00:34 - 1. Key To Understanding Screenwriting 03:52 - 2. Movie Idea Or TV Idea? 06:53 - 3. How To Create The Main Character 10:50 - 4. The First Draft 16:28 - 5. The Most Common Screenwriting Question 18:50 - 6. On The Page 20:32 - 7. How To Break Writer’s Block Quickly 22:53 - 8. Should The Idea Be Written? 27:13 - 9. The Ending 28:54 - 10. Cliffhanger 30:58 - 11. What Is Hollywood Looking To Buy 34:45 - 12. First Rule Of Hollywood 37:12 - 13. Amateur Writers Can’t Do This 41:17 - 14. Audience Feedback 44:22 - 15. Breaking Down The Premise Line 46:26 - 16. Fake Allies 48:50 - 17. Television Story Beats 50:48 - 18. Wine Tasting 54:24 - 19. Total Control 56:51 - 20. The Real Problem That Has To Be Solved 1:00:30 - 21. Writing On Staff 1:03:55 - 22. Realities Of Being A TV Writer 1:09:58 - 23. Crafting A Serial Television Show 1:12:21 - 24. Reading Scripts 1:15:10 - 25. Treating The Craft Like A Business

Truby is the king of story and character development, his Anatomy book is essential to any writer, book or script.

That ad placement during the cliffhanger section - pristine.

Wow! Im sure that this is not a co-incidence. Before writing my story i share my creative partner my thoughts. He feels my story, what Im not sure if combining genres is a good idea until I listened to your interview. I wake up very excited abiut my story. Your message brighten my day even more. Omg!!!Thank you so much for sgaring your thoughts. That is why I am no longer slipping the beans because what I about to write next is giving an eery feeling. Listening gives me so much confidence on creating a first scriptwriting with "great" story. I will be forever be grateful to you. I will be very careful even more as if I am watching this movie. I agree that the dualogue is the last one should be made. Wow! Again Thank you for your valuable thoughts.

Trying to take notes on this video. Very difficult. Almost every word he says is valuable.

Clear, concise, and loaded with important practical and creative tools for the lengthy screenwriting journey. Thank you John.

Truby is one of my favorite educators. Using a quote from Anatomy of Story in my next video essay.

He is spot on about the sources of criticism. As an aside, I have been in a variety of classes, groups, and workshops in Los Angeles. Some of the MOST resistant to feedback were pro co readers and producers. Most wanted to argue, even if elements clearly didn't work. Few were able to make progress toward sales or wins.

As a serial binger, I just want to say that I love binging episodic shows a lot more than serialized shows precisely because the episodic shows don't make me feel like they're trying to prevent me from taking a break. Some serialized shows are great, but when every episode ends in a cliffhanger it becomes emotionally taxing. Just me. Rebinging Breaking Bad thanks to Mr. Truby here. It is amazing, though.

I’m currently reading his book now. His chapter on the Designing Principle is spot on, especially in the examples he gave. 👌🏾🙌🏾

Really, really good educator. He’s overturned a lot of the noise we hear about screenwriting.

Gold, pure writing gold...

Thanks for posting this!

His book，the anatomy of story，saves my script everytime!

Wow, this is exactly how I build up my music and film scores! Awesoem lecture! Thanks for putting this up!

John will do a Master Class in Paris February.

this is very good information. He's spot on about most efficient way to approach it all.

I love John's teaching! He is correct on every point here.

That’s a nice shirt at 3:57. Deep blue. Almost purple. Soft. Velvety. Need to buy a shirt like that. I wonder where he got it from? Much nicer than his other blue shirts. Or is it the same shirt? Just different lighting?

this is pure gold.

Master class 🙏🙏

This is a great video. I agree what game of thrones has done for TV in terms of scale is a game changer.

Master class

Great video 👍

Really great stuff

I've been loving most everything Truby has to say about writing and story structure. A lot of these tips are gold for writing of any kind, but does anyone know of teachers/speakers like this that are more oriented towards novels instead of film and television?

I'm a novelist. I've lost track of how many times Truby's tips have saved my book. I know he's a famous Hollywood script doctor, but I wish he was a professional book editor.

This is my 2nd time watching this mix. His words feels like printing money.

I love what Truby has to say about story, far more than other story teachers. That being said, his BlockBuster software is in serious needs of updates. The program keeps mentioning things like CD-rom and FLOPPY DISKS (do teens today know what that is?). Once it's installed, you have to either call or email the creators for an activation code. The software itself is very helpful, I just wish they could have brought in some programmers from this decade to give it an update and a nice UI polish.

I'd love to know what the beats are for all 12 genres he talks about.. Are they in his book?

That was interesting i can find this step in his book Anatomy this is a great idea to give the point in oral for a better understanding, i'm never annoyed by watching video, 1 hour ? Wow i didn't see all time passed

I really like your repackaging of the two different interviews.

I wished that some of the masters, provided details/examples to explain the techniques rather than generalizations and promotion their classes.

