Robert McKee's Common Script Report

The question was asked in class and went unanswered, about rejection notices. Here is the quote I was going to share with you.

Robert McKee, author of "Story," says the following is the most common report he wrote about individual scripts, while he was employed as a Hollywood Story Analyst:

"Nice description, actable dialogue. Some amusing moments; some sensitive moments. All-in-all a script of well-chosen words. the story, however, sucks. The first thirty pages crawl on a fat belly of exposition; the rest never gets to their feet. The main plot, what there is of it, is riddled with convenient coincidences and weak motivation. No discernible protagonist. Unrelated tensions that could shape into subplots never do. Characters are never revealed to be more than they seem. Not a moment's insight into the inner lives of these people, or their society. It's a lifeless collection of predictable, ill-told, and cliched episodes that wander off into a pointless haze. PASS ON IT."

As I tried to impart, if you have a good story, strong characters, good conflict and a strong story arc, you won't see a story analysis such as this!