Eh. Props to Yorke for keeping his head down to finish this book and even making a reference to Rober McKee's 'Story' early on when drawing attention to that book only makes Into the Woods shrink in comparison. 

I don't think there's anything particularly bad in this book, really-- it's just kind of an inferior resource to a lot of other books on screenwriting and storytelling. Not the gentle guide that McKee is, not enough of the hammer-to-nail writing advice from some of the more rigid writing guides. Well aggregated with sections from other writer's books. The entire time I was waiting for this book to whisk me away and come into its own. That's almost definitely on me, someone who has read 25+ books on writing in the last year alone (not a flex, my brain is a thin soup). 

The book makes a big deal about telling you what other books won't: The 'WHY' of it all, why stories are like this-- why we tell them the way that we do. There are answers in here but I don't know how many of them are especially satisfying, though in the aggregate it all kinda makes sense. There's a reason stories tend to be a certain way but it's not any one reason. Looking for a simpler bite-sized nugget to boil it down to would be impossible. 

I was really, really hoping it would not dissolve into Joseph Campbell AGAIN. But it makes up the entire last 3rd for the book. 

Last year I wrote (inaccurately) that I thought Bird by Bird would be the motivation I needed to stop reading books on writing and just GO FOR IT. I was wrong, I still didn't feel like I was ready-- always more to learn. 

This year, I think this book will push me out of the plane just because I've kind of had enough of the books about capital S Story. 

Not bad, but there are a lot of books I'd recommend instead.