"With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can't possibly make a good film." Akira Kurosawa

Gems gems gems

I always think of my idea as a film not as a series. Is it wrong to switch and make it a series? If so how can I do that? Thanks 🤍

Truby understands story

Is there any genere audio classes pls let me know

Babylon 5 and Witcher season 1 are my two favourite TV structures. Witcher had three structures: episodic (Geralt’s story), multi-episode stories (Yen), and a season-wide story arc with Ciri. I think some were confused by the structure, and I had the advantage of reading the books several times. Either way, I think everyone should read the books before watching the show because the show uncovers more about the characters more quickly than the books - I don’t think there is any major grand design differences between the show and Sapkowski, more that Sapkowski hadn’t thought of some of the stuff yet, and delivered information differently and in a different order…. But some fans claim they know best, Asimov, for example, felt it was best to read the books in Chronological order, but most fans find the story more surprising to read it in publication order: the TV Show (while it changes a lot of details, keeps major elements fairly close) follows more Asimov’s recommendation so Demerzel is used at the beginning of the story instead of at the end; and that’s how Asimov recommended it, but most fans recommend doing the prequels last and having Demerzel as a big surprise. So, I don’t think there’s a wrong answer for watching Witcher show first or reading the books first, but IMO the books should be read first so as to not spoil all elements. The Witcher games are a separate thing. Babylon 5, is another favourite - the first season was episodic and used for world building. The real arc starts right at the end of the season, but much of what happened in season 1’s episodes is the foundation for the next 3 seasons. Season 1 was all setup, but it didn’t feel like setup. It’s kind of like Lord of the Rings Chapter 1, which feels like a low stakes short story, but so much is set up by that one chapter, including character motivation stuff about the world, and other things-then chapter 2 (Shadow of the Past) is where it hits with the exposition, but it’s no longer overwhelming because you know the characters, how they’ll react, and what they’re looking for-A Long Expected Party is the tent polls and the containers/coolers, A Shadow of the Past is the Tarp and the contents of the coolers, and the Chapter 3 onward is the camping trip. I think Babylon 5 is kind of like Lord of the Rings, in how it has these little episodes that surround the idea of a space station to act as a connecting place for all the powers of the galaxy, and the stakes seem lower, and it’s really easy to see the mini-story of each episode, establish the characters and such, and then when it starts dumping on the exposition for the main arc, it’s not at all overwhelming. So, I think that’s kind of where a lot of shows are missing, is that they lack that satisfying episodic content in the early episodes. Many shows these days I kind of struggle to get into, even if I usually do… IMO, TV is so much greater now than it was when I was growing up, BUT, they most often start in a way I don’t like. I want to see the characters in shorter bite sized stories, or at least the main character, before I jump into a larger story. Babylon 5 did that. Witcher had Geralt’s bite sized stories (based on several of the short stories from the pre-Saga collections), Yen’s larger bites, and Ciri as a full arc, a little for everyone. Season 2 was interesting in starting with an episode (literally just worked in the second short story) then jumping to the Saga. One big recommendation for any fan of anything is to stay away from fanbases of anything. Generally, unless it’s a very old TV show, they’re going to be dominated by insufferable pessimists… particularly in fantasy and sci-if. This often goes for films as well. Sometimes as shows go on the fanbases she’s their pessimists (Better Call Saul and Last Kingdom are great examples of shows that started off with very pessimist filled fanbases and then filled with optimists in time. Well, the pessimists we’re still there, they just no longer dominated the conversation. Even with optimistic fanbases, I find (with new shows, at least) is that it’s more of a pessimist rebellion against some other major show/film and aren’t really optimists at all. That’s why I tend to stay away from fandoms.

What is good literature about genres and bits of a genre?

I'm reading "The anatomy of story". Heavy stuff

How much of one genre makes a script a Drama rather than a Thriller? Thriller vs. Action?

But was has he written himself except for books on screenwriting? What scripts has he written? I can only find three episodes of Jump Street?

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Please, make a subtitle for this. Proper english subtitle, pls!

Russell T Davies was writing series tv well before the USA writers caught up.

It probably is who you know but only if you want to make money writing scripts for mockbusters. How does "Beyond the Trek" get made? Did they hire a screen writer? Did they pay money for that script?

John doesn't like to wear a lav mic?

how can i be a script consultant..? why are they trying to do it all the selves?

:o

If you are reading this: STOP WITH THE LEARNING AND START WRITING your stories! GO!

*He keeps saying “structural problems inherent to a story”. Like what...?*

this dude hasn't written anything since 21 jump street in the 1980s

Only amateurs write right away? But Richard Walter says idea are worthless, just write right away. Did he train only amateurs? Did all the great movies get written the Truby way? I'm sensing a hint of ideologue fluff coming from this guy.

Let's have a look at all the big award winning blockbusters he has written on IMDB then shall we?

He never gave out any content of his master class. This video is a long version of his Sales copy for his master class....just the sales pitch no actual value in this video...even for a simple thing like premise line formula...he didn't give any.... boring and useless. Robert McKee gives lots of value in 2 to 3 minute videos..real things that you can use... he's far superior in his quality, precise and to the point without all this wordplay...no wonder he is considered a legend

I've spent more than an hour listening to this man, and the advice was good, until, he said that "American TV is the best in the world". Hilarious. I think British TV is far better, but I would not say so; well, unless prompted to do so in response! Of course if you're American (US) you're going to understand the cultural framework for your programmes better, but the same applies to me as a British person and to other people from elsewhere. Writing is an art-form and what is good and what is not is subjective. This man's advice is good but he is pedalling opinions as facts, because therein lies his commercial power. If he was just giving opinions how could he charge people to listen to him?! I'll get my advice elsewhere.

1:12:10 - End.... Please stop fucking breathing like Darth Vader, thanks. 🙏

Truby may be a great teacher, but he doesn't say a single useful thing here, but rather speaks in generalities without giving specific practical advice.

"History is written by the victors;" Joseph Stalin.