The Anatomy of Story

Author: John Truby
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429923709
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Book Description
John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood's most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all of his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby's own unique approach for how to build an effective, multifaceted narrative. Truby's method for constructing a story is at once insightful and practical, focusing on the hero's moral and emotional growth. As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effective story. Writers will come away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with—specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. They will construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience. The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable—and essential—to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.

Stein On Writing

Author: Sol Stein
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466864990
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
Your future as a writer is in your hands. Whether you are a newcomer or an accomplished professional, a novelist, story writer, or a writer of nonfiction, you will find this book a wealth of immediately useful guidance not available anywhere else. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of useable solutions-- how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place." You will find one of the great unspoken secrets of craftsmanship in Chapter 5, called "Markers: The Key to Swift Characterization." In Chapter 7, Stein reveals for he first time in print the wonderful system for creating instant conflict developed in the Playwrights Group of the Actors Studio, of which he was a founder. In "Secrets of Good Dialogue," the premier teacher of dialogue gives you the instantly useable techniques that not only make verbal exchanges exciting but that move the story forward immediately. You won't need to struggle with flashbacks or background material after you've read Chapter 14, which shows you how to bring background into the foreground. Writers of both fiction and nonfiction will relish the amphetamines for speeding up pace, and the many ways to liposuction flab, as well as how to tap originality and recognize what successful titles have in common. You'll discover literary values that enhance writing, providing depth and resonance. You'll bless the day you read Chapters 32 and 33 and discover why revising by starting at page one can be a serious mistake, and how to revise without growing cold on your manuscript. In the pages of this book, nonfiction writers will find a passport to the new revolution in journalism and a guide to using the techniques of fiction to enhance nonfiction. Fresh, useful, informative, and fun to read and reread, Stein on Writing is a book you will mark up, dog-ear, and cherish.

The Anatomy of Prose

Author: Sacha Black
Publisher: Atlas Black Publishing
ISBN: 1913236013
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
Do your sentences fail to sound the way you want? Are they lackluster, with flat characters and settings? Is your prose full of bad habits and crutches? In The Anatomy of Prose, you’ll discover: A step-by-step guide to creating descriptions that sing The key to crafting character emotions that will hook a reader How to harness all five senses to make your stories come alive, deepening your reader's experience Tips and tricks for balancing details at the sentence level Methods for strengthening each sentence through strategic word choice, rhythm and flow Dozens of literary devices, and how to utilize them to give your prose power Tactics for differentiating characters in dialogue as well as making it punchy and unforgettable A comprehensive prose-specific self-editing check list How to embody your character's personality at the sentence level The most common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid The Anatomy of Prose is a comprehensive writing guide that will help you create sensational sentences. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will power up your prose, eliminate line-level distractions and help you find the perfect balance of show and tell. By the end of this book, you'll know how to strengthen your sentences to give your story, prose and characters the extra sparkle they need to capture a reader's heart. If you like dark humor, learning through examples and want to create perfect prose, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting sensational sentences. Read The Anatomy of Prose today and start creating kick-ass stories.

Anatomy of a Premise Line

Author: Jeff Lyons
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1317558952
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description
If a story is going to fail, it will do so first at the premise level. Anatomy of a Premise Line: How to Master Premise and Story Development for Writing Success is the only book of its kind to identify a seven-step development process that can be repeated and applied to any story idea. This process will save you time, money, and potentially months of wasted writing. So whether you are trying to write a feature screenplay, develop a television pilot, or just trying to figure out your next story move as a writer, this book gives you the tools you need to know which ideas are worth pursuing. In addition to the 7-step premise development tool, Anatomy of a Premise Line also presents a premise and idea testing methodology that can be used to test any developed premise line. Customized exercises and worksheets are included to facilitate knowledge transfer, so that by the end of the book, you will have a fully developed premise line, log line, tagline, and a completed premise-testing checklist. Here is some of what you will learn inside: Ways to determine whether or not your story is a good fit for print or screen Case studies and hands-on worksheets to help you learn by participating in the process Tips on how to effectively work through writer’s block A companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/lyons) with additional worksheets, videos, and interactive tools to help you learn the basics of perfecting a killer premise line

Dan O'Bannon's Guide to Screenplay Structure

Author: Dan O'Bannon
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781615931309
Category : Motion picture authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Dan O'Bannon famously crafted his screenplays using a self-designed system which he called "dynamic structure." This book outlines how O'Bannon's method differs from those of other well-known screenwriting gurus, and illustrates with examples from classic (and not-so-classic) films how dynamic structure can be applied to craft narrative and character. O'Bannon also includes his insights on subjects such as the logic of the three-act structure, the role of the producer in screenplay development, and the psychological principle known as "hedonic adaptation," which has a unique effect on the structuring of screen stories.

