Author:: [[John Truby]] DateFinished:: 02-11-2024 Rating:: 7 Tags:: #🟥 # The Anatomy of Story  ## 🚀The Book in 3 Sentences - Write a story that will change your life, and you are guaranteed to write a story that could change other peoples lives - There are archetypes and general principles for writing great stories, every, single, time. - For a story to be great, every aspect of the story must connect together, nothing exists in isolation. ### 🎨 Impressions - John Truby is incredibly knowledgeable about storytelling. You get the sense he has done this for a long time. He expertly dissects great stories to exemplify the points he's making, and he has a lot of insightful things to say. - The major problem I have with the book is it is overcomplicated. I feel there are ways he could have simplified what he was saying. It's long. 420 pages+ and it's not written with super engaging prose to compensate. So while the information is world class, I can't give it a higher score because of that. ### 📖Who Should Read It? - Anyone really serious about becoming a better storyteller. This isn't for your beginner storyteller. ### ☘️ How the Book Changed Me - Major things it taught me were the idea of writing something that will change your life. If I'm not inspired to write it because it will help me, I'm not going to write it. It has to be about things I grapple with. - Nothing exists in isolation in your story. Everything is connected. You have to find a way to create tension through the connection of character, world, and plot. - There are archetypes and principles to writing great stories which can help you navigate the problems associated with writing in a particular genre or plot type. - A great story lives forever. I'm trying to write my stories in a way where they aren't closed at the end. ### ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes - If you are a good reader—and I have no question that you are—you are not the same person you were when you began this book. Now that you’ve read it once, let me suggest … well, you know what to do. # Linked Book Notes - [[Write something that will change your life]] - [[Steps to ideating a great story]] - [[7 steps of every great story]] - [[Characters are defined through relationship]] - [[A great story lives forever]] ## Highlights Good storytelling doesn’t just tell audiences what happened in a life. It gives them the experience of that life. ([Location 143](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=143)) Withholding, or hiding, information is crucial to the storyteller’s make-believe. It forces the audience to figure out who the character is and what he is doing and so draws the audience into the story. When the audience no longer has to figure out the story, it ceases being an audience, and the story stops. ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=150)) - Note: This is what makes fiction writing different from filmmaking. There’s more room for interpretation in fiction writing. #### CHAPTER 2 Premise The premise is your story stated in one sentence. It is the simplest combination of character and plot and typically consists of some event that starts the action, some sense of the main character, and some sense of the outcome of the story. ([Location 296](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=296)) You may be terrific at character, a master at plot, or a genius at dialogue. But if your premise is weak, there is nothing you can do to save the story. ([Location 316](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=316)) - Note: I don’t know if it agree. I think character are the most crucial aspects of fiction for me. That’s what’s interesting to me. Joe Abercrombie does have great plot. His characters drive the narrative. Step 1: Write Something That May Change Your Life ([Location 337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=337)) This is a very high standard, but it may be the most valuable piece of advice you’ll ever get as a writer. I’ve never seen a writer go wrong following it. Why? Because if a story is that important to you, it may be that important to a lot of people in the audience. And when you’re done writing the story, no matter what else happens, you’ve changed your life. ([Location 338](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=338)) To explore yourself, to have a chance to write something that may change your life, you have to get some data on who you are. And you have to get it outside of you, in front of you, so you can study it from a distance. ([Location 344](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=344)) Two exercises can help you do this. First, write down your wish list, a list of everything you would like to see up on the screen, in a book, or at the theater. It’s what you are passionately interested in, and it’s what entertains you. You might jot down characters you have imagined, cool plot twists, or great lines of dialogue that have popped into your head. You might list themes that you care about or certain genres that always attract you. ([Location 346](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=346)) The second exercise is to write a premise list. This is a list of every premise you’ve ever thought of. That might be five, twenty, fifty, or more. ([Location 351](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=351)) Once you have completed both your wish list and your premise list, lay them out before you and study them. Look for core elements that repeat themselves on both lists. ([Location 354](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=354)) Step 3: Identify the Story Challenges and Problems ([Location 408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=408)) Step 4: Find the Designing Principle ([Location 444](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=444)) The designing principle is what organizes the story as a whole. It is the internal logic of the story, what makes the parts hang together organically so that the story becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It is what makes the story original. ([Location 448](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=448)) Step 5: Determine Your Best Character in the Idea ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=527)) KEY POINT: Always tell a story about your best character. ([Location 530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=530)) “Best” doesn’t mean “nicest.” It means “the most fascinating, challenging, and complex,” even if that character isn’t particularly likable. ([Location 531](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=531)) - Note: I don’t think there can only be one best character. I think Joe Abercrombies books show that. But Brandon Sanderson focuses on one character in each of his books which does follow this point. If you are developing an idea that seems to have multiple main characters, you will have as many story lines as main characters, and so you must find the best character for each story line. ([Location 537](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=537)) Step 6: Get a Sense of the Central Conflict ([Location 539](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=539)) To figure out the central conflict, ask yourself “Who fights whom over what?” and answer the question in one succinct line. ([Location 541](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=541)) Step 7: Get a Sense of the Single Cause-and-Effect Pathway ([Location 545](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=545)) The trick to finding the single cause-and-effect pathway is to ask yourself “What is my hero’s basic action?” Your hero will take many actions over the course of the story. But there should be one action that is most important, that unifies every other action the hero takes. That action is the cause-and-effect path. ([Location 555](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=555)) Step 8: Determine Your Hero’s Possible Character Change ([Location 572](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=572)) KEY POINT: The basic action should be the one action best able to force the character to deal with his weaknesses and change. ([Location 584](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=584)) Step 9: Figure Out the Hero’s Possible Moral Choice ([Location 630](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=630)) KEY POINT: To be a true choice, your hero must either select one of two positive outcomes or, on rare occasions, avoid one of two negative outcomes (as in Sophie’s Choice). ([Location 638](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=638)) Step 10: Gauge the Audience Appeal ([Location 646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=646)) When you’ve done all your premise work, ask yourself one final question: Is this single story line unique enough to interest a lot of people besides me? ([Location 646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=646)) #### CHAPTER 3 The Seven Key Steps of Story Structure A story has a minimum of seven steps in its growth from beginning to end: 1. Weakness and need 2. Desire 3. Opponent 4. Plan 5. Battle 6. Self-revelation 7. New equilibrium ([Location 699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=699)) They are the steps that any human being must work through to solve a life problem. ([Location 705](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=705)) 1. WEAKNESS AND NEED ([Location 709](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=709)) From the very beginning of the story, your hero has one or more great weaknesses that are holding him back. Something is missing within him that is so profound, it is ruining his life ([Location 710](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=710)) KEY POINT: Your hero should not be aware of his need at the beginning of the story. ([Location 722](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=722)) KEY POINT: Give your hero a moral need as well as a psychological need. ([Location 726](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=726)) In average stories, the hero has only a psychological need. A psychological need involves overcoming a serious flaw that is hurting nobody but the hero. In better stories, the hero has a moral need in addition to a psychological need. The hero must overcome a moral flaw and learn how to act properly toward other people. A character with a moral need is always hurting others in some way (his moral weakness) at the beginning of the story. ([Location 727](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=727)) To give your character a moral as well as a psychological need and to make it the right one for your character, 1. Begin with the psychological weakness. 2. Figure out what kind of immoral action might naturally come out of that. 3. Identify the deep-seated moral weakness and need that are the source of this action. A second technique for creating a good moral need is to push a strength so far that it becomes a weakness. The technique works like this: 1. Identify a virtue in your character. Then make him so passionate about it that it becomes oppressive. 2. Come up with a value the character believes in. Then find the negative version of that value. ([Location 756](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=756)) - Note: Keft has become cynical and pessimistic about actions leading to good change because his daughter died in the last war. The moral problem is he’s not trying to uphold justice even when he sees its wrongdoing right in front of him. Dialogue for Woid: inaction is still an action. 2. DESIRE ([Location 764](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=764)) Need has to do with overcoming a weakness within the character. A hero with a need is always paralyzed in some way at the beginning of the story by his weakness. Desire is a goal outside the character. Once the hero comes up with his desire, he is moving in a particular direction and taking actions to reach his goal. ([Location 773](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=773)) - Note: The need for left is to get past his close minded, cynical attitude, from his daughter’s death and realize it’s better to pursue change with hope than live in. The desire is to save the child. 