Distilled: The Anatomy of Story

This post contains my personal notes (and observations) on The Anatomy of Story, by John Truby.

The text contains extensive references to examples (usually movies or plays) to illustrate concepts. While an effective shorthand that prevents an almost 450 page text from growing to 1500+ pages, the references are repetitive and ultimately somewhat tedious. In order for this to be a “complete” work, copies of the scripts for all the referenced works should be included in appendices with links from the text to relevant parts of the scripts. In part, that’s the reason for these notes, to provide a concise reference. The other part is my hope that by going through this in detail, the concepts might stick sufficiently well that I don’t have to refer back to this that often…

The Anatomy of Story

Story Space, Story Time
Premise
Seven Structure Steps
Character
Moral Argument
Story World
Symbol Web
Plot
Scene Weave
Scene Construction and Symphonic Dialogue

1. Story Space, Story Time

Stories are a form of communication that expresses a description of how a person can grow or evolve.

The body of the story: Theme, Character, Structure, Scenes.

Story movement (plotlines): Linear, Meandering, Spiral (returning to a single event or memory and exploring it more deeply each time), Branching (simultaneous action), Explosive (cross-cutting).

The process: Premise, Seven Structure Steps, Character, Theme, Story World, Symbol Web, Plot, Scene Weave, Scene Construction/Symphonic Dialog.

2. Premise

The premise is a single sentence that encapsulates the story.

Developing the Premise:

Pick a premise that will change your life. Two lists. The first of things you want to see in a work, subjects, characters, plot twists, great dialog, etc. Then look for commonality across the two lists, focus there.
Brainstorm the possibilities: Given an avenue of exploration, come up with as many scenarios as possible along that path.
Identify problems: Refine the possibilities into plausible story units (or a series of plausible stories). Drill down to identify what makes the difficult ones difficult.
Find the Designing Principle: This is the deeper process, the organization of the story as a whole, the internal logic. Several potential designing principles might emerge for each premise.
Find the Best Character in the story: This the who the story will be about.
Define the Central Conflict: “Who fights whom over what?”
Find the Spine: The single cause-and-effect path that threads the story together. If the premise has multiple main characters, each story line must have a linear cause-and-effect path, and these must thread together to form an overall spine.
Establish the main character’s change. What are the potential actions that force the character to change? Choose the one that works best.
Find the Moral Choice: This isn’t a choice that’s obvious, it’s a choice between two outcomes of the same polarity (positive or negative).
Gauge the audience appeal. Will anyone else be interested in this story? If not, start again.

3. Seven Structure Steps

The steps: Weakness and need, Desire, Opponent, Plan, Battle, Self-revelation, New equilibrium.

Weakness: The main character has one or more weaknesses that are holding them back. It is sufficiently profound that it’s ruining their life. The need is what must be achieved in order to change, likely to overcome their weakness. Ideally this need is both moral and psychological. At the outset, the main character should not be aware of their need.
Desire: What the main character wants in the story. Need is internal to the character, desire is external, visible. It is what the story appears to be about.
Opponent: The opponent is competing with the main character for the same goal/objective (ensure that they are, if they are not, go back to the premise). This will put them in direct conflict with the main character.
Plan: A set of actions or strategies the hero will use to satisfy their desire and outsmart the opponent.
Battle: The final conflict (verbal or physical) between the main character and the opponent.
Self-Revelation: Psychological, where they see themselves clearly for the first time, a difficult process. Moral, where they resolve to behave differently externally.
New Equilibrium: The main character is elevated or sunk by the revelation, moving to a higher or lower level of existence.

Exercise:

Record a series of one sentence story events. The more the better. What happens in each event?
Put the events in a semblance of a meaningful order.
Map the events to the seven steps. Start with events related to the self-revelation, and work back to determine need and desire.
Identify many needs and weaknesses of the main character.
Iterate.

4. Character

Evaluate the characters together, how they’re interconnected; individualize them; deepen the main character, then the opponent, then the secondary characters, then build conflict into the main and secondary characters.

Character Web

Characters are connected and defined by function, archetype, theme, opposition.

