Ah, this was much harder to decide.
But here’s my top NON-FICTION read of the year.
(Though I’m not enamoured with your cover, Mr McKee.)
I’ve also read McKee’s popular ‘Story’, but I found this one better.
It’s less pretentious. More actionable. And thoroughly entertaining.
It seems I love learning from non-fiction books with a bit of personality. This one definitely has that.
And I love the extracts contained within the chapters that exemplify the points made. They are from a great range of sources. It’s always fun to revisit Frasier scripts and who doesn’t want to see an analysis of a scene from The Sopranos? As the book title shows, it’s about page, stage and screen. So you’ve got the likes of The Great Gatsby, Macbeth and Breaking Bad all given equal respect and treatment.
Reading this book helped hone my dialogue editing craft (for line edits). Like getting rid of those echoes where one character shows they are confounded by what another has said and so repeats their words as a question. I mean, maybe. Sometimes. But less is more. Robert McKee puts into words what we find annoying about dialogue and why, and he gives us alternative approaches.
I’ve read all sorts of non-fiction this year. Craft books. Mindset books. Memoirs. Business books. It was really hard to pick a favourite. If you ask me in an hour, I could well choose something different
Regardless, Robert McKee’s ‘Dialogue’ is definitely worth your time. Add it to your craft books TBR in 2023.
CherryEdits 