Ultimately, you find your characters in yourself; you find their words in your imagination. Ask the Magic If: “If I were this character in these circumstances, what would I do? What would I say?” Then listen for the honest answer, for it is always correct. You would do and say the human thing.
The more you penetrate the mysteries of your own humanity, the more you’re able to understand the humanity of others and the unique ways they express it. As your self-awareness grows, you will discover you can be many people. You can create them, act them, and speak in their voices.
“Here’s looking at you, kid.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, is the world’s most sought-after lecturer in the art of story. Over the last 30 years, he has mentored screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, poets, documentary makers, producers, and directors. McKee alumni include over 60 Academy Award winners, 200 Academy Award nominees, 200 Emmy Award winners, 1000 Emmy Award nominees, 100 Writers Guild of America Award winners, and 50 Directors Guild of America Award winners.
Also by Robert McKee
Film Works (BBC Press)
Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
MISSION STATEMENT
Twelve strives to publish singular books, by authors who have unique perspectives and compelling authority. Books that explain our culture; that illuminate, inspire, provoke, and entertain. Our mission is to provide a consummate publishing experience for our authors, one truly devoted to thoughtful partnership and cutting-edge promotional sophistication that reaches as many readers as possible. For readers, we aim to spark that rare reading experience—one that opens doors, transports, and possibly changes their outlook on our ever-changing world.
12 Things to Remember about TWELVE
1. Every Twelve book will enliven the national conversation.
2. Each book will be singular in voice, authority, or subject matter.
3. Each book will be carefully edited, designed, and produced.
4. Each book’s publication life will begin with a month-long launch; for that month it will be the imprint’s devoted focus.
5. The Twelve team will work closely with its authors to devise a publication strategy that will reach as many readers as possible.
6. Each book will have a national publicity campaign devoted to reaching as many media outlets—and readers—as possible.
7. Each book will have a unique digital strategy.
8. Twelve is dedicated to finding innovative ways to market and promote its authors and their books.
9. Twelve offers true partnership with its authors—the kind of partnership that gives a book its best chance at success.
10. Each book will get the fullest attention and distribution of the sales force of the Hachette Book Group.
11. Each book will be promoted well past its on-sale date to maximize the life of its ideas.
12. Each book will matter.
NOTES
Chapter One The Full Definition of Dialogue
1. John L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, ed. J. O. Urmson and Marian Sbisà (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1962).
2. Hjalmar Söderberg, Doctor Glas, trans. Paul Britten Austin (London: The Harvill Press, 2002).
3. James E. Hirsh, Shakespeare and the History of Soliloquies (Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003).
4. Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City (New York: Random House, 1984).
5. Bruce Norris, Clybourne Park (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2011).
6. Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001).
Chapter Two The Three Functions of Dialogue
1. Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language (New York: Anchor Books, 1973). First published 1959.
2. Elizabeth Bowen, Afterthought: Pieces about Writing (London: Longmans, 1962).
Chapter Three Expressivity I: Content
1. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (New York: Anchor Books, 1977).
Chapter Four Expressivity II: Form
1. Peter Brook, The Empty Space (New York: Touchstone, 1968).
2. Yasmina Reza and Christopher Hampton, The God of Carnage (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 2008).
3. David Means, Assorted Fire Events: Stories (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2000).
4. Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1946).
5. Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (New York: Viking Press, 1964).
6. Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending (New York: Vintage Books, 2011).
Chapter Five Expressivity III: Technique
1. Ezgi Akpinar and Jonah Berger, “Drivers of Cultural Success: The Case of Sensory Metaphors,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(1) (Jul 2015), 20–34.
2. Malcolm Gladwell, Blink (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005).
3. David Means, Assorted Fire Events: Stories (New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2000).
4. Norman Mailer, An American Dream (New York: The Dial Press, 1964).
5. Yasmina Reza and Christopher Hampton, Art in Yasmina Reza: Plays 1 (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 2005).
6. William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (London: Longman, 1997).
Chapter Six Credibility Flaws
1. A. H. Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, 50 (1943), 370–96.
2. Michael Burleigh, Sacred Causes (New York: HarperCollins, 2006).
1. Betty Kirkpatrick, The Usual Suspects and Other Clichés (London: A & C Black Academic and Professional, 2005).
2. George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine, 13 (1946).
Chapter Eleven Four Case Studies
1. Mark Van Doren, Shakespeare (New York: Doubleday, 1965).
2. Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (New York: ReganBooks, HarperCollins, 1997).
