Hey! How many folks here are students of John Truby? Is there a lounge or room to discuss his stuff?
Screenwriting : John Truby by Melton Cartes
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Hi Melton, I am. His "Anatomy of Story" is a very important resource to me.
Cool.
He changed my life, ever since I took his Classic Story Structure class in...'87, '88. Then I took his Action genre class. Then I bought his first iteration of his software. Then several years went by and finally bought Blockbuster, then the book The Anatomy of Story, a third class, Philosophy in Story, and now The Anatomy of Genre.
If you ever want to discuss structure issues or genre, LMK.
"I want to change that. It is my personal mission to do the best I can do to help revitalizing the once proud tradition of German genre film. Not by simply imitating the classics, but by honoring their spirit."
Dude! You definitely need to read Truby's The Anatomy of Genre, particularly the first chapter, Horror.
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Melton Cartes Thanks for the recommendation; I will check it out. :) What I find very interesting about Truby is that he suggests to start with the end, so you have at least a basic character arc before you flesh out the story. At the same time, he advocates the organic story telling - the characters should act like a real person would. So I guess the biggest challenge here is to balance the two - having a good end in mind while finding an arc that leads to it, but doesn't look or feel determined.
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Yeah. Basically, all Story is about transformation, change; learning some lesson. Ideally, the main character literally has an "Oh, God! What have I done?" moment at the very end. That's what makes a good ending, the arrival at the destination, so to speak. And yes, it has to be organic. It can't be "written," or like a "light switch" revelation. Theme > Character > Story > Plot > Dialogue...
You may love (if you don't already know this) how Truby discusses how Religion is the first horror story. Horror's number one concern is Death. So, the first horror story was Adam and Eve.
Very cool...
Sounds plausible to me. Maybe even older is the story of king Gilgamesh, who first realizes his own mortality when his buddy Enkidu dies from a curse. ;)
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He covers The Epic of Gilgamesh, the first fully realized myth, in chapter 4: Myth: The Life Process.
Great, looking forward to read it.