Robert McKee???

I'm not quite sure why so many people rave about Robert McKee's book (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principals of Screenwriting).

When I visit screenwriting forums or newsgroups, everyone says this book is a must have. I bought it and started to read. My first comments were "My God this is dull", but I stuck at it for a while. After that while I gave up and put it down.

To me it seemed more aimed at someone who wants a third party view of how this particular person views the writing process, rather than a book that will teach you how to write screenplays. Perhaps it got to the nitty gritty soon after the point where I stopped reading. If that is the case has he not broken the golden rule; get the readers attention and interest from the start? Maybe his seminars are different but the book just didn't do it for me.

I get the feeling that in the screenwriting world it is trendy to swear by that particular book.

Perhaps I'm the rebel writer, or maybe I just prefer books that get right to the point. I have read about three other books on the subject that I found really helpful. I'll post the titles soon if they aren’t at the bottom of some box (we are moving house at the moment).

Disclaimer: Please don't take offence if you do happen to think that book is great. What do I know, he's sold a shed load more books than I have screenplays :)