3. McKee, Story.
Chapter Twelve Story/Scene/Dialogue
1. McKee, Story.
2. McKee, Story.
3. McKee, Story.
4. McKee, Story.
5. Hall, Beyond Culture.
6. McKee, Story.
7. McKee, Story.
8. McKee, Story.
9. McKee, Story.
10. McKee, Story.
11. McKee, Story.
Chapter Fourteen Comic Conflict (FRASIER)
1. Marvin Carlson, Theories of the Theatre (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984).
Chapter Seventeen Reflexive Conflict (Fräulein Else and The Museum of Innocence)
1. Bruce Hood, The Self Illusion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
2. David Eagleman, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain (New York: Pantheon Books, 2011).
3. Jurgen Ruesch and Gregory Bateson, Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1987).
Chapter Eighteen Minimal Conflict (LOST IN TRANSLATION)
1. This phrase originated in the line “Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged” from Robert Browning’s dramatized poem “Andrea del Sarto” (1855).
Chapter Nineteen Mastering the Craft
1. Mamie Dickens, Charles Dickens (Charleston, South Carolina: Nabu Press, 2012).
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
Sign Up
Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface: In Praise of Dialogue
Introduction
PART ONE: THE ART OF DIALOGUE Chapter One: The Full Definition of Dialogue Dramati
zed Dialogue
Narratized Dialogue
Dialogue and the Major Media
Dialogue Onstage
Dialogue Onscreen
Dialogue on Page
Indirect Dialogue
Chapter Two: The Three Functions of Dialogue Exposition
Narrative Drive
Exposition as Ammunition
Revelations
Direct Telling
Forced Exposition
Characterization
Action
Chapter Three: Expressivity I: Content The Said
The Unsaid
The Unsayable
Action versus Activity
Text and Subtext
Chapter Four: Expressivity II: Form The Conflict Complex
Dialogue Onstage
Dialogue in Film
Dialogue on Television
Dialogue in Prose
Chapter Five: Expressivity III: Technique Figurative Language
Paralanguage
Mixed Techniques
Line Design
Economy
The Pause
The Case for Silence
PART TWO: FLAWS AND FIXES Introduction: Six Dialogue Tasks
Chapter Six: Credibility Flaws Incredibility
Empty Talk
Overly Emotive Talk
Overly Knowing Talk
Overly Perceptive Talk
Excuses Mistaken for Motivation
Melodrama
Chapter Seven: Language Flaws Clichés
Character-Neutral Language
Ostentatious Language
Arid Language
Prefer the Concrete to the Abstract
Prefer the Familiar to the Exotic
Prefer Short Words to Long Words
Prefer Direct Phrases to Circumlocution
Prefer an Active to a Passive Voice
Prefer Short Speeches to Long
Prefer Expressive Language to Mimicry
Eliminate Clutter
Chapter Eight: Content Flaws Writing On-the-Nose
The Monologue Fallacy
The Duelogue
The Trialogue
Chapter Nine: Design Flaws Repetition
Misshapen Lines
Misshapen Scenes
Splintered Scenes
The Paraphrasing Trap
PART THREE: CREATING DIALOGUE Chapter Ten: Character-Specific Dialogue The Two Talents
Vocabulary and Characterization
The Principle of Creative Limitation
Locution and Characterization
Principle of Character-Specific Dialogue
Culture and Characterization
Chapter Eleven: Four Case Studies The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Out of Sight
30 ROCK
SIDEWAYS
PART FOUR: DIALOGUE DESIGN Chapter Twelve: Story/Scene/Dialogue Inciting Incident
Story Values
The Complex of Desire
Forces of Antagonism
Spine of Action
Story Progression
Turning Points
Scene Progression
The Beat
Five Steps of Behavior
Introduction to Seven Case Studies
Chapter Thirteen: Balanced Conflict (THE SOPRANOS)
Chapter Fourteen: Comic Conflict (FRASIER)
Chapter Fifteen: Asymmetric Conflict (A Raisin in the Sun)
Chapter Sixteen: Indirect Conflict (The Great Gatsby)
Chapter Seventeen: Reflexive Conflict (Fräulein Else and The Museum of Innocence)
Chapter Eighteen: Minimal Conflict (LOST IN TRANSLATION)
Chapter Nineteen: Mastering the Craft
About the Author
Also by Robert McKee
Mission Statement
Notes
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Robert McKee
Cover design by Catherine Casalino
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Twelve
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
hachettebookgroup.com
twitter.com/grandcentralpub
First ebook edition: July 2016
Twelve is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.
The Twelve name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to www.hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4555-9192-3
E3-20160928-JV-PC