In this interview segment, Robert McKee describes how Storylog was created to harness the internet as an educational platform for writers. He explains that the flood of questions he received during his story lectures inspired him to record and publish daily Q&A sessions online, promising a new Q&A each day. Recognizing that writers are curious about the creative process, McKee expanded Storylog to include in‑depth interviews with novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, actors, and other creators. He emphasizes his refusal to accept vague, mystical explanations of creativity, instead probing interviewees about their influences, motivations, idea generation, and how they develop or discard concepts. The goal of Storylog, according to McKee, is to provide writers worldwide with concrete answers to specific writing problems and access to the thinking of accomplished artists about the nature of writing itself.
Chapters
And if you can talk a little bit about Storylog, how it began, where it's headed. Storylog. I am. Well, it began with the realization that the internet was a great medium for education and that that when I do the story lectures, I get inundated with questions on the question breaks. And that these questions that an individual asks are being asked— these questions are being asked by writers all over the world. And so if I could put those questions live, spontaneously, record the student asking the question, my answer, put those on the internet, it would be really useful for people. And so we created Storylog first to do that. And we promised suicidally, I think, that there would be a new question and answer every day. And I really didn't realize what I was asking of myself. But that was the impetus. There would be a new Q&A every day. And then, of course, I'm surrounded by wonderful writers. And the biggest mystery of all is the process, the creative process. And so in addition to Q&A on Storylog, I decided to interview writers novelists, playwrights, film, TV, directors, producers, actors, everybody about how they do their work, their creative process. And I won't let them say things like, I don't know, it's a mystery, I just sit down and ideas come. And that's bullshit. Okay? So when they try to be mysterious, I won't let them get away with it. And so we talk about the influences from their life, the genres that they love, you know, what motivates them, because that's part of the process, what their desires are as an artist, what they're trying to achieve. And where ideas come from and whether they keep them or do they throw them away and how do they build backwards and forwards from something. And so we do process interviews because the process is something that I touch on in the story seminars, but I've got so much to do in the story seminar to get through the, you know, the principles of story that I can't talk that at that length about the process. So that's the genesis of Storylog. It was there to answer individuals' very specific writing questions, and then to do interviews and give the members of Storylog access to thinking of fine talents on the nature of writing itself.