By Function

Hero: Has the core need and desire, drives the action. All other characters are in alliance or opposition (or a combination of the two).
Opponent: Wants the same thing as the hero. There is a primary opponent, and there may be secondary opponent(s).
Ally: usually has the same goal as the hero, or may have their own goal which is achievable by assisting the hero.
Fake Ally: Appears to have complimentary objectives as the hero, but is an opponent. A complex character caught in dilemma. May help the hero succeed despite trying to make them fail.
Fake Opponent: Less used because the opposition is not hidden and this less useful to the story.
Subplot: contrasts how the hero and this character deals with the same or a similar problem. Can add depth to the choices made by the hero. Typically not an ally.
Dual Mains: Common in romance and buddy stories. Needs of both characters must be presented at the beginning. One character has the desire line and is thus the hero. In romance, the other is the primary opponent. In a buddy story the second is an ally-opponent, but the opposition is rarely serious or tragic.
Multiple Heroes: Requires simultaneous action. Each hero has to go through the Seven Structure Steps. Narrative drive is harder to maintain. Options include:
- One character emerges as more central
- All share the same desire line
- Hero of one line is the opponent in another line
- Connect characters through a common subject/theme
- Create cliffhangers when switching lines
- Bring everything together to one location
- Shorten the overall story duration
- Detail each line through the same temporal event.
- Cross lines by having characters meet (coincidentally)
Others: If other characters don’t serve an important function in the story, cut them.

By Archetype

Leader: +wisdom/foresight/resolve; -strict/oppressive/tyrannical/selfish
Nurturer: +facilitates growth; -overprotective/tyrannical/selfish
Advisor: +knowledgeable/wise; -self-glorifying
Warrior: +Willing to battle; -May enforce what is wrong
Wizard: +can control/balance hidden forces; -can abuse their power
Trickster: +uses confidence/eloquence; -may be pathological
Artist: +illustrates reality, esp. when not seen by others; -may insist on perfection or be nihilist
Lover: +provides care/understanding; -can lose identity or become dominant identity
Rebel: +courageous; -destructive

Individualizing Characters

Unique characters are created by contrasting them though theme and opposition. Characters in the story force the hero to deal with the central moral problem. Each opponent deals with the problem differently.

Define the moral problem.
Compare the hero to the other characters on weaknesses, need, desire, values, power/status/ability, and how they face the moral problem.
Start by comparing the hero and the main opponent, then to other opponents, then to allies.
Compare opponents and allies to each other.

Creating the Hero

The character web has already begun to define the hero.

1. Requirements

Make them fascinating, for example by showing that they’re hiding something.
Use the desire and the moral problem to give the audience something to identify with. Have them want the hero to succeed.
Make the character empathetic. the audience needs to understand what drives the character, likeable or not. Always show why the character does what they do.
Ensure the hero has both a moral and psychological need.

2. Character Change

The main character should go through a developing process of change, not some abrupt transition to meet the change requirement. The change needs to be set up at the beginning of the story, then as the story progresses have it build to the moment of transition.

“A character’s self-knowledge is made up of his beliefs, about the world and about himself. They are his beliefs about what makes a good life and about what he will do to get what he wants. In a good story, as the hero goes after a goal, he is forced to challenge his most deep-seated beliefs. In the cauldron of crisis, he sees what he really believes, decides what he will act on, and then takes moral action to prove it.” (p. 80)

Common kinds of character change:

Child to adult (Coming of age)
Adult to Leader
Cynic to Participant
Leader to Tyrant
Leader to Visionary (author must have a vision to articulate)
Physical Metamorphosis

Creating Character Change

Start at the end of the change, at the self-revelation. Then determine the start, the need and desire. Then fill in the steps in between. The main character goes through a journey of learning.

Moment of revelation: sudden, emotionally engaging, new information for the hero (hence revelation), causes the hero to take new moral action immediately.
Setup: Hero should be thinking, hiding something from themselves, and the lie/delusion must be harming the hero in a real way.

The Double Revelation

Both the hero and the opponent have a self-revelation. One advantage of this approach is by making the focus on the hero less intense, the reader can more easily see the theme. This is most used in love stories.

Both hero and main opponent have a weakness and a need. These may be unrelated to each other.
The opponent must have humanity and depth.
The moments of self-revelation occur during or just after the battle.
Each should learn from the other’s revelations.
The author’s moral version is the synthesis of what both characters learn.

3. Desire

There should be only one desire line, otherwise the story loses cohesion.
The desire should be highly specific. There should be a point where the reader clearly knows that the desire has been achieved.
Succeeding (or failing) should happen near the end of the story.