3. OPPONENT ([Location 805](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=805)) A true opponent not only wants to prevent the hero from achieving his desire but is competing with the hero for the same goal. ([Location 808](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=808)) If you give your hero and opponent two separate goals, each one can get what he wants without coming into direct conflict. And then you have no story at all. ([Location 811](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=811)) 4. PLAN ([Location 833](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=833)) 5. BATTLE ([Location 845](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=845)) 6. SELF-REVELATION ([Location 853](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=853)) - Note: For Keft this could be putting himself in the line of fire between him and the girl. Sacrificing himself to a greater cause. 7. NEW EQUILIBRIUM ([Location 882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=882)) At the new equilibrium, everything returns to normal, and all desire is gone. Except there is now one major difference. The hero has moved to a higher or lower level as a result of going through his crucible. A fundamental and permanent change has occurred in the hero. ([Location 883](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=883)) HOW TO USE THE SEVEN STEPS—WRITING EXERCISE 2 ([Location 899](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=899)) KEY POINT: Start by determining the self-revelation, at the end of the story; then go back to the beginning and figure out your hero’s need and desire. ([Location 913](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=913)) #### CHAPTER 4 Character The single biggest mistake writers make when creating characters is that they think of the hero and all other characters as separate individuals. Their hero is alone, in a vacuum, unconnected to others. The result is not only a weak hero but also cardboard opponents and minor characters who are even weaker. ([Location 985](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=985)) ## New highlights added 29-01-2024 at 12:31 PM KEY POINT: You begin individuating your characters by finding the moral problem at the heart of the premise. You then play out the various possibilities of the moral problem in the body of the story. You play out these various possibilities through the opposition. Specifically, you create a group of opponents (and allies) who force the hero to deal with the central moral problem. And each opponent is a variation on the theme; each deals with the same moral problem in a different way. ([Location 1268](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1268)) Always show why your hero acts as he does. If you show the audience why the character chooses to do what he does, they understand the cause of the action (empathy) without necessarily approving of the action itself (sympathy). ([Location 1366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1366)) Don’t think of your main character as a fixed, complete person whom you then tell a story about. You must think of your hero as a range of change, a range of possibilities, from the very beginning. You have to determine the range of change of the hero at the start of the writing process, or change will be impossible for the hero at the end of the story. ([Location 1406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1406)) ## New highlights added 30-01-2024 at 12:16 PM Better stories go beyond a simple opposition between hero and main opponent and use a technique I call four-corner opposition. In this technique, you create a hero and a main opponent plus at least two secondary opponents. (You can have even more if the added opponents serve an important story function.) ([Location 1678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1678)) Each opponent should use a different way of attacking the hero’s great weakness. ([Location 1685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1685)) Try to place each character in conflict, not only with the hero but also with every other character. ([Location 1701](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1701)) Put the values of all four characters in conflict. ([Location 1715](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1715)) Push the characters to the corners. ([Location 1741](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1741)) Extend the four-corner pattern to every level of the story. ([Location 1754](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1754)) CHAPTER 5 Moral Argument ([Location 1882](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1882)) A great story is not simply a sequence of events or surprises designed to entertain an audience. It is a sequence of actions, with moral implications and effects, designed to express a larger theme. ([Location 1886](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1886)) Regardless of story form, average writers express their moral vision almost solely through the dialogue, so that the “morals” overwhelm the story. Stories like these, such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and Gandhi, get criticized for being “on the nose” and preachy. At their worst, overtly moralizing stories are ponderous, causing their audience to shrink back from the author’s oppressive lecturing, clumsy narrative, and lack of technique. ([Location 1903](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1903)) You never want to create characters that sound like a mouthpiece for your ideas. Good writers express their moral vision slowly and subtly, primarily through the story structure and the way the hero deals with a particular situation. Your moral vision is communicated by how your hero pursues his goal while competing with one or more opponents and by what your hero learns, or fails to learn, over the course of his struggle. ([Location 1907](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=1907)) ## New highlights added 31-01-2024 at 7:39 AM #### CHAPTER 6 Story World ## New highlights added 06-02-2024 at 11:06 AM #### CHAPTER 7 Symbol Web KEY POINT: Always create a web of symbols in which each symbol helps define the others. ([Location 3914](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=3914)) Let’s step back for a moment and look once more at how the various subsystems of the story body fit together. The character web shows a deeper truth about how the world works by comparing and contrasting people. Plot shows a deeper truth about how the world works through a sequence of actions with a surprising but powerful logic. The symbol web shows a deeper reality about how the world works by referring objects, people, and