“Give your hero a moral need as well as a psychological need.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
Category Archives: #screenwriting
Stupid Idea?
“Don’t censor or judge yourself. Don’t ever tell yourself that any idea you come up with is stupid. “Stupid” ideas often lead to creative breakthroughs.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
Which character ?
“Always tell a story about your best character. ‘Best’ doesn’t mean ‘nicest’. It means the most fascinating, challenging and complex, even if that character isn’t particularly likeable.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story.
Are your secondary characters valuable and complex?
“Each time you compare a character to your hero, you force yourself to distinguish the hero in new ways. You also start to see the secondary characters as complete human beings, as complex and as valuable as your hero.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
The moral argument.
“The moral argument is most powerful when it is most dramatic. This means holding off the hero’s moral self-revelation until as close to the end of the story as possible.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
Freeing the dialogue
“When you let structure do the heavy lifting to make the moral case, you free up the dialogue to do what it does best, which is provide subtlety and emotional force.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
What must your hero learn?
“What must your hero learn by the end of the story about the right way to act and live in the world ?”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story.
Today’s Top Tip: Be bad!
“Give yourself an excuse to say ‘here’s the bad way to do this.’ It might be great.”
– Blake Snyder – Save the Cat Strikes Back.
The central moral problem
“State in one line the central moral problem your hero will confront throughout the story.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
Your hero’s key choice.
“Write down the key choice your hero must make near the end of the story.”
– John Truby, Anatomy of Story
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