4. Opponent

The opponent holds the key because it is through them that the hero learns how to achieve their desire.

Necessary: The opponent either forces the hero to overcome weakness or destroys them.
Human: The opponent must be a strong, relatable, human character.
- The opponent’s weaknesses are causing them to act wrongly towards others or to block the hero.
- The opponent has a need derived from their weaknesses.
- They want something, usually the same thing as the hero.
- The opponent must be powerful.
Values: must be in opposition to those of the hero.
Morals: give the opponent a strong but flawed moral argument.
Similarities: must have strong similarities with the hero. Neither is purely good nor purely evil.
Location: they need to be in the same time and space.

Building Conflict

To have depth the hero must face a web of opponents. To build conflict, the story needs the hero, the main opponent, and at least two secondary opponents (or ally-opponents).

Each opponent should take a different approach to attacking the hero’s weakness.
Ideally each character is in conflict with the hero and the other characters as well.
The values of each character should be in conflict with each other. A rich understanding of the values (both positive and negative aspects) of all characters will provide the source for inter-character conflict.
Make each character as different as possible from the others.
Extend this pattern to the whole story, beyond the characters themselves (society, and institution, family)

5. Moral Argument

Finding the Theme Line

The theme line is derived from the designing principle. Focus the actions in the story on their moral effects. How do the characters hurt others, how do they make things right, if at all. Approaches include a travelling metaphor, a grand symbol, two grand symbols connected in a single theme.

Splitting Theme into Oppositions

Techniques include: the hero’s moral decision, each character as a variation on the theme, and placing the characters’ values in conflict.

Hero’s moral decision: in desperation to achieve their goal, their moral flaw brings out the worst in them. Awareness of his moral problem builds slowly. The focal point of the theme is the final moral decision, typically just after their self-revelation. Rarely the decision precedes the revelation.
Variations on theme: Each major character deals with the same moral problem, but in a different way. Each major character should make a moral argument in dialogue justifying their actions.
Values in conflict: Same principles as in character web, ensuring that the hero and opponents come into direct conflict.

Theme Through Structure

Ideally the story structure converges at the same time as the theme expands. As the conflict rises, the theme becomes more apparent.

Elements of a basic strategy: Initial values, Moral Weakness, Moral Need, First Immoral Action, Desire, Drive to the Goal, More Immoral Actions (criticized by other characters, [erroneously] justified by the hero), Attack by Ally, Obsessive Drive, Intense Immoral Actions (criticized and justified), Battle, Final Action, Moral Self-Revelation, Moral Decision, Thematic Revelation.

Variants of Moral Argument

Variants are:

Good vs. Bad: Hero prevails because they are good.
Tragedy: self-revelation comes too late and is destroyed.
Pathos: no self-revelation, hero is doomed.
Satire/Irony:
- The hero lives within a clearly defined social system. At least one character explains values of the system
- The hero believes strongly in the system and is determined to rise to the top.
- Opponent believes strongly in the system pursues the same goal.
- The characters beliefs cause their silly and destructive actions.
- Action comes from juxtapositions between characters who insist they are acting morally and disastrous results.
- In battle, hypocrisy on both sides is exposed.
- Self-revelation involves questioning the system.
- The hero, or a second character, often undercuts the self-revelation.
- The hero takes moral action that is right personally but with no effect on the system.
- There is a union of hero and opponent, suggesting that they will form a better world, with little effect on the system.
Black Comedy: Destruction less due to individual choice but to individuals stuck in a destructive system.
- Many characters exist in an organization. The rules and logic of the system are elaborated in great detail.
- Many characters, including the hero, go after a negative goal that involves killing someone or destroying something.
- Each believes strongly in the goal and thinks what he is doing makes complete sense. In fact, it is totally illogical.
- The opponents, also within the system, compete for the same goal and also give detailed but insane justifications.
- One sane person, usually the ally, repeatedly points out that nothing makes sense and action will lead to disaster. They are ignored.
- All the characters, including the nominal hero, use extreme methods to reach the goal.
- The actions of the characters lead to destruction for almost all.
- The battle is intense and destructive, with everyone still thinking he is right. The consequences are death and madness.
- No one, including the hero, has a self-revelation. But it is so obvious that the hero should have had a self-revelation that the audience has it instead.
- The remaining characters are horribly maimed by the struggle but immediately resume their efforts to reach the goal.
- Slightly more positive black comedies end with the sane person watching in horror and either leaving the system or trying to change it.
- The hero must be likeable so that the reader remains engaged with them. They must passionately believe in their goal. They might even be the lone sane character.

