Bad Writers Have Nothing to Say | Robert Mckee | Big Think

Bad Writers Have Nothing to Say | Robert Mckee
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The biggest mistake that novice screenwriters make is trying to follow what's trendy.
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ROBERT MCKEE:

Robert McKee is a creative writing teacher known particularly for his "Story Seminar," a multi-day screenwriting lecture that he has given at venues all over the world. He is the author of "Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting."
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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What's the biggest mistake that novice screenwriters make?

Robert McKee: The biggest mistake they will try to make—that they will make—is that they will try to adapt to whatever is trendy. And so they’ll look at the hits, they’ll look at last summer successes, or even the independent films, you know. And I’m sure that after a film like “Boys Don’t Cry” got out, Hollywood was inundated with interesting little small stories of small town characters in some kind of brutal sexual relationships, or whatever. On the other hand, “Avatar” of course and films like that spin loose imitators. And so they will be more concerned about selling than they will about creating, and the attitude often of young writers, or wanna-be writers for the screen is that there is so much shit on the screen, surely my shit is better than their shit. And so, they want to get made, they want success, they want to be in the movie business, and so they will imitate whatever they see, assuming that because of awful stories like “Transformers” get made that they just have to find another toy at Toys R’ Us and imitate that and build a movie around it.

Question: What separates a good screenwriter from a bad screenwriter?

Robert McKee: Well, there are degrees of goodness and badness. And so, it could be a very subtle difference. And in that one, you wouldn’t know. You just wouldn’t. But usually you can tell pretty well. Even if they’ve written 20 screenplays, that doesn’t mean that they have mastered, for example, the craft of exposition. I can pick a screenplay up or a novel, whatever, within a few pages recognize whether or not this writer has a degree of craft, a mastery of craft, to a certain degree at least, simply by noting how they handle exposition. If they handle exposition beautifully, it generally means this is somebody that is really, even though they haven’t been made or produced, or whatever, this is somebody who has thought deeply about the craft and knows how to draw the reader into their story and not tell them and burden them with exposition too soon and too heavy-handedly, but draws it with curiosity and empathy into the story, and indirectly and invisibly as it were, we’re gathering in the exposition that we know, but we’re not conscious of it.

That technique alone requires years of practice. And trial and error. Generally I can tell in the way in which the writer describes what kind of imagination the writer has, at least visual imagination. I can tell within the first dialogue scene of whether or not this writer, even in an action piece has any sense of subtext, or do they write their dialogue on the nose. I mean, there are certain... When people perform in the Olympics, and you have judges sitting there giving them five, six, seven, up to 10, and so forth, what are they looking for? They have ways of judging a performance. Okay? There’s a... Some of it is just sensory, there’s a quality of relaxation in the work, there’s a quality of confidence in the work, there’s a quality of centeredness in the work, and so some of these things are sort of ineffable, but you can judge a performance of figure skating based upon these. Plus, did the blade land at a certain angle? Okay?

And so, it’s the same thing. Writing is a performance, just like figure skating. And I can read it and have a sense, again, of confidence, of control, of precision, of one thing or another. Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that by the end of the work, I’m going to be wowed. But I can tell from the beginning of the work whether or not the writer has mastered their craft to a certain degree. But that is one thing. But there are lots of people with superb craftsmanship and nothing to say.

[Rufinoman]

'My shit is better than their shit.'
That's a classic.

[linkenski]

I love his honesty xD
"A shitty movie, like Transformers"

[sverrearnes]

"Nothing to say" and "small experience" may sell pretty well if you are a bit lucky. I wrote my first full feature script in 1986, and voila: At ended with a modest budgeted cinema movie. Now I know that I did not know ANYTHING about script writing, and still the movie sold well. So there's no rules. One year after I made another script for a short feature, produced in micro budget, but it won first prize in the IAC London Film Festival 1986. What I try to say: If you guys have guts but no experience: Just go for it! - - Oh, by the way, you find both these movies here in YouTube :-) :-)

[AegleCreations]

Damn, this guy has a brass pair! Spielberg has "nothing to say" -- I never liked him, but didn't think anyone had the guts to say it in public. Props to McKee!

[mrakl]

Took Robert's class in 1985 in a room above a cafe in Westwood - maybe 20 people in the class - one night per week - 8 weeks - knew I was sitting and learning in the presence of a Master then, and it shows now in this video from 2012. Bravo Robert McKee! And thank you!