The Lost Art of Story

Author: Adam Skelter
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781792121692
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Book Description
This book is a companion to my series of video essays, ANATOMY OF CHAOS. These videos are condensed versions of a lecture series I taught at California Institute of the Arts Film Program.These chapters are intended to be an educational and inspirational resource that fosters discussion and supports writers and artists of all kinds as they develop their art. The entire ANATOMY OF CHAOS video series is available free of charge on my website, Lost Tribe Entertainment (www.losttribeentertainment.com), as well as on my ANATOMY OF CHAOS: The Art of Story -- YouTube channel.

The Anatomy of Genres

Author: John Truby
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 0374722811
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
A guide to understanding the major genres of the story world by the legendary writing teacher and author of The Anatomy of Story, John Truby. Most people think genres are simply categories on Netflix or Amazon that provide a helpful guide to making entertainment choices. Most people are wrong. Genre stories aren’t just a small subset of the films, video games, TV shows, and books that people consume. They are the all-stars of the entertainment world, comprising the vast majority of popular stories worldwide. That’s why businesses—movie studios, production companies, video game studios, and publishing houses—buy and sell them. Writers who want to succeed professionally must write the stories these businesses want to buy. Simply put, the storytelling game is won by mastering the structure of genres. The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works is the legendary writing teacher John Truby’s step-by-step guide to understanding and using the basic building blocks of the story world. He details the three ironclad rules of successful genre writing, and analyzes more than a dozen major genres and the essential plot events, or “beats,” that define each of them. As he shows, the ability to combine these beats in the right way is what separates stories that sell from those that don’t. Truby also reveals how a single story can combine elements of different genres, and how the best writers use this technique to craft unforgettable stories that stand out from the crowd. Just as Truby’s first book, The Anatomy of Story, changed the way writers develop stories, The Anatomy of Genres will enhance their quality and expand the impact they have on the world.

Alice Munro and the Anatomy of the Short Story

Author: Oriana Palusci
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527507009
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Book Description
Alice Munro has devoted her entire career to the short story form in her fourteen collections, having won the Nobel Prize in Literature “as master of the contemporary short story”. This edited volume investigates her art as a storyteller, the processes she performs on the contemporary short story genre in her creative anatomical theatre. Divided into five topical sections, it is a collection of scholarly chapters which offer textual insights into a single story, compare two or more texts, or casts a more panoramic view on Munro’s literary production, embracing stories from her first collection Dance of the Happy Shades to her last published Dear Life. Through different critical approaches that range from post-structuralism to cultural studies, from linguistics and rhetorical analyses to translation studies, the authors insist on the concept that no fixed patterns prevail in her short stories, as Munro has constantly developed, challenged, and revised existing modes of generic configuration, while discussing the fluidity, the elusiveness, the indeterminacy, the ambiguity of her superb writing.

The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited

Author: Emanuel Rosen
Publisher: Currency
ISBN: 0385526326
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
A new edition of the definitive handbook on word-of-mouth marketing, completely revised and updated for today’s online world With two-thirds new material and scores of current examples from today’s most successful companies, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited takes readers inside the world of word-of-mouth marketing and explains how and why it works. Based on over one hundred new interviews with thought leaders, marketing executives, researchers, and consumers, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited shows how to: * Generate genuine buzz both online and off. * Encourage people to talk about your products and services—and help spread the word among their friends, colleagues, and communities. * Adapt traditional word-of-mouth strategies in today’s era of Facebook, YouTube, and consumer-generated media. Smart, surprising, and filled with cutting-edge strategies and insights, The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited is essential for anyone who wants to get attention for a product, message, or idea in today’s message-cluttered world.

The Anatomy of Consumerism

Author: H. RamHormozi
Publisher: FriesenPress
ISBN: 1525545965
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Book Description
The Anatomy of Consumerism is a story of greed and obsession and consumption. Of waste and environmental degradation. Of destruction and despair. It is the story of being human. In this earnest account of a serious problem in which we are all implicated, we come to terms with our collective obsession with material consumption. The Anatomy of Consumerism tracks this consumption from the Industrial Revolution, through a ravenous stretch of excessive production and acquisition, all the way to our digital present—a period during which we overconsume as a matter of course and visit irreparable damage on our natural environment as a result. It is no wonder the consequences of human greed fester so hotly in debate among economists, social scientists, and environmentalists. The Anatomy of Consumerism wades into this debate’s center.