Combining Moral Arguments

Is difficult. (LOL) Some examples.

The Unique Moral Vision

More examples. You’re on your own here, author.

Moral Argument in Dialogue

Moral argument is made both through structure and dialogue.

When an ally is critical of the hero’s immoral actions, and in the hero’s defensive response.
Conflict between hero and opponent. Often best used early to set the stakes.
Opponent strongly justifying his immoral actions.

6. Story World

The designing principle informs the author of the arena in which the story occurs.
Visual oppositions are based on character oppositions.
Building blocks are natural settings, artificial spaces, technology.
Add temporal baseline(s).
Seven visual steps.

Finding the Story World in the Designing Principle

The story world is simultaneous, while the story is linear. Use the designing principle to create a one line description of the story world.

More simply: The story world encompasses the sum of all scene settings in the story.

The Arena of the Story

The area marks the physical boundaries of the story world.

Creating the Arena

Possible approaches:

Umbrella, then condense: Start with the “big world”, then focus on smaller worlds as the story moves on.
Single line journey: although the hero is travelling, a single thing connects all the locations.
Circular journey: The hero winds up back at the location where the story begins.
Dual arena: define the hero in one world, then shift to another very different one, showing how the character adapts.

Oppositions Within the Arena

Paraphrasing: the characters both define the physical spaces they exist in and how they perceive those spaces. Character oppositions will be reflected in these views.

Detailing the Story World

Natural settings: not to be selected at random. Settings derived from character attributes. Natural settings carry predefined meanings for readers. Be careful to avoid visual cliches.

Ocean: surface or deep. Surface is a nominally two-dimensional space, sense of contest is intensified. Deep is cold, impersonal, dark, a graveyard full of secrets.
Deep Space: adventure.
Forest: a natural cathedral, also foreboding, hunter/hunted.
Jungle: Suffocating, humans relatively powerless.
Desert/Ice: dying/death, a test of survival for the strong.
Island: good for social contexts, a setting for both utopia and dystopia, and intrinsically closed space.
- Set up the normal society and the characters’ place within it at the beginning. (need)
- Send the characters to the island. (desire)
- Create a new society based on different rules and values. (desire)
- Make the relationship between the characters very different from what it was in the original society. (plan)
- Through conflict, show what works and what doesn’t. (opponent)
- Show characters experimenting with something new when things don’t work. (revelation or self-revelation)
Mountain: greatness. Structurally associated with the reveal. One-to-one connection of place to person. Negative expressions are hierarchy, privilege, tyranny. Visual contrast with plain.
Plain: open, free. Negative expressions are dull, mediocre.
River: Path of river carries the path of the journey story. Leads either into somewhere or out of somewhere.

Weather (copied verbatim but really a shallow view of weather IMO):

Lightning and thunder: Passion, terror, death
Rain: Sadness, loneliness, boredom, coziness
Wind: Destruction, desolation
Fog: Obfuscation, mystery
Sun: Happiness, fun, freedom, but also corruption hidden below a pleasant exterior
Snow: Sleep, serenity, quiet inexorable death

Man-Made Spaces: each space is a physical expression of the hero and the society in which they live (not to mention the other characters LOL).

The House (um, dwelling)
- Refuge vs Prison vs Adventure
- Ground vs Sky
- Warm House: large enough to accommodate diversity. Buzzing house technique.
- Terrifying House
- Cellar vs Attic
The Road (opposite of dwelling). The vehicle helps unify the story by “grounding” the large arena of travel.
The City. Can be overwhelming, can be reduced to the city as an institution (wait, isn’t this a house now?). Fantasy imagines the city as a form of natural setting (Just fantasy? Really?? This guy is not fond of cities).
- City as Mountain
- City as Ocean (rooftops as the ocean surface)
- City as Jungle (has the gall to cite Blade Runner as an example, pfft.)
- City as Forest
Miniatures.
Change in scale: Changing the scale of the character relative to the physical space.
Passageways Between Worlds. Connecting sub-worlds in the story. Provides a mechanism to change rules. Slow transitions through these passages are the best.

