18 Quotes by John Truby

Desire never stops. Equilibrium is temporary. The self-revelation is never simple, and it cannot guarantee the hero a satisfying life from that day forward. since a great story is always a living thing, its ending is no more final and certain than any other part of the story.

Stories don't show the audience the 'real world'; they show the story world. The story world isn't a copy of life as it is. It's life as human beings imagine it could be. It is human life condensed and heightened so that the audience can gain a better understanding of how life itself works.

Generally, in the long history of storytelling, there has been a move from almost total emphasis on acting––in the myth form, where the audience learns simply by modeling themselves on the hero's actions––to a heavy emphasis on learning, in which the audience's concern is to figure out what is happening, who these people really are, and what events really transpired, before achieving full understanding of how to live a good life.

Since a story is always a whole, and the organic end is found in the beginning, a great story always ends by signaling to the audience to go back to the beginning and experience it again. The story is an endless cycle––a Mobius strip––that is always different because the audience is always rethinking it in light of what just happened.

Step 1: Write Something That May Change Your Life.

A story tracks what a person wants, what he’ll do to get it, and what costs he’ll have to pay along the way.

To empathize with someone means to care about and understand him. That’s why the trick to keeping the audience’s interest in a character, even when the character is not likable or is taking immoral actions, is to show the audience the hero’s motive.

Generally, in the long history of storytelling, there has been a move from almost total emphasis on acting––in the myth form, where the audience learns simply by modeling themselves on the hero’s actions––to a heavy emphasis on learning, in which the audience’s concern is to figure out what is happening, who these people really are, and what events really transpired, before achieving full understanding of how to live a good life.

The multistrand plot is clearly a much more simultaneous form of storytelling, emphasizing the group, or the minisociety, and how the characters compare.