The anatomy of story
"John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood's most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and in it he shares all his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of concepts and archetypes from philosophy and mythology, offering techniques and anecdotes alongside Truby's own unique approach to building an effective, multifaceted narrative." "Truby's method of constructing a story is at once perceptive and practical, focusing on the hero's moral and emotional growth. Writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldview in order to create an effective story. They will come away with a precise set of tools to employ - specific techniques to make the audience care about their characters. They will learn how to make their characters grow in meaningful ways, how to construct surprising plots that are unique to their particular concepts, and how to express a moral vision that can move an audience." "The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental that they are applicable - and essential - to all writers, from novelists and short story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative nonfiction."--Jacket.
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- The old version of this question is Aristotle’s Poetics: what makes a story feel like a complete action rather than just a sequence of events?
One related thread is John Truby’s Anatomy of Story. His system is a 'story structure grows out of the hero’s weakness, desire, opponent, moral choice, and self-revelation.' And he then catalogues variations and popular versions of each of those ingredients.
He also has a follow on book that that goes even further toward what this project is doing. He treats genres almost like deep story forms with specific tropes: myth, horror, detective, comedy, action, fantasy, crime, love story, and so on each have their own worldview.
It's like one mans version of TVTropes, but with a underlying structure, more than a catalogue.
Reading Truby break down stories is pretty entertaining.
The world of narrative non-fiction also has their own versions of these structures. Storycraft by John Hart is a good guide.
- Michael Tucker of the YT channel Lessons From the Screenplay has a very very good list of writing books here:
https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list
The list is geared towards film media, but is a great guide on writing in general. I've read and annotated my way through all of them with gusto. I can very much recommend Into the Woods and Anatomy of Story as superb guides that really dig in deep into why we humans fall for the same stories time and time again. They are brass-tacks books and pretty philosophical at the same time, a rare combo.
Michael's list is a great place to continue studying film specifically, but writing in general.
- Some faves for story development:
* Secrets of Story by Matt Bird
* Anatomy of Story by John Truby
* Breakout Novelist by Donald Maass
* Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
Enjoy!
- Currently read and recently read, in no particular order:
Modern C++ Design (Andrei Alexandrescu)
The Screenwriter's Bible (David Trottier)
Clean Code (Robert Cecil Martin)
Il Codice da Vinci (Dan Brown)
The Anatomy of Story (John Truby)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton Malkiel)
The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg)