actions to other objects, people, and actions. ([Location 3916](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=3916)) In coming up with a web of symbols that you can weave through your story, you must first come up with a single line that can connect all the main symbols of the web. This symbol line must come out of the work you have done on the designing principle of the story, along with the theme line and the story world you have already created. ([Location 3961](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=3961)) A great shorthand technique for connecting symbol to character is to use certain categories of character, especially gods, animals, and machines. Each of these categories represents a fundamental way of being as well as a level of being. ([Location 4043](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4043)) ## New highlights added 11-02-2024 at 8:04 PM KEY POINT: Your plot depends on how you withhold and reveal in formation. Plotting involves “the masterful management of suspense and mystery, artfully leading the reader through an elaborate … space that is always full of signs to be read, but always menaced with misreading until the very end.” ([Location 4584](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4584)) - Note: I’ve definitely noticed this inside my fiction writing of setting suns. The plot is done through what information is held or not given. The first major strategy of plot came from the myth storytellers, and its main technique was the journey. In this plot form, the hero goes on a journey where he encounters a number of opponents in succession. He defeats each one and returns home. The journey is supposed to be organic (1) because one person is creating the single line and (2) because the journey provides a physical manifestation of the hero’s character change. Every time the hero defeats an opponent, he may experience a small character change. He experiences his biggest change (his self-revelation) when he returns home to discover what was already deep within him; he discovers his deepest capabilities. ([Location 4609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4609)) The third major plot type is what we might call the reveals plot. In this technique, the hero generally stays in one place, though it is not nearly so narrow an area as unity of place requires. For example, the story may take place in a town or a city. Also, the reveals plot almost always covers a longer time period than unity of time allows, even up to a few years. (When the story covers decades, you are probably writing a saga, which tends more toward the journey plot.) The key technique of the reveals plot is that the hero is familiar with his opponents, but a great deal about them is hidden from the hero and the audience. In addition, these opponents are very skilled at scheming to get what they want. This combination produces a plot that is filled with revelations, or surprises, for the hero and the audience. ([Location 4644](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4644)) - Note: This is what I’m writing in setting suns. nineteenth-century storytelling was about superplot, twentieth-century storytelling, at least in serious fiction, was about antiplot. ([Location 4664](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4664)) I suspect that many twentieth-century writers were not rebelling against plot per se but big plot, those sensational revelations that so shock the reader, they knock over everything else in their path. What I am calling antiplot, then, is really a range of techniques that these storytellers devised that would make the plot organic by making it express the subtleties of character. Point of view, shifting narrators, branching story structure, and nonchronological time are all techniques that play with plot by changing how the story is told, with the deeper aim of presenting a more complex view of human character. ([Location 4674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4674)) The newest plot strategy is the multistrand plot, which was originally devised by novelists and screenwriters but has really flowered in dramatic television, beginning with the seminal show Hill Street Blues. In this strategy, each story, or weekly episode, is comprised of three to five major plot strands. Each strand is driven by a separate character within a single group, usually within an organization like a police precinct, hospital, or law firm. The storyteller crosscuts between these strands. When this plot strategy is executed poorly, the strands have nothing to do with each other, and the crosscut is simply used to goose the audience’s attention and increase the speed. When the plot strategy is executed well, each strand is a variation on a theme, and the crosscut from one strand to another creates a shock of recognition at the moment two scenes are juxtaposed. ([Location 4701](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4701)) - Note: The Stormlight archives is a great example. You are probably familiar with the term “backstory.” Backstory is everything that has happened to the hero before the story you are telling begins. I rarely use the term “backstory” because it is too broad to be useful. The audience is not interested in everything that has happened to the hero. They are interested in the essentials. That’s why the term “ghost” is much better. There are two kinds of ghosts in a story. The first and most common is an event from the past that still haunts the hero in the present. ([Location 4798](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4798)) A second kind of ghost, though uncommon, is a story in which a ghost is not possible because the hero lives in a paradise world. Instead of starting the story in slavery—in part because of his ghost—the hero begins free. But an attack will soon change all that. ([Location 4816](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=4816)) If your revelations don’t build in intensity, the plot will stall or even decline. This is deadly. Avoid it at all costs. ([Location 5059](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=5059)) The more revelations you have, the richer and more complex the plot. Every time your hero or audience gains new information, that’s a revelation. ([Location 5076](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=5076)) The