Seen |
Inexperienced and naive writers launch into first drafts assuming a knowledge of their fictional world they don’t have. Driven by a seemingly miraculous inspiration, page after page appears as if from nowhere. The finished story is a revelation - until they realize they’ve seen every character, every line of dialogue, and every setting before. Experienced writers never trust inspiration. More often than not, inspiration is the first idea plucked off the top of your head, and sitting on top of your head is every film and show you’ve ever seen, every novel you’ve read, offering clichés to pluck. How will you write something the world has never seen? Nothing in the story arts says a writer must do anything in any prescribed way. To create original stories, set yourself high standards and never settle for the obvious choice. Experiment, pour out as many ideas as your talent can create. Use your imagination to explore and expand on great storytelling traditions. Clichés are the enemy of fine writing. Be the originality you want to see and read in the world. |
2026 Winter Program |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
For four decades, writers of all disciplines have read and studied the teachings of Robert McKee with the hope of discovering the hidden track to creating a work of art. What they got was much more: the knowledge, tools and freedom to forge their own path to creative success. Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form. |
Student, Union, and Repeater discounts available. |
Personal Style vs. Cliché |
What's the difference between developing a personal writing style and essentially stealing from yourself? |
Quote of the Week |
"I think that when you are telling stories, the more bizarre, the more original, the better." |
- GUILLERMO DEL TORO - |
Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker |
THE SHAPE OF WATER PAN'S LABYRINTH FRANKENSTEIN |
The McKee Collection |
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"The scent of subtext is an invitation to plunge into the ocean beneath your character’s public self. If there’s nothing there, you’re in trouble." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
What’s Below the Surface of Your Story? |
If you feel a scene works, don’t touch it. When a first draft falls flat or seems forced, the problem won’t be found in how characters are behaving on the surface, but in what they’re thinking and doing behind their masks. Scenes are constructed using small exchanges of behavior. Within these beats, characters speak and act with specific purpose. But a silent language flows beneath people’s words and actions. A well-written scene calls for both text and subtext. Text means the sensory surface of the work, the outer life of character behavior in performance. Subtext names the meanings and feelings that characters hide, consciously or unconsciously. Shallow, meaningless scenes destroy interest. Human nature constantly combines an outer behavior with a hidden layer. When text and subtext are combined masterfully, the storyteller gives us the pleasure that life denies, of looking through the face of what’s said and done to the heart of what is felt and thought. |
2026 Winter Program |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
Subtext is the beating heart of great storytelling, and Robert McKee’s upcoming STORY Webinar Series shows you how to master it. Learn to craft scenes that speak volumes through the unsaid in this 5-week "rite of passage for writers," whose past attendees include Oscar and Emmy-winning writers, actors, producers, directors and more. |
Student, Union, and Repeater discounts available. |
Subtext In Treatments |
Robert McKee explains the difficulties of writing treatments, how much freedom writers actually have and when you should think about subtext. |
Quote of the Week |
"People may or may not say what they mean… but they always say something designed to get what they want." |
- DAVID MAMET - |
Award-Winning Playwright, Author, Filmmaker |
GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS THE UNTOUCHABLES THE VERDICT |
The McKee Collection |
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"Secure writers don’t sell their first drafts. Unfinished work invites tampering, while polished, mature work seals its integrity." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
Where to Direct Your Energy |
Countless new writers agonize over “breaking in” and “creative interference”, but anxieties over your story being faithfully produced for the stage or screen are misplaced. Put your energies into achieving excellence. If you show a brilliant and original story to agents, they’ll fight to represent you. Show the same story to producers, and they’ll fight to make it. What’s more, once in production, your finished work will meet with surprisingly little reworking. No one wants to rewrite your work. But if it’s good enough, they won’t have to. No one can promise that the on-set combination of personalities won’t spoil a production, but the best directors, producers and actors out there are acutely aware their careers depend on working with quality writing. Nothing in our art is guaranteed. All paradigms and story models for commercial success are nonsense. Instead, writers should spend their time mastering what they can control: their command of the craft. |
