Resource Review: John Truby's The Anatomy of Genres
Book Blurb: "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."
Pros
The Anatomy of Genres is a (mostly) straightforward guide to the must-have story beats for most fiction genres (these include: horror, action, myth, memoir, coming-of-age, science fiction, crime, comedy, western, gangster, fantasy, detective, and romance).
Each chapter is dedicated to a single genre, so there's no need to read the entire 700-page guide in one sitting. Just skip to the chapter on the genre relevant to you and leave the rest for later. Only be aware that the author sometimes references information provided in previous chapters.
Truby offers fresh insights into how to mix and match genre beats for maximum effect. This is helpful if you want to write something a little off-centre, keep your readers on their toes and/or never worry about that pesky B-Plot again.
Cons
While Truby provides thoughtful meditations on the value of stories and how they change our worldview, these are somewhat distracting from the main content of the guide and are very lightly supported with arguments and/or evidence. Be ready for some philosophical name-dropping and contentious "hot takes."
The guide is US American-centric, with most examples hailing from US TV & Literature (the author is a US American screenwriter). This isn't necessarily a "con," but if you were looking for a more global outlook on genre, prepare to be disappointed.
Finally, the chapters are structurally inconsistent, with each chapter containing totally different section divisions. Don't expect to be able to readily reference parallel story beats across genres. This will take a bit of effort on your part and won't always work out.
My recommendation? Ignore the philosophy, embrace the beats, and take it all with a pinch of salt.
Best for: experienced writers who want to ensure their novel hits all the right notes and/or anyone looking to get out of a brainstorming rut.
