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

by John Truby

The plan should always be specifically focused toward defeating the opponent...

CHINATOWN Jake’s plan is to question those who knew Hollis and track the physical evidence connected to Hollis’s murder.

HAMLET Hamlet’s plan is to put on a play that mimics the murder of his father by the current king. He will then prove the king’s guilt by the king’s reaction to the play.

THE GODFATHER Michael’s first plan is to kill Sollozzo and his protector, the police captain. His second plan, near the end of the story, is to kill the head...

Throughout the middle of the story, the hero and opponent engage in a punch-counterpunch confrontation as each tries to win the goal.

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

THE ODYSSEY Odysseus slays the suitors who have tormented his wife and destroyed his home. CHINATOWN A cop kills Evelyn, and Noah gets away with Evelyn’s daughter while Jake walks off in despair. THE VERDICT Frank defeats opposing counsel by using brilliant lawyering and persuasive words in the courtroom.

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.

For a good self-revelation, you must first be aware that this step, like need, comes in two forms, psychological and moral.

In a psychological self-revelation, the hero strips away the facade he has lived behind and sees himsel...

This stripping away of the facade is not passive or easy. Rather, it is the most active, the most difficult, and the most courageous act ...

Don’t have your hero come right out and say what he learned. This is obvious and preachy and ...

by the actions he takes leading up to the s...

BIG Josh realizes he has to leave his girlfriend and life at the toy company and go back to being a kid if he is to have ...

CASABLANCA Rick sheds his cynicism, regains his idealism, and sacrifices his love for Ilsa so he ...

CHINATOWN Jake’s self-revelation is a negative one. After Evelyn’s death, he mumbles, “As little as possible.” He seems to believe that his life is not only useless but also destr...

DANCES WITH WOLVES Dunbar finds a new reason to live and a new way of being a man because of his new wife and his extended Lakota Sioux family. Ironically, the Lakota way of life is almost at an end, so ...

If you have given your hero a moral need, his self-revelation should be moral as well. The hero doesn’t just see himself in a new light; he has an insight...

In effect, the hero realizes that he has been wrong, that he has hurt others, ...

He then proves he has changed by taking ne...

I just gotta learn to do it without the dress”—and he apologizes for hurting the woman he loves.

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN Huck realizes he has been wrong in thinking of Jim as less than human and declares that he would rather go to hell than tell Jim’s owner of his whereabouts.

Structurally, the step with which self-revelation is most closely connected is need.

Need is the beginning of the hero’s character change.

Self-revelation is the endpoint of that change. 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.

Self-revelation is the moment when the hero grows as a human being (unless the knowledge is s...

At the new equilibrium, everything returns to normal, and all desire is gone.

Except there is now one major difference. The hero has moved to a higher or lower level as a result of going through his crucible. A fundamental and permanent change has occurred in the hero.

Let’s look at some examples in which the hero rises. DIE HARD John has defeated the criminals, saved his wife, and reaffirmed their love.

PRETTY WOMAN Vivian has left the world of prostitution behind and is with the man she loves (who, fortunately, is a billionaire).

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS Clarice has brought Buffalo Bill to justice, has become an excellent FBI agent, and has apparently c...

OEDIPUS THE KING Oedipus gouges out his eyes upon learning that he has killed his father and slept with his mother.

THE CONVERSATION The hero discovers he has contributed to someone’s murder and ends up a shell-shocked man desperately tearing up his apartment to find a listening device.

VERTIGO The hero drags the woman he loves to the top of a tower to get her to confess to a murder and then looks down in horror when the woman, overcome ...

HOW TO USE THE SEVEN STEPS—WRITING EXERCISE 2 You’ve seen what the seven major steps of story structure mean. Here’s how to use them in your story. • Story Events Write down some s...

list some of the events that might be in your story.

“This could happen, and this could happen, and this could happen.” Story events are usually actions taken by your hero or opponent.

These initial thoughts about story events are extremely valuable, even if none of them ends up in the final story. Write down each event in one sentence.

You should write down a minimum of five story events, but ten to fifteen would be even better.

The more events you list, the easier it is to see the story and find the seven steps.

Order of Events Put the story events in some rough order, from beginning to end. Recognize that this will probably not be your final order. What’s important is to get a look at how the story might develop from beginning to end. • Seven Steps...

This technique of starting at the end and going back to the beginning is one we will use again and again as we figure out character, plot, and theme.

It’s one of the best techniques in fiction writing because it guarantees that your hero and your story are always heading toward the true endpoint of the structural journey, which is the self-revelation.

Figuring out the seven steps, as well as many of the other parts of your story, is much like doing a crossword puzzle. Some

Use the parts that come easily to figure out the tough parts, and be willing to go back and change what you first wrote when later material gives you a new take on your story.

Remember the key difference. A psychological weakness or need affects just the hero. A moral weakness or need affects others.

Come up with not one but many weaknesses for your hero. These should be serious flaws, so deep and dangerous that they are ruining your hero’s life or have the real possibility of doing so.

You could create hundreds of opponents for your hero. The question is, who’s the best one?

Start by going back to that crucial question: What is the deepest conflict the hero and opponent are fighting about?

You want to give your opponent a special ability to attack your hero’s greatest weakness, and to do so incessantl...