2026 Winter Program |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
If you rush out a knockoff of last year’s big streaming hit, or the biggest box office success, you’ll immediately join the ranks of the lesser talents who flood the industry every year with cliche-ridden stories. Instead, empower your writing with a mastery of the craft. You’ll sell your work and see it realized on screen the way you intended, but only when you write with surpassing quality. And not until. |
Master Your Craft with McKee Online. |
Selling Your Script |
Robert McKee teaches how writers should not worry about trends and awards, but instead should focus on writing a good story. |
Quote of the Week |
"Give me a good script, and I’ll be a hundred times better as a director." |
- GEORGE CUKOR - |
Director &Producer |
A STAR IS BORN MY FAIR LADY ADAM'S RIB GASLIGHT |
The McKee Collection |
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"The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
The Raw Material of Story |
Most artists can lay their hands on the raw material of their art. The composer has her instruments to sound notes. A sculptor chisels stone. Painters stir paint. But what of the writer? The essential substance of story is not words. Just as glass is a medium for light, and air a medium for sound, language is only a medium for storytelling. The raw material of story is life itself. Life is about the ultimate questions of finding love and self-worth, of bringing serenity to inner chaos, of titanic social inequalities around us, of time running out. Life is conflict. Works of art are born from the conflict of life. If writers fail to properly grasp this principle, their stories fail for one of two reasons: Their stories are either a glut of meaningless, violent struggles, or a vacancy of honestly expressed antagonism. Nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict. As a writer, you must decide where and how to orchestrate this struggle, with skill and precision, and use it to drive your storytelling. |
New January Dates! |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
Students from all over the globe will start the new year with McKee's STORY Webinar Series. Join us live online in January. Learn how to combine your talent and your craft to turn the raw material of life—its conflicts, contradictions, and complexities—into compelling works of art. |
Student, Union, and Repeater discounts available. |
Can Conflict be Left Unresolved? |
In this clip from the live Q&A portion of one of McKee's CHARACTER webinars, Robert answers an attendee's question about whether it is acceptable to leave some of the protagonist's struggles unresolved at climax. |
Quote of the Week |
"Story is a yearning meeting an obstacle." |
- ROBERT OLEN BUTLER - |
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author |
A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN |
The McKee Collection |
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"A human being is the choices he makes over a lifetime." |
- ROBERT MCKEE - |
Are You Fully Expressing Your Characters? |
When audiences first encounter a character, they instinctively peer past the surface, seeking an answer to the question: “Who is this person, really?” How do you express your character’s inner nature? Not by characterization. The more fascinating a character’s outer behavior, the more the reader/audience wants to discover his true inner counterpoints: Jack seems tough, but where’s his soft spot? Not by what others say about him. Given the axes people have to grind, what one character says about another may not even be true. Not by what a character says about himself. Audiences and readers listen to a character’s confessions and braggings with high skepticism. They know that people are more self-deceived than self-aware. The answer is found in the choices your character makes under pressure. What a character chooses to do in his lightest moments expresses little, because they cost him little. But at his darkest, when he’s up against powerful, negative forces, when risks are greatest, his actions reveal the truth. |
2026 Winter Program |
STORY |
WEBINAR SERIES |
Live Online: Jan. 13 - Feb. 12, 2026 On Demand: Until Apr. 30, 2026 |
For the past four decades, Robert McKee has been “the most influential storytelling theorist since Aristotle” (THE GUARDIAN), with alumni including winners of over 75 Oscars, 250 Emmys, 50 DGA and 100 WGA awards, and some of the best creative minds from 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount and more. |
Make your choice. Master your craft with McKee online. |
Revelation of Character Dilemma |
Robert McKee teaches how to handle character dilemma in relation to exposition and what the audience should know. |
Quote of the Week |
"It's not until you really throw your character into the story that you can genuinely understand who they are." |
- ELIJAH BYNUM - |
Director, Writer |
MAGAZINE DREAMS THE DELIVERANCE |
The McKee Collection |
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