Review: The Anatomy of Story – John Truby

The Anatomy of Story     John Truby

Screenwriting guru and script consultant John Truby goes in-depth about how to build a satisfying story, level by level. The book is designed primarily for screenwriters, and I have used it for screenplays, but I have found the exercises invaluable when writing prose fiction too.

Highly practical, the book focuses on getting the writer to build a coherent story that works at all levels – including working out its particular  “designing principle”. This is the overall strategy you’ll use for telling the story, a concept which takes the whole thing into deep structural territory.  Truby focuses on more than just the basic three-act structure approach. Chapters cover key elements such as how to find your premise, the seven crucial steps of story structure, character, moral/thematic argument, the world of the story and its symbols and how these all work together to create a coherent whole. The book then takes you through Truby’s screenwriting  plotting method (The 22 Steps) which brings everything together step by step.

Although readers will find many of his movie examples outdated (he bangs on about Tootsie, for example) I have  certainly found his story exercises some of the most useful in my arsenal, particularly when I am planning a story or when I am stuck. As a result, The Anatomy of Story has turned out to be of the most well-thumbed and practical writing books in my  collection.

Use if you:

• Are struggling to isolate the premise of your story
• Want a step by step process to help you build your story
• Like getting analytical with practical exercises at the same time
• Are looking for practical ways to pull your story into a coherent whole
• Would like to really go deeply into your story

Don’t use if you:

• Can’t bear screenwriting gurus or writing “systems”
• Prefer to be a pantser and work without outlines or too much analysis
• Need your movie references to be modern
• Are already a master plotter