by Robert McKee
If you shortcut the process and rush straight to screenplay from outline, the truth is that your first draft is not a screenplay, it’s a surrogate treatment—a narrow, unexplored, unimprovised, tissue-thin treatment. Event choice and story design must be given free rein to consume your imagination and knowledge. Turning Points must be imagined, discarded, and reimagined, then played out in text and subtext. Otherwise you have little hope of achieving excellence. Now, how and when do you want to do that? In treatment or screenplay? Either may work, but, more often than not, screenplay is a trap. The wise writer puts off the writing of dialogue for as long as possible because the premature writing of dialogue chokes creativity.
Writing from the outside in—writing dialogue in search of scenes, writing scenes in search of story—is the least creative method. Screenwriters habitually overvalue dialogue because they’re the only words we write that actually reach the audience. All else is assumed by the film’s images. If we type out dialogue before we know what happens, we inevitably fall in love with our words; we’re loath to play with and explore events, to discover how fascinating our characters might become, because it would mean cutting our priceless dialogue. All improvisation ceases and our so-called rewriting is tinkering with speeches.
What’s more, the premature writing of dialogue is the slowest way to work. It may send you in circles for years before you finally realize that not all your children are going to walk and talk their way to the screen; not every idea is worth being a motion picture. When do you want to find that out? Two years from now or two months from now? If you write the dialogue first, you’ll be blind to this truth and wander forever. If you write from the inside out, you’ll realize in the outline stage that you can’t get the story to work. Nobody likes it when pitched. In truth, you don’t like it. So you toss it in the drawer. Maybe years from now you’ll pick it up and solve it, but for now you go on to your next idea.
As I offer this method to you, I’m fully aware that each of us, by trial and error, must find our own method, that indeed some writers short-cut the treatment stage and produce quality screenplays, and that in fact a few have written very well from the outside in. But I’m also left to wonder what brilliance they might have achieved had they taken greater pains. For the inside-out method is a way of working that’s both disciplined and free, designed to encourage your finest work.
FADE OUT
You have pursued Story to its final chapter, and, with this step, taken your career in a direction many writers fear. Some, dreading that awareness of how they do what they do would cripple their spontaneity, never study the craft. Instead, they march along in a lockstep of unconscious habit, thinking it’s instinct. Their dreams of creating unique works of power and wonder are seldom, if ever, realized. They put in long, tough days, for no matter how it’s taken, the writer’s road is never smooth, and because they have a gift, from time to time their efforts draw applause, but in their secret selves they know they’re just taking talent for a walk. Such writers remind me of the protagonist of a fable my father loved to recite:
High above the forest floor, a millipede strolled along the branch of a tree, her thousand pairs of legs swinging in an easy gait. From the tree top, song birds looked down, fascinated by the synchronization of the millipede’s stride. “That’s an amazing talent,” chirped the songbirds. “You have more limbs than we can count. How do you do it?” And for the first time in her life the millipede thought about this. “Yes,” she wondered, “how do I do what I do?” As she turned to look back, her bristling legs suddenly ran into one another and tangled like vines of ivy. The songbirds laughed as the millipede, in a panic of confusion, twisted herself into a knot and fell to the earth below.
You too may sense this panic. I know that when confronted with a rush of insights even the most experienced writer can be knocked off stride. Fortunately, my father’s fable had an Act Two:
On the forest floor, the millipede, realizing that only her pride was hurt, slowly, carefully, limb by limb, unraveled herself. With patience and hard work, she studied and flexed and tested her appendages, until she was able to stand and walk. What was once instinct became knowledge. She realized she didn’t have to move at her old, slow, rote pace. She could amble, strut, prance, even run and jump. Then, as never before, she listened to the symphony of the songbirds and let music touch her heart. Now in perfect command of thousands of talented legs, she gathered courage and, with a style of her own, danced and danced a dazzling dance that astonished all the creatures of her world.
Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Keep Story at hand. Use what you learn from it as a guide, until command of its principles becomes as natural as the talent you were born with. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world.
SUGGESTED READINGS
My education owes a debt to the writers of many hundreds of books and essays on the art of story. Below, however, is a shortlist of works that have been the most insightful, the most inspiring.
Aristotle’s Poetics. Translation and commentary by Stephen Halliwell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
Bjorkman, Stig, Torsten Manns, and Jonas Sima. Bergman on Bergman. Translation by Paul Britten Austin. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973.
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
Burnett, Hallie, and Whit Burnett. The Fiction Writer’s Handbook. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1979.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 2d ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Friedman, Norman. Form and Meaning in Fiction. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975.
Gardner, John. On Becoming a Novelist. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
James, Henry. The Art of the Novel. Edited by R. P. Blackmur. New York: Scribner’s, 1932.
Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation. New York: Macmillan, 1964.
Langer, Susanne K. Feeling and Form. New York: Macmillan, 1977.
