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.
