One of the most common pieces of advice authors get is to study craft. However, there are lots of craft books out there and lots of people who swear by certain ones. That said, a few come up over and over, and one we kept hearing about was “The Anatomy of Story” by John Truby. So, we decided to give it a try.
One reason we chose this book is that we’d heard it was a good book for pantsers. After ending up writing TWENTY-TWO story steps, we aren’t sure we agree with that, but we do share who we think this book can help below.
As with every craft book, there were things we found super helpful and things we will probably never use again. Read on to find out what we liked and disliked about what we call the Truby Experience (and it truly was an experience).
Our Reading Process for The Anatomy of a Story:
First off, how exactly did we tackle this book? Well, we basically could have college credit in the study of this book. It took us a few months to work through going mainly chapter-by-chapter and completing all of the exercises.
Here was our process at a high level:
- We’d select either a chapter or chapters to read by a certain date
- Read through it and complete the exercises separately
- Meet to discuss what we learned and what we found through the exercises.
What this actually looked like was us screenshotting or Snapchatting paragraphs, lines, etc., and sending them to each other with usually some sort of curse-laden commentary. We’d weep as we tried to finish all of the exercises before we next met.
Who This Book Would Be Helpful For:
Screenwriters
This book was created by a screenwriter, and we think it’d be helpful for those looking to start screenwriting—particularly the last chapters.
Writers Who Have an Idea for a World, Magic, or Plot…but No Real Characters
We think this would be especially helpful for anyone who initially thinks of the world/magic or the plot events but has trouble fitting compelling characters into them. We like the way it asks how the world would shape the characters, and who the “best” character is for the story. Sometimes it’s easy to assume an amazing world will carry the story, but this book focuses mostly on the driving force that will keep a reader interested—fascinating, constantly changing characters.
Writers Who Want to Develop a Story Idea
However, no matter your writing style, if you have an inkling for a story idea or you’re looking to fully flesh out a story, this book certainly can help you do that.
If you’re anything like us, doing some of the more useful exercises—and “useful” is all about your style—is also a good way to keep yourself from jumping into drafting before you’ve thought things through.
Writers Who Are Interested in Growth
If you’re interested in learning more about the craft of writing, you definitely can with this book! Just remember…sometimes you want to learn the rules to break them.
Biggest Takeaways:
We’ve given this book a fair amount of what we think is deserved constructive criticism, but we will say we each had some takeaways that we’ll continue to use/reflect on as we go forward into our writing career. Here are the main points, and if you want to dive into these more, you can purchase the book here (link).
Defining the Protagonist’s Psychological Need & Moral Need
Throughout our time writing, we’ve frequently heard the recommendation to “make sure your characters have flaws.” Truby explains what this means and how it impacts the story in a practical way in the Chapter on The Seven Key Steps of Story Structure.
Truby helps you to consider what your character’s flaw might be by pointing out that your character should start the book with a psychological need, a flaw that’s only hurting the hero, and a moral need, a flaw that’s actively hurting others around the hero. At the start of the book, the hero shouldn’t be aware of their needs, but by the end of the book, the hero should have some revelation around the needs—whether it’s good or bad.
These ideas helped us dive into our characters’ arcs and acted as a launching pad for us to start to flesh out the rest of our books. It’s a great way to make sure your character isn’t starting out in too good a place—a strong character arc requires lots of room to grow, and deep flaws give you that space.
Character Mapping & Characters as a Variation of Theme
While we weren’t necessarily fans of the archetypes mentioned in the character chapter (see: King & Queen below), this rather large chapter still held valuable information on fleshing out your cast.
In particular, we found it valuable to understand the web of our characters as a whole, including our character’s main opponents. Truby introduced some interesting thoughts on multiple types of opposition your protagonist might face, how characters can build conflict, and how each of the characters has a different approach to your central moral problem.
Understanding Your Theme Line & Central Moral Problem
This was hands down our favorite part of the book. This chapter is all about finding the heart and soul of the story. Essentially, it asks you to consider what central belief you want your audience to come away with once they’ve read your story. That is a huge question, and not one either of us had actively considered in our projects.
But when we dug in, we found that the themes we explored in these exercises touched every facet of the story, from the world-building to the characters to the plot. By laying it out in the simplest terms possible, we were able to strengthen the message we were trying to send to readers.
Symbol Development
Though it sometimes felt like writing English class essays about our own books, the symbol development was interesting to dive into. We found that we often included symbols without consciously realizing it, so we didn’t necessarily add symbolism based on this chapter. However, by actively recognizing the pieces of the story acting as symbols, we were able to weave them in more thoroughly and use them to their fullest effect.
The Benefits of Reading This Book with a Friend
As an aside, one thing we both agreed on is that we would not have finished this book on our own. Not because we didn’t like it, or because it wasn’t valuable, but because it was a lot. And without someone to keep us honest, we probably would’ve continued putting the exercises off until the world ended (though that doesn’t seem that far away these days). So, accountability was important.
In addition to making sure we actually stuck with the exercises, having a buddy was a great way to decide what was actually valuable. Keep in mind, this was written as a book for screenwriters, not novelists, and certainly not fantasy writers. A lot of it was applicable, and a lot of it was not, but sorting information into the “ignore” pile sometimes took two heads instead of one.
Finally, everyone needs someone to watch the Godfather with while drinking a little too much wine. And someone to bitch about Tootsie with. A lot.
A Few Final Words
Before you begin your own Truby Experience, we wanted to give you a few thoughts that might help you figure out if you’re ready to purchase this book.
What We Found Difficult During Our Read
There were several instances where the book felt a bit antiquated and sadly showed its 2007 copyright date.
In particular, we felt as though the King/Father archetype and Queen/Mother archetype were, well, a bit too stereotypical.
He also only described the main character (and even authors, I’m fairly certain) as male. The direct quote…“I’m going to assume that the main character is male, simply because it’s easier for me to write that way.”
The examples in this book were…probably extremely helpful to those studying classics of American cinema. We’ll also say the book examples didn’t display the type of diversity that feels reflective of our world. Before reading this book (or during it) you’re going to want to watch The Godfather. Just trust us on that. Probably Casablanca too, while you’re at it.
Tootsie
Tootsie. Oh Tootsie. We never wanted to be able to explain the entire plot of this 80s comedy, but we certainly can now. For those who haven’t seen it—and we haven’t either—it is about a man who dresses as a woman to get an acting role, and hijinks ensue. This movie was brought up in nearly every chapter and praised to the heavens. Each and every explanation of its genius made us want to watch it less. Our main takeaway from the Tootsie examples was that if we ever have the misfortune to encounter a copy of this movie for sale, we will definitely buy it, only so we can light it on fire and watch it burn.
Your Truby Experience
If you end up reading this book, reach out to us and let us know what you think! You can send us a message at stakehousewrites(at)gmail.com or leave a comment below.