Technology (Tools)

In stories where characters are trapped in a system, tools show how the system exercises power.

Connecting the World to the Hero’s Overall Development

Process is similar to the creation of characters. Examine how the world changes as the hero changes. Slavery to freedom, Dystopia to (possibly false) Utopia.

In most stories there is a one-to-one connection between the hero and their world. The world is a physical expression of how the world develops. The world should embody, highlight, or accentuate your hero’s weakness or draw it out in its worst form.

The Story World and the Hero Develop Together

Transitions, the hero and world:

Start at slavery, descent to greater slavery, then to freedom.
Start at slavery, descent to greater slavery, then to death.
Start at slavery to temporary freedom to greater slavery or death.
Start at freedom to slavery or death.
Start at freedom to slavery to freedom.
Start at apparent freedom to greater slavery to freedom.

Time in the Story World

Fallacies of Past and Future

Past: common in historical fiction. This is fiction, not history. You are judging the past by comparing it to the present. The comparison is either to things that are better now or things that were better then.

Future: This is not prediction. The temporal setting is an abstraction of the present.

Techniques of natural story time:

Seasons: Place the story in a season or use a change of seasons to link to a change in the story. Using all four seasons implies a circularity to the story. Four seasons can be connected to comedy and myth.
Holidays/Rituals: Allows the implication of the meaning already associated with the event. Understand the philosophy behind the event and have the story support or critique it.
One Day: Creates story movement and narrative drive. Many characters create a funnel effect to the transition. A 12 hour day brings a sharp focus, a 24 hour day implies circularity and highlights the change made in that day. Connected to comedy and myth.
Perfect day: time version of a Utopian moment, typically used to structure part of a story, not the whole story. By definition there is no conflict in a perfect day.
Time endpoint: benefit is intensity of narrative drive at the expense of texture, subtlety. Usually converges on a single physical location. Creates an intense funnel effect. Can be used in journey stories to improve cohesiveness by providing a focused endpoint.

Story World Through Structure

Connect the story world to the hero’s development at every step of the story.

Weakness and need: this sub-world is a manifestation of the hero’s weakness or fear.
Desire: a sub-world where the hero expresses his goal.
Opponent: The opponent’s world expresses their power and ability to attack the hero’s weakness. An amplification of the hero’s world of slavery.
Apparent Defeat/Temporary Freedom: where the hero erroneously believes he has lost to the opponent, a narrow, oppressive space.
Visit to Death: a place that exhibits elements of decline, aging, death.
Battle: The most confined space of the story. A space that contributes intense pressure.
Freedom/Slavery: a physical representation of the decline or growth of the hero.

7. Symbol Web

How Symbols Work

Start with a feeling and create a symbol that causes that feeling in the reader, then repeat the symbol, changing it slightly to create a stronger feeling. Readers can be unaware that this is happening.

Symbol Web

Create a web of symbols where each symbol helps define the others. The symbol web refers objects, people, and actions to other objects, people, and actions, leading the reader to see the deeper nature of the things being compared. Symbols can be attached to the whole story, the structure, characters, theme, story world, actions, objects, and dialogue.

Story Symbols

Symbol Line

A single line that connects all symbols in the web. Derived/consistent with the designing principle, theme line, and story world.

Symbolic Characters

Symbols are good tools for defining character. Choose symbols that reflect the defining principle of the character. This can be a shorthand for understanding character. Repeat the symbol with slight variations to refine the definition of the character, but use the technique sparingly.

Consider applying two symbols to the same character, creating an opposition within the character.

Animal Symbolism
Machine Symbolism
Other Symbolism (physical character attributes, character names)
Symbolism connected to character change (post change)

Symbolic Themes

Most intense of the symbol techniques. Preachy if done in an obvious way. Use an image or object that expresses a series of actions that hurt others. Even more powerful is an image or object that expresses two series of actions—two moral sequences—that are in conflict with each other.

Symbol for Story World

Metaphysical connections between the environment to create symbology.

Symbolic Actions

Actions connected to a symbol carry extra significance, must be used with caution.

Symbolic Objects

A web of objects, related by some kind of guiding principle, can form a deep, complex pattern of meaning, usually in support of the theme.

