McKee's commandments and my principles

Robert McKee has his ten screenwriting commandments, I have my twelve screenwriting principles. They are very, very different.

My principles for a good life as a professional screenwriter

In his commandments, Robert McKee focuses on story (as he would), whereas my principles focus on life. My 12 are guiding posts for a healthy life as a professional screenwriter. McKee’s story commands certainly do make sense - but heck, who likes to be ordered around, right? His commandments, in my view, are a narrow slice of what it's all about. If you live and breathe my 12, odds are you’ll have every chance of becoming great at handling his 10! Here then, without further ado - Robert McKee’s 10 story commandments (he gets first go, after all, he’s McKee):

McKee's 10 Commandments

• 1. Thou shalt not take the crisis/climax out of the protagonist’s hands. (the anti-deus ex machine commandment)
  2. Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist. (Nothing progresses in a story, except through conflict.)

• 3. Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition’s sake. (Dramatize it. Convert exposition to ammunition.)

• 4. Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise. 
  5. Thou shalt respect your audience. (the anti-hack commandment).

• 6. Thou shalt know your world as God knows this one. (the pro-research commandment)

• 7. Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better. (Don't multiply the complications on one level. Use all three: intra-personal, inter-personal, extra-personal)

• 8. Thou shalt seek the end of the line. (the negation of the negation, taking characters to the farthest reaches and depth of conflict imaginable within the story's realm of probability)

• 9. Thou shalt not write on the nose. (Put subtext under every text)

• 10. Thou shalt rewrite. 

My 12 Principles

There you have it - now get back to writing!