The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller

by John Truby

Yet the story must feel organic to the audience; it must seem like a single thing that grows and builds to a climax. If you want to become a great storyteller, you have to master this technique to such a high degree that your characters seem to be acting on their own, as they must, even though you are the one making them act that way. In this sense we storytellers are a lot like athletes. A great athlete makes everything look easy, as though his body just naturally moves that way. But in fact he has so mastered the techniques of his sport that his technique has simply disappeared from view, and the audience sees only beauty.

he tells the audience certain information about a made-up character, and he withholds certain information. Withholding, or hiding, information is crucial to the storyteller’s make-believe. It forces the audience to figure out who the character is and what he is doing and so draws the audience into the story. When the audience no longer has to figure out the story, it ceases being an audience, and the story stops.

The dramatic code, embedded deep in the human psyche, is an artistic description of how a person can grow or evolve. This code is also a process going on underneath every story. The storyteller hides this process beneath particular characters and actions. But the code of growth is what the audience ultimately takes from a good story.

A story tracks what a person wants, what he’ll do to get it, and what costs he’ll have to pay along the way.

The dramatic code expresses the idea that human beings can become a better version of themselves, psychologically and morally. And that’s why people love it.

The story world isn’t a copy of life as it is. It’s life as human beings imagine it could be.

We might say that theme, or what I call moral argument, is the brain of the story. Character is the heart and circulation system. Revelations are the nervous system. Story structure is the skeleton. Scenes are the skin.

So producers look for a premise that is “high concept”—meaning that the film can be reduced to a catchy one-line description that audiences will understand instantly and come rushing to the theater to see.

Second, your premise is your inspiration.

KEY POINT: What you choose to write about is far more important than any decision you make about how to write it.

KEY POINT: Nine out of ten writers fail at the premise.

The average feature film has forty to seventy scenes. A novel may have double or triple that number. Only by knowing the full craft of storytelling can you overcome the limitations of the high concept and tell the whole story successfully.

Step 1: Write Something That May Change Your Life

appeal, but it’s not personal to the writer in any way.

First, write down your wish list, a list of everything you would like to see up on the screen, in a book, or at the theater. It’s what you are passionately interested in, and it’s what entertains you. You might jot down characters you have imagined, cool plot twists, or great lines of dialogue that have popped into your head. You might list themes that you care about or certain genres that always attract you.

Step 2: Look for What’s Possible One of the biggest reasons writers fail at the premise stage is that they don’t know how to spot their story’s true potential.

“Stupid” ideas often lead to creative breakthroughs.

The trick is to learn how to spot inherent problems right at the premise line.

KEY POINT: The designing principle is what organizes the story as a whole. It is the internal logic of the story, what makes the parts hang together organically so that the story becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It is what makes the story original.

the designing principle is the seed of the story. And it is the single most important factor in making your story original and effective.

The designing principle tracks the fundamental process that will unfold over the course of the story.

The premise is concrete; it’s what actually happens. The designing principle is abstract; it is the deeper process going on in the story, told in an original way.

Designing principle = story process + original execution

You find the designing principle by teasing it out of the simple one-line premise you have before

“the most fascinating, challenging, and complex,” even if that character isn’t particularly likable.

You always want this character driving the action.

To figure out the central conflict, ask yourself “Who fights

whom over what?” and answer the question in one succinct line.

KEY POINT: The basic action should be the one action best able to force the character to deal with his weaknesses and change.

KEY POINT: Write down a number of possible options for the hero’s weaknesses and change.

A story has a minimum of seven steps in its growth from beginning to end: 1. Weakness and need 2. Desire 3. Opponent 4. Plan 5. Battle 6. Self-revelation 7. New equilibrium

KEY POINT: Your hero should not be aware of his need at the beginning of the story.

KEY POINT: Give your hero a moral need as well as a psychological need.

One reason it is so important to give your hero a moral as well as a psychological need is that it increases the scope of the character; the character’s actions affect others besides him. This moves the audience in a more powerful way. The other reason you want to give your hero a moral need is that it prevents him from being perfect or being a victim. Both of these are the kiss of death in storytelling.

1. Begin with the psychological weakness. 2. Figure out what kind of immoral action might naturally come out of that. 3. Identify the deep-seated moral weakness and need that are the source of this action. A second technique for creating a good moral need is to push a strength so far that it becomes a weakness. The technique works like this: 1. Identify a virtue in your character. Then make him so passionate about it that it becomes oppressive. 2. Come up with a value the character believes in. Then find the negative version of that value.

Desire is the driving force in the story, the line from which everything else hangs. Desire is intimately connected to need.

Need has to do with overcoming a weakness within the character.

Desire is a goal outside the character.

KEY POINT: Your hero’s true desire is what he wants in this story, not what he wants in life.

Weakness and need are the foundation of any story.

A true opponent not only wants to prevent the hero from achieving his desire but is competing with the hero for the same goal.

It is only by competing for the same goal that the hero and the opponent are forced to come into direct conflict and to do so again and again throughout the story.

The trick to creating an opponent who wants the same goal as the hero is to find the deepest level of conflict between them.

KEY POINT: To find the right opponent, start with your hero’s specific goal; whoever wants to keep him from getting it is an opponent.

The battle is the final conflict between hero and opponent and determines which of the two characters wins the goal.

The battle is an intense and painful experience for the hero. This crucible of battle causes the hero to have a major revelation about who he really is. Much of the quality of your story is based on the quality of this self-revelation.

Don’t have your hero come right out and say what he learned. This is obvious and preachy and will turn off your audience. Instead you want to suggest your hero’s insight by the actions he takes leading up to the self-revelation.

the hero realizes that he has been wrong, that he has hurt others, and that he must change. He then proves he has changed by taking new moral action.

Need is the mark of the hero’s immaturity at the beginning of the story. It is what is missing, what is holding him back.

KEY POINT: Start by determining the self-revelation, at the end of the story; then go back to the beginning and figure out your hero’s need and