Reversing the symbol web: Twist archetypal symbols to give them a different meaning.

8. Plot

Your plot depends on how you withhold and reveal in formation. Plotting involves “the masterful management of suspense and mystery, artfully leading the reader through an elaborate … space that is always full of signs to be read, but always menaced with misreading until the very end.” Quote from Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot.

Organic Plot

Shows the actions that lead to the hero’s character change or explain why that change is impossible.
Each of the events is causally connected.
Each event is essential.
Each action is proportionate in its length and pacing.
The amount comes naturally from the main character, not imposed by the author on the characters. Imposed plot feels mechanical, and drains the characters of their fullness and humanity.

Plot Types

Journey plot: Hard to make organic because the hero doesn’t have much character change along the journey, and because it is hard to connect the end of the journey to the beginning.
Three Unities: Time, place, action. Twenty-four hour duration, one location, one story line. Limits the extent of the plot.
Reveals: No travel, hero is familiar with opponents but much about them is hidden from hero and reader. Opponents are skilled at scheming.
Anti-plot: a range of techniques that make plot organic by having it express subtleties of character.
- Multiple points of view
- Shifting narrators
- Branching story structure
- Nonlinear time, reverse order highlights the thread between scenes
- Digressions
Genre: Seem organic because of reader familiarity
Multi-strand: basically multiplexing several plot lines, with cross-connections.

Creating an Organic Plot

Detailed expression of the designing principle.
Detailed expression of the theme line.
Introduces a sequence of symbols.
May or may not use a storyteller.
Has detail [duh, see next section].
May or may not fit a genre.

Twenty-two Step Story Structure

An additional fifteen steps in the middle of the seven key steps of story structure (Ch. 3). This is not biblical. There may be more or fewer steps, or they may be in a different order as the work demands [abbreviations mine].

