I am at a writing course this weekend, given by the legendary Robert McKee — the Los Angeles writer of the book STORY. He is an amazing teacher. I did the London course 2 years ago too, and read his book (a month or so before my own book came out), but it has taken all this time to absorb what he had to say on the level it needed to be known at; I feel like I am finally mastering story, and all that instinctive way of writing is being tamed by proper plotting and structure. I am really excited that bits of the craft are finally slipping over from right to left brain; very excited... But as he says in his book, no matter how much you think you've got it sussed, you can't do it properly until you have actually done it!
Here's something I re-read from his book last night, and which has stayed in my head all day. It's commonplace but something that really hit home...He says, once you've mastered the rules of story and the conventions of the genre you have chosen to write in, put away the rules and "Write only what you believe. Write your kind of story. The kind of story you’d stand in line in the rain to buy." What fantastic advice... '...the kind of book you'd stand in line in the rain to buy." (well, actually he says "...the kind of film you'd stand in line in the rain to watch." because his course is also for screenwriters, but it's relevant for all forms.
Just a word of warning if anyone is thinking of going to his next course (and he does them in countries around the world)...Two years ago I got lambasted by him because my phone went off during the first day of the 3 day course, when he had forbidden us to have phones on in the auditorium. He fined me £10, the total sum of money I had on me for lunch, but he made me hand it over. (To this day I swear I don't know how my phone switched on, as I'm convinced I turned it off...). I was emotionally raw because my book was about to come out, plus all that ugly stuff that was going around about me at the time, false and malicious though it all was, had finally got to me, and so the emotion his 'telling off' brought about almost knocked me for six. I wouldn't have believed it possible to feel that much over 'relatively' so little...I must have been holding all that emotion in for all that time waiting for my book to finally go public, and there in that lecture theatre I almost went into meltdown. I had shut myself down over the years, especially all those months that I was living in the car, and almost never cried anymore, about anything.... But during the 3 days of the course, I couldn't stop. I just couldn't hold back the tears, and in fact it got so bad, that on the afternoon of the last day, as we all settled down for the screening of Casablanca, I had to leave. The crying was silent of course, or as much as I could make it, but it felt like a hand had passed into my chest and was squeezing my heart over and over again, big fist-sized handfuls of it, kneading it over and over like dough, and I almost couldn't see for the tears, or breathe for the pain of it. And although no one else in the lecture theatre seemed to notice (who doesn't cry at Casablanca?) it felt like somehow he knew...I don't know how, but it felt like he did...and as he passed behind my seat as he briefly left the theatre for a few minutes while we continued to watch Casablanca, he slowed down and seemed to look directly at me and tears were just streaming down... He must have thought I was mad...having a slight overreaction anyhow...I think he recognises me this time too. Maybe I am just imagining that, but... Anyhow, this year I have been smart enough to leave my phone behind — for that read, so terrified of it happening again that I didn't dare bring it along...The man's a genius, but you don't want to see his dark side...So be warned, if any of you decide to go to his next course, and I would absolutely recommend it, switch your phones off! You have been warned...
