Robert McKee built his reputation almost entirely through teaching rather than through his own screenplays. Starting in the early 1980s, he began running an intensive multi day seminar on story structure, first for small groups and eventually for tens of thousands of writers, directors, and producers around the world. Before that, he worked as a story analyst and taught at the University of Southern California's school of cinema, and he also spent time as a Fulbright scholar. Story, published in 1997, grew directly out of that seminar and became one of the most widely read books on narrative craft of its era, influencing how screenwriting gets taught long after its release. McKee later wrote companion books focused on other elements of craft, including one on dialogue and another on building excitement into a story, though Story remains the book most closely tied to his name. Writers who've credited his seminar with shaping their work include a long list of produced screenwriters and television writers, and several of his former students have gone on to win major industry awards for their writing.