SRND: Self-revelation, need, and desire
- What will the hero learn at the end?
- What do they know at the beginning? What do they believe in?
- What are they wrong about at the beginning?
GSW: Ghost and story world
- Ghost(1): an internal weakness, an event from that past that haunts the hero in the present, an open wound that is the source of the hero’s weakness. Structurally, a counter-desire, the thing holding him back. Don’t expose this too early in the story.
- Ghost(2): no possible ghost because the story starts in a Utopian world.
- Story World: an expression of the hero showing their weaknesses, needs, desires, and obstacles. If the hero is enslaved, the story world should also be enslaving to highlight or exacerbate the hero’s weaknesses. Many plot steps will have a sub-world of their own.
WN: Weakness and need
- Weakness: Recap that the hero needs both a moral and psychological weakness
- Need: Recap of Ch. 3
- Problem: Trouble/crisis that the hero faces at the very beginning of the story, usually an outgrowth of the hero’s weakness.
- Community Start: Utopian start, there is no ghost. Hero vulnerable to attack, which comes soon.
- Running Start: Hero has a strong ghost, lives enslaved, has a cohort of weaknesses, psychological and moral needs, and faces one or more problems.
- Slow Start: a purposeless hero. Difficult to execute.
IE: Inciting event: an external event that causes the hero to create a goal and take action. Connects need and desire. Best triggered when the hero thinks he has overcome the crisis he faced at the beginning of the story.
DES: Desire: The hero’s goal. Increase the importance of the desire as the story builds, but stick to a single desire line (which might have multiple elements). Levels of desire, from low to high: Survive (escape), Take revenge, Win the battle, Achieve something, Explore a world, Catch a criminal, Find the truth, Gain love, Bring justice and freedom, Save the Republic, Save the world.
AC: Ally or allies: By giving an ally a desire line of their own, you can quickly define a complete character.
- Subplots: compares how the hero and another character approach the same situation. Must affect the main plot, ideally dovetailing near the end. Subplot character is usually not the ally. A subplot must hit the seven key steps.
OM: Opponent and/or mystery: The hero/opponent relationship is the most important in the story. The best opponent is the necessary one.
- Who wants to stop the hero from getting what he wants, and why?
- What does the opponent want? Is it the same goal?
- How do the opponents values differ from the hero?
- Iceberg Opponent: A hierarchy of opponents with a number of alliances. Main opponent is at the top of the iceberg; hide the hierarchy from the hero and the reader, hide each opponent’s true agenda (desire); reveal this information piecemeal through the story, increasing the pace as it moves along; hero battles an obvious opponent early on, as conflict intensifies, they discover hidden attacks from more opponents.
FAO: Fake-ally opponent: actually an opponent or working for the opponent.
FRD: First revelation and decision: Changed desire and motive: revelation, decision, changed desire, and changed motive should occur at the same time. Reveals are key to the plot.
- Best reveals are when hero gets information about an opponent.
- Desire line should be bent, but not broken. A change in course.
- Each revelation must be explosive and stronger than preceding revelations, building in intensity.
HP: Plan, the set of strategies the hero will use to overcome opposition and reach their goal. Initial plan should fail.
OP: Opponent’s plan and main counterattack: The more intricate the plan and the better hidden it is, the better the plot.
ID: (Initial) Drive, a series of actions performed by the hero to defeat the opponent and win. Here the opponent is too strong and the hero resorts to immoral actions to prevail.
AA: Attack by ally. Hero’s immoral actions are confronted by ally. Second level of conflict. Increases pressure on hero and forces him to question his actions.
HAD: Apparent defeat, the hero’s lowest point. Reader should be convinced that the hero has lost. This should only happen once. If the story ends in ruin or death, this is an apparent victory.
SRD: Second revelation and decision: Obsessive drive, changed desire and motive: Some new information convinces the hero that success is possible. This is a major revelation, but their moral decline continues.
AR: Audience revelation: The reader learns something important, while the hero doesn’t, for example they learn that the fake ally is an opponent. This is the first time the reader knows more than the hero.
TRD: Third revelation and decision: Hero learns what the reader knows from the audience revelation. Hero redoubles their resolve.
GGD: Gate, gauntlet, visit to death: Occurs near the end but is the most movable part of the story. The hero’s options dwindle, the space through which he passes becomes narrower (physically, psychologically). Hero must pass through this while being assaulted on many fronts.
FC: Battle: Final, decisive conflict, while often violent, it is a battle between the competing values of the story.
HSR: Hero’s Self-revelation, hero is changed by the battle, is shocked to understand who he really is. The change must be truly meaningful (ideally universal). This either destroys him or makes him stronger.
- Double reversal: The opponent also changes as they also have a self-revelation about their weakness. The revelations should be connected; they should learn from each other.
- Thematic revelation: the reader also sees a new course of action.
MD: Moral decision: Proof of the self-revelation. Given two courses of action, hero chooses the moral path.
NE: New equilibrium: paraphrasing, “things settle down”, but the hero (and possibly opponent) are now operating at a higher (or lower) level.

Revelations Sequence

Take a separate view of the revelations distinct from the plot, and track the sequence.

The sequence must be in a logical order.
They must build in intensity. Not necessarily a monotonic build but the trend line must move upward.
They must build in pace, increasing the density of revelations.

Most powerful reveal is the reversal (common in detective stories and thrillers, e.g. The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects). Must be used with care otherwise the story is just a carrier for the reveal and few stories can succeed when dominated by plot.

The Storyteller

To use one or not is one of the most important decisions. A storyteller can let the author radically change the plot sequence, and can have a large effect on the depiction of character.

An oft misused technique.
A storyteller draws the attention of the reader, which gives the author some detachment.
The storyteller is a character in itself and can blur the distinction between reality and illusion.
Using a storyteller implies that the story happened in the past, and that the story is complete.
A storyteller telling a “trust me” story from memory is an invitation to the reader to not trust the storyteller.
Helps establish a more intimate connection between character and reader, allowing more subtle characterization.
Signals a shift from a hero of action to a hero who creates. The path to universality shifts from hero to the storyteller.
The storyteller must be necessary to how the story is told. They are a framework to structure a non-linear plot sequence.

