sw-truