Another wonderfully inspiring and informing weekend is over. Thursday-Saturday I attended Robert McKee’s Story seminar, and it wasn’t only a lesson on how to write a good story – the 75-year-old had a few life lessons to pass on too!
It was a lot more intense than I first thought to sit through 10 hours of lectures three days in a row – but oh-so worth it. I met a lot of interesting and lovely people that I hope I can keep in touch with, and learn even more from in the future, as well as the many insights and tricks of the trade I learnt from McKee himself.
I also got to enjoy the sun in Regent’s Park an early morning before the seminar.
I’m not going to attempt to recap or reformulate anything McKee talked about, when it comes to story, or writing a screenplay. I won’t be able to sum it up, or say much about it, in any way that’ll be particularly useful. What I can do, however, is tell you to go buy his book or attend the seminar yourself! I’d absolutely recommend both, for any writer who’d like to know more about storytelling. And I would also like to write a little about one of these life lessons that McKee was kind enough to share with his audience on Saturday:
I didn’t understand much at first when McKee started talking about ‘the ultimate contradiction in life – the human dilemma’. McKee said that it is a question about how you can keep who you are constant and unchanging, when you have to constantly change and adapt to survive. He used the terms ‘inner life’ and ‘outer life’ to describe the two – who you are on the inside, and how you have to change as a result of the pressures of the outer world. He discussed this in relation to the film Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942), and the character Rick, who in the end chooses what he realises is best for both his inner and outer life. He has love, as a constant inside, but also chooses what is best for his survival, politically and morally. He lets go of the woman he loves, physically, which lets him grow as a moral human being.
Rick realised, in the end, that ‘Love is not conditional on the presence of the beloved. Love transcends romance. When love is real, the beloved is always present.’ What Robert McKee then said to his audience, was that we too, can have both: ‘A full inner life, and a fulfilling outer life.’
And I really hope he is right.
Until next time x
The Adventuring Pen 