Lawson, John Howard. Film: The Creative Process. New York: Hill & Wang, 1964.
Lawson, John Howard. The Theory and Technique of Playwriting and Screenwriting. New York: G.P. Putnam’s, 1949.
Mamet, David. On Directing Film. New York: Viking Press, 1981.
Rowe, Kenneth T. Write That Play. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1939, 1968.
Scholes, Robert, and Robert Kellogg. The Nature of Narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966.
FILMOGRAPHY
THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST (US/1988)
Screenplay by Frank Galati, Lawrence Kasdan.
Based on the novel by Anne Tyler.
ADAM’s RIB (US/1949)
Written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.
ADDICTED TO LOVE (US/1997)
Written by Robert Gordon.
AFTER HOURS (US/1985)
Written by Joseph Minion.
AIRPLANE (US/1980)
Written by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker.
ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (US/1974)
Written by Robert Getchell.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND (US/1951)
Animated film based on The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
ALIEN (US/1979)
Screenplay by Dan O’Bannon.
Based on a story by Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett.
ALIENS (US/1986)
Screenplay by James Cameron.
Based on a story by James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill, and on characters created by Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett.
ALIVE (US/1993)
Sc
reenplay by John Patrick Shanley.
Based on the nonfiction account by Piers Paul Read.
ALL THAT JAZZ (US/1979)
Written by Robert Alan Aurther, Bob Fosse.
AMADEUS (US/1984)
Screenplay by Peter Shaffer.
Based on the original stage play by Peter Shaffer.
AMARCORD (It/Fr/1973)
Written by Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra.
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (US/1979)
Written by Valerie Curtin, Barry Levinson.
ANGEL HEART (US/1987)
Screenplay by Alan Parker.
Based on the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg.
ANIMAL FARM (UK/1955)
Animated film based on the novel by George Orwell.
ANNIE HALL (US/1977)
Written by Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman.
APOCALYPSE NOW (US/1979)
Written by John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola.
Suggested by the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
ARACHNOPHOBIA (US/1990)
Written by Dan Jakoby, Wesley Strick.
Based on a story by Don Jacoby, Al Williams.
BABE (Aust/1995)
Screenplay by George Miller, Chris Noonan.
Based on the children’s book The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith.
BABETTE’S FEAST (Den/1987)
Screenplay by Gabriel Axel.
Based on the story by Isak Dinesen.
BABY BOOM (US/1987)
Written by Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer.
THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (US/1952)
Screenplay by Charles Schnee.
Based on the short stories by George Bradshaw.
BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (US/1955)
Screenplay by Millard Kaufman.
Based on the short story “Bad Time at Honda” by Howard Breslin.
BAD TIMING (UK/1980)
Written by Yale Udoff.
BAMBI (US/1942)
Animated film based on the story by Felix Salten.
BARRY LYNDON (UK/1975)
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick.
Based on the novel by W.M. Thackeray.
BARTON FINK (US/1991)
Written by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen.
BASIC INSTINCT (US/1992)
Written by Joe Eszterhas.
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (Algeria/It/1966)
Written by Franco Solinas, Gillo Pontecorvo.
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (USSR/1925)
Written by Sergei Eisenstein.
BEING THERE (US/W.Ger/1979)
Screenplay by Jerzy Kosinski.
Based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski.
BEN HUR (US/1959)
Screenplay by Karl Tunberg.
Based on the novel by Lew Wallace.
BETRAYAL (UK/1982)
Screenplay by Harold Pinter.
Based on the play by Harold Pinter.
BETTY BLUE (Fr/1986)
Screenplay by Jean-Jacques Beineix.
Based on the novel 37 2 Le Matin by Philippe Dijan.
BIG (US/1988)
Written by Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg.
THE BIG SLEEP (US/1946)
Screenplay by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman.
Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.
BILLY BUDD (UK/1962)
Screenplay by Peter Ustinov, Robert Rossen.
Based on the novel by Herman Melville.
THE BIRDS (US/1963)
Screenplay by Evan Hunter.
Based on the short story by Daphne Du Maurier.
BLACK WIDOW (US/1987)
Written by Ronald Bass
BLADE RUNNER (US/1982)
Screenplay by Hampton Fancher, David Peoples.
Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
BLAZING SADDLES (US/1974)
Written by Norman Steinberg, Mel Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Unger.
BLIND DATE (US/1987)
Written by Dale Launer.
THE BLOOD OF A POET (Fr/1930)
Written by Jean Cocteau.
BLOW UP (US/1966)
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra.
Based on a short story by Julio Cortazar.
BLUE VELVET (US/1986)
Written by David Lynch.
BOB ROBERTS (US/1992)
Written by Tim Robbins.
BODY HEAT (US/1981)
Written by Lawrence Kasdan.
BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES (US/1990)
Screenplay by Michael Cristofer.
Based on the novel by Tom Wolfe.
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA (US/1992)
Screenplay by James V. Hart.
Based on the novel by Bram Stoker.
BRAZIL (UK/1984)
Written by Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown.
THE BREAKFAST CLUB (US/1985)
Written by John Hughes.
BREAKING THE WAVES (Den/1996)
Written by Lar Von Trier.
BREATHLESS (Fr/1959)
Screenplay by Jean-Luc Godard.
Based on an original treatment by Francois Truffaut.
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (US/1995)
Screenplay by Richard LaGravenese.
Based on the novel by Robert James Waller.
BRIEF ENCOUNTER (UK/1945)
Screenplay by Noel Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Ronald Neame.
Based on the one-act play Still Life by Noel Coward.
BRINGING UP BABY (US/1938)
Screenplay by Dudley Nichols, Hagar Wilde.
Based on a story by Hagar Wilde.
BULL DURHAM (US/1988)
Written by Ron Shelton.
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (US/1994)
Written by Woody Allen, Douglas McGrath.
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (US/1969)
Written by William Goldman.
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (Ger/1920)
Screenplay by Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz.
Based on an original story by Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz.
CAMP NOWHERE (US/1994)
Written by Andrew Kurtzman, Eliot Wald.
CAPE FEAR (US/1991)
Screenplay by Wesley Strick.
Based on the screenplay by James R. Webb and the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald.
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (us/1971)
Written by Jules Feiffer.
CASABLANCA (US/1942)
Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch.
Based on an unpublished play Everybody Comes to Rick’s by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison.
CASINO (US/1995)
Screenplay by Nicolas Pileggi, Martin Scorcese.
Based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi.
CHARIOTS OF FIRE (UK/1981)
Written by Colin Welland.
UN CHIEN ANDALOU (Fr/1928)
Written by Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali.
CHINATOWN (US/1974)
Written by Robert Towne.
CHOOSE ME (US/1984)
Written by Alan Rudolph.
CHUNKING EXPRESS (HK/1994)
Written by Wong Kar-Wai.
CITIZEN KANE (US/1941)
Written by Herman J. Mankewicz, Orson Welles.
CLAIRE’S KNEE (Fr/1970)
Written by Eric Rohmer.
CLEAN AND SOBER (US/1988)
Written by Tod Carroll.
CLOWNS (It/1970)
Written by Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi.
COMING HOME (US/1978)
Written by Waldo Salt, Robert C. Jones.
Based on a story by Nancy Down.
THE CONVERSATION (US/1974)
Written by Francis Ford Coppola.
THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER (UK/Fr/1989)
Written by Peter Greenaway.
COOL HAND LUKE (US/1967)
Screenplay by Donn Pearce, Frank R. Pierson.
Based on the novel by Donn Pearce.
COP (US/1988)
Screenplay by James B. Harris.
Based on the novel Blood on the Moon by James Ellroy.
CRIES AND WHISPERS (Swe/1972)
Written by Ingmar Bergman.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (US/1989)
Written by Woody Allen.
THE CRYING GAME (UK/1992)
Written by Neil Jordan.
DANCE WITH A STRANGER (UK/1984)
Written by Shelagh Delaney.
DANCES WITH WOLVES (US/1990)
Screenplay by Michael Blake.
Based on the novel by Michael Blake.
DANGEROUS LIAISONS (US/1988)
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton.
Based on the play Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton, adapted from the novel by Choderlos de Laclos.
DAVID AND LISA (US/1962)
Screenplay by Eleanor Perry.
Based on the novel by Theodore Isaac Perry.
DEAD RINGERS (Can/1988)
Screenplay by David Cronenberg, Norman Snider.
Based on the book Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland.
DEATH BY HANGING (Japan/1968)
Written by Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Michinori Fukao, Nagisa Oshima.
Based on a newspaper story.
DEATH IN VENICE (It/1971)
Screenplay by Luchino Visconti, Nicholas Badalucco.
Based on the novel by Thomas Mann.
DEATH WISH (US/1974)
Screenplay by Wendell Mayes.
Based on the novel by Brian Garfield.
THE DEER HUNTER (US/1978)
Screenplay by Deric Washburn.
Based on a story by Deric Washburn, Quinn K. Redeker, Louis Garfinkle, and Michael Cimino.
LES DIABOLIQUES (Fr/1954)
Screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jerome Geronimi, Frederick Grendel, Rene Masson.
Based on the novel Celle qui n’etait plus by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.
DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (Fr/1950)
Screenplay by Robert Bresson.
Based on the novel by Georges Bernanos.
DIE HARD (US/1988)
Screenplay by Jeb Stuart, Steven E. de Souza.
Based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp.
DINER (US/1982)
Written by Barry Levinson.
THE DIRTY DOZEN (US/UK/1967)