[boomkilla]

What's ironic is that if you want to say something, you really shouldn't say it at all. Showing is way more conducive to a great story than telling. If the characters have to explain whats going on, in some cases that isn't great storytelling. I've always felt like people wanna use a mass of dialogue like, let's say, Tarantino, but it ends up sounding redundant and out of place with what their films should be about. Exposition ends up getting destroyed in the process. 

[cfire]

i love robert mcKee, i suggest you read his book, Story, it takes you through the whole process of writing a great story.

[albatrizzle]

the best way to learn how to write is to write

[RichardTaylor]

I like the way this guy thinks. It definitely applies to all forms of writing--screenplays, novels, short stories, even poetry. 

[drugstorerecords]

"lack of craftsmanship and a lack of insight into life seem to go hand in hand". I think creative writing is a very vague and abstract art to judge by any set rule of standards, like music or dance etc, so I understand why not everyone agrees with robert's musings here. but this particular line is the truth!

[MrMagnificentMedia]

"M. Night Sugarman or whatever his name is..." LOL

[johnfinck]

I've read comic books that are profound. I've read novels by prize-winning authors that are terrible. What McKee needs is perspective. Are most comic books forgettable fluff? Of course. Many are flat-out bad; badly written and poorly illustrated. Comic books are like any art form: 90% is junk (though sometimes well crafted and entertaining junk), 9% is quality, and 1% is excellent. Every once and awhile, lighting strikes, and a work of art transcends excellence and becomes a masterpiece. This happens with comic books the same as with film, literature, music, et al.

Labels are the lazy man's way of looking at art. "Opera is good, pop music is bad, novels are good, comic books are bad". All art is subjective. McKee is trashing an art form he knows nothing about, and sounding very foolish in the process.
(P.S. Spielberg is a hell of a talented director. He often makes films that are pure entertainment, it is true, but choosing to say nothing is not the same as having nothing to say. But then I suspect McKee knows that.)

[thelegendaryblackbeastofaa]

Good writing advice! Too bad so many people here are over-sensitive comic book fans who get distracted with butthurt over a throw-away comment to listen to what this guy is saying.

[jag]

The best part of writing is that its a self owned business that anyone can start with just a pen, paper and an idea.   I use to believe the hardest thing to life was getting started....now I know the hardest thing is to keep going and finishing what you started when writing.  I like Mr. McKee's honesty.  If you can't handle it on video, then you can't handle the repeated rejection in real life from those that aren't buying into your script.  Calluses are proof that you won't quit, we should admire all that have them.

[DukeOSmiley]

I think when you have things to say, you tend to say them and this naturally forces you to learn to articulate well over the years. That's why they go hand in hand! That's how it feels to me anyway.

[moviemaen]

"M. Night. Shugerman... or whatever his name is..." hahahahahahahahhahaha

[BilboB]

Why is it Mckee is looked up upon as a master writer, he has five screenplays credited to him on IMDB and all of them except one is for a tv series and the last one is for a tv movie, and Spielberg is foremost a director not a writer, even though I would agree to a extend that most of his movies doesn’t have any subtext, but not all movies need to have, it’s fine just to relax once in a while and see a Indiana Jones flick.   

[giorgigudiashvili]

To be fair, Sixth Sense was a very good screenplay. It wasn't high art and didn't have insights into life but within the realms of the genre requirements it was perfect. It wasn't particularly good because of its ending but because the story was pretty original and made a very cohesive journey overall. It has its great moments.

[burmanhands]

I remember as an architectural student I was trying to "solve" problems of design in ways I thought worked well, at least to me. Other students who have since gone on to be "succesful" were trying to find solutions that some famous architects had arrived at for similar problems. I thought they were poseurs - but who cared what I thought. Their work was flashy and fooled everyone. Nobody seemed to care that it was fake.
Never underestimate the superficiality of so called expert taste.

[kilburnhall]

I disagree. Bad writers have plenty to say. The pity is...they haven't learned to say it effectively which cheats us all. Which is why most authors like colleague Stephen King empahsis the need to learn your craft, perfect your craft. Writers only get to be better writers by doing. If you shut them down they will never learn how to become a better writer. We have bad auto mechanics, lawyers, but they still make a far better living than writers and some of them never learn to become anything but mediocre. If you are a writer and love to write...you owe it to yourself to perfect your craft. There are readers out there who are longing to hear from you.