Has anyone out there read, John Truby's 'The Anatomy of Story'? And if yes, how did it help you in your screenwriting?
I just wanted to get some insight about this book before buying.
And could anyone can suggest some other books regarding Storytelling Techniques or how to improve them (not specifically screenwriting).? Here, I'm not talking about 'How to Write a Screenplay' or 'How to Sell it' or 'How to Format' it, I'm talking about the Fundamentals of Storytelling and how to improve my storytelling in general.
Thanks :)
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my first book that I read is "How to write a damn good Novel" by James Frey. I felt that one really helped me understand the craft. Plus any of the books written by Sid Field I liked and Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
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The Frey book is good, so is the McKee. Also, The Writer's Journey by Chris Vogler. It's a distillation of The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, which is still the best source for learning the craft of storytelling (of course, it's almost 500 pages!).
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"How to Make a Good Script Great" by Linda Seger is worth its weight in gold.
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The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. Considered by many the bedrock of a successful script writing approach.
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As John says. Here a bit of extra info. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_structure
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Yes, Truby is solid. You can also visit his website (www.truby.com) and purchase story courses. There's Horror-Sci Fi-Fantasy, Detective-Crime Stories-Thrillers, and plenty of others. All his stuff is great and really helped me when I was doing development / production at 20th Century Fox. Chris Vogler's book "The Writer's Journey" (mentioned above) is good, and it focuses primarily on the journey and quest structure; The Art of Dramatic Writing (mentioned above) is a great book as well.
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Yes. I own a copy. I've taken his seminars. His work is solid.
However, the only book that matters is the one that got you to write something.
Thank You so much everyone for all of your suggestions. Till now I've only read Save The Cat, but I felt it focused more on the 'selling' part of the development process. Guess I've got a lot of reading to do :)
P.S: The first book that I read was, How to Write A Great Screenplay by Linda M. James
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John Truby is excellent! I have used his Blockbuster and it helps you structure your story.
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Poetics.
It’s free if you search.