I purchased this book from Algis himself just before he passed away earlier this year at the suggestion of Dave Wolverton. I also purchased Robert McKee's Story. And one advantage Writing to the Point enjoys over Story is its brevity. While McKee's book goes into greater detail of story creation than Budrys' text, Budrys' gives the great information of a successful story broken down (as another reviewer posted). But, what makes this text so wonderful is that he doesn't bandy words. He uses a short, simplistic example to drive his point home and then makes sure we understand the point. I actually now use his seven points to plot my fiction and am having great success using it.Well-done, Aligs, rest in peace knowing that those of us who were blessed to buy this book from you were blessed in more than just writing.