Hariharan Jayakumar's Key Ideas from The Anatomy of Story
by John Truby

Weakness, Need, Desire(Want) are three important traits important for defining the perfect character.

Weakness should be the force stopping the character from growth.

Desire should be superficial and the main motive should be the need.

• Weakness & Need
• Desire
• Opponent
• Plan
• Battle
• Self Revelation
• New Equilibrium

These are some major events happening in our story. Write them in a rough order.

Give as many Weaknesses as possible to the hero. The opponent should be able to attack all the weaknesses of the hero and should try to achieve the same goal.

Linear: Sequential story telling. Cause and Event based.

Non Linear: They are branched and at times spiral ending up at the centre.

King or Father

Queen or Mother

Warrior

Magician or Shaman

Wise man or Old man

Trickster

Clown

Hero, Opponent, Ally, Fake Ally-Opponent, Fake Opponent-Ally, Sub plot characters.

Sub plot characters need not be an ally.

It should always be shown why the hero acts a particular way.

All the characters should be related some way or the other. Every character should have a purpose to exist in the story.

1) Coming of Age

2) Adult to leader

3) Cynic to Participant

4) Leader to Tyrant

5) Leader to Visionary

Link every characters either by their function or the type of role they perform.

Write down the Central Moral Problem

Show Variations in Central Moral Problem among every characters.

Bring about Hero's Character change

• Good vs Bad
• Tragedy
• Pathos

Satire and Irony

• Black Comedy

• Travelling
• Single Grand Symbol
• Connecting two grand symbols in a One Line process

1)Create a large umbrella and then crosscut and condense(Multiple arenas under a larger arena)

2)Send the hero on a journey through generally the sameareana, but one that develops along a single line.(Linear movement)

3)Send the hero on a circular journey through generally the same arena.(Returning to the start point)

4)Make the hero a fish out of water(bringing suddenly from one world to another)

Ocean, Outer Space, Forest, Jungle, Desert and Ice, Island, Mountain, Plain, River, Weather

This needs to be used for both the characters and the world they live in to ensure everything is in a flow and connected.

The bigger the vehicle driving the story, the more unified the arenas become. Ensure there is no forcing of characters in a particular scene or story event if they are not required.

There were many movies mentioned in this book. Special mentions are:

The Godfather, L.A.Confidential, Star Wars, Tootsie, Shining, Psycho, Gone with the wind, A Streetcar named Desire, Citizen Kane, Braveheart, Batman...