Techniques:

The storyteller is probably the true main character. The self-revelation step is bifurcated. At the beginning they are trying to understand the impact of actions made either by them or another character. In the retelling of the story they gain a profound personal insight.
Dramatic introduction. A dramatic event in which the storyteller has been involved has recently occurred, which places the character inside the story.
Trigger. There is a critical problem in the present that causes the storyteller to recount the story.
Not authoritative. An all-knowing storyteller is a dead frame. They should have a great weakness that will be solved by telling the story. Telling the story should be difficult, making the act of telling the story heroic.
Non-linear. A linear story makes the storyteller a useless device.
Versions: The story is a dramatic argument the writer is having with the audience. The storyteller is struggling to express the truth and may thus interpret the same events differently to find the truth.
End the storytelling frame 75% of the way into the story. The last 25% will deal with the change in the storyteller.
Self-revelation: the act of telling the story triggers a revelation in the storyteller.
Consider having the storyteller explore how the act of telling the story can be immoral or destructive, to himself or to others.
Event trigger: the act of telling the story causes a final dramatic event, often the hero’s moral decision.
Avoid the death trigger. A character’s death doesn’t allow a full story to be told. The character can’t change, they’re dead. [but it could trigger change in another character…]
Creativity: the deeper them is about the beauty of creativity, not heroic action.
Limit the number: Too many storytellers risk disconnecting the reader from the emotion of the story.

Genres

A genre story must include the plot beats of the genre.

9. Scene Weave

An extension of the plot. Average novel 80-140 scenes, Hollywood movie 40-70.

Build a scene list (by subplot, if applicable)
Combine scenes. Each scene should contain essentially one action.
Cut or add. Trim unnecessary scenes, add anything required.
Order scenes by structure, not chronology.
Pay attention to the juxtaposition of scenes.

Multi-strand Plot Scene Weave

The quality of the overall story comes from the juxtaposition of the plot lines. Compare what people in a mini-society are facing at the same time. The audience gets to see in compressed form how lead characters use different solutions when trying to solve the same general problem.

Tag each scene with the related plot structure step

Each subplot must cover at least the seven key steps. Maintain narrative drive by making the hero of one plot line the opponent of the other.

Techniques (all illustrated through example):

Detective or Crime scene (LA Confidential)
Crosscut (The Empire Strikes Back)
Love Story (Pride and Prejudice)
Social Fantasy (It’s a Wonderful Life)

10. Scene Construction and Symphonic Dialogue

A scene is a mini-story. This means that a good scene has six of the seven structure steps: the exception is self-revelation, which is reserved for the hero near the end of the story. The self-revelation step within a scene is usually replaced by some twist, surprise, or reveal.

Constructing the Scene

Two objectives:

Determine how it fits into and furthers the overall development of the hero.
Make it a good mini-story.

Beginning frames what the whole scene is about, funnelling down to a single point with the most important word/line of dialogue last. Start the scene as late as possible without losing any of the seven elements of structure.

Questions to be answered:

What is the scene’s position on the hero’s character arc?
What must be accomplished in the scene? What problem(s) must be solved?
What tactics can be used to solve the problems?
Which character’s desire drives the scene? What do they want. This is the spine of the scene.
How does the character’s desire resolve? Focus the scene to that point.
Who opposes the desire and what is the source of their conflict?
The character with the desire creates a plan to reach that goal. In a direct plan, the character explicitly states the goal, increasing conflict. In an indirect plan, they pretend to want one thing while wanting something else. The opposing character will either spot the deception and play along, or be fooled, thus giving the first character what they want. Conflict may be deferred until later when the second character realizes that they’ve been deceived.
Make the conflict build to a breaking point or a solution.
Twist/reveal: characters and/or reader are surprised by what happens, or one character is critical of the other.

Complex/Subtext Scenes

Many characters in the scene have a hidden desire, with the desires in conflict with each other. Each of them uses an indirect plan to achieve their desire.

Dialogue

Dialogue is highly selective language that sounds like it could be real, but is always more intelligent, wittier, metaphorical, and better argued than in real life.

Great dialogue plays on three levels: story, moral, and keywords/phrases.

Story Dialogue (Melody)

Characters are talking about the main action line. Can transition to dialogue about being. about the attributes of the characters.

Moral Dialogue (Harmony)

Moral dialogue is about right and wrong actions, about values.

Key Words, Phrases, Taglines, and Sounds—Repetition, Variation, and Leitmotif

A single line of dialogue repeated many times over the course of the story

Scenes

The Opening

The foundation of every character and every action in the story. Must set a frame around the broadest scope of the story. It must also be a mini-story of its own, with characters and actions that are dramatically compelling and provide an opening punch.

Values in Conflict

Drama is the product of two character’s values and ideas in direct conflict (battle).

Monologue

A mini-story in the mind of a character. also needs to hit the seven steps.

Closing

Ultimate convergent point of the story.