revelation should be important enough to cause your hero to make a decision and change his course of action. ([Location 5077](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=5077)) Just as the hero has a plan and takes steps to win, so does the opponent. The opponent comes up with a strategy to get the goal and begins to execute a line of attack against the hero. I cannot emphasize enough how important this step is, and yet most writers are largely unaware of it. ([Location 5102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=5102)) ## New highlights added 12-02-2024 at 8:13 PM ##### CHAPTER 10 Scene Construction and Symphonic Dialogue Start the scene as late as possible without losing any of the key structure elements you need. ([Location 6554](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=6554)) Dialogue is among the most misunderstood of writing tools. One misconception has to do with dialogue’s function in the story: most writers ask their dialogue to do the heavy lifting, the work that the story structure should do. The result is dialogue that sounds stilted, forced, and phony. But the most dangerous misconception about dialogue is the reverse of asking it to do too much; it is the mistaken belief that good dialogue is real talk. ([Location 6569](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=6569)) Dialogue is not real talk; it is highly selective language that sounds like it could be real. ([Location 6573](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=6573)) Good dialogue is always more intelligent, wittier, more metaphorical, and better argued than in real life. ([Location 6575](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=6575)) To write a great closing scene, you must realize that it is the point of the upside-down triangle of the full story and that the scene itself is an upside-down triangle, with the key word or line—of the scene and the entire story—coming last: Done well, the final scene gives you the ultimate funnel effect: that key word or line at the end sets off a huge explosion in the hearts and minds of the audience and resonates long after the story is over. ([Location 7014](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7014)) ##### CHAPTER 11 A GREAT STORY lives forever. This is not a platitude or a tautology. A great story keeps on affecting the audience long after the first telling is over. It literally keeps on telling itself. ([Location 7278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7278)) The most common false ending is the closed ending. The hero accomplishes his goal, gains a simple self-revelation, and exists in a new equilibrium where everything is calm. All three of these structural elements give the audience the sense that the story is complete and the system has come to rest. But that’s not true. 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. ([Location 7294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7294)) To tell a story that feels different over and over again, you don’t have to kill your plot. But you do have to use every system of the story body. If you weave a complex tapestry of character, plot, theme, symbol, scene, and dialogue, you will not limit how many times the audience retells the story. They will have to rethink so many story elements that the permutations become infinite and the story never dies. ([Location 7315](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7315)) The hero fails to achieve his desire, and the other characters come up with a new desire at the end of the story. This prevents the story from closing down and shows the audience that desire, even when it’s foolish or hopeless, never dies (“I want; therefore, I am”). ([Location 7319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7319)) Give a surprising character change to an opponent or a minor character. This technique can lead the audience to see the story again with that person as the true hero. ([Location 7321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7321)) Place a tremendous number of details in the background of the story world that on later viewings move to the foreground. ([Location 7323](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7323)) Add elements of texture—in character, moral argument, symbol, plot, and story world—that become much more interesting once the audience has seen the plot surprises and the hero’s character change. ([Location 7324](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7324)) Create a relationship between the storyteller and the other characters that is fundamentally different once the viewer has seen the plot for the first time. Using an unreliable storyteller is one, but only one, way of doing this. ([Location 7325](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7325)) Make the moral argument ambiguous, or don’t show what the hero decides to do when he is confronted with his final moral choice. As soon as you move beyond the simple good versus evil moral argument, you force the audience to reevaluate the hero, the opponents, and all the minor characters to figure out what makes right action. By withholding the final choice, you force the audience to question the hero’s actions again and explore that choice in their own lives. ([Location 7327](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7327)) But mastering technique is not enough. Let me end with one final reveal: you are the never-ending story. If you want to tell the great story, the never-ending story, you must, like your hero, face your own seven steps. And you must do it every time you write a new story. I have tried to provide you with the plan: the strategies, tactics, and techniques that will help you reach your goal, fulfill your needs, and gain an endless supply of self-revelations. Becoming a master storyteller is a tall order. But if you can learn the craft and make your own life a great story, you will be amazed at the fabulous tales you will tell. ([Location 7337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7337)) If you are a good reader—and I have no question that you are—you are not the same person you were when you began this book. Now that you’ve read it once, let me suggest … well, you know what to do. ([Location 7341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0052Z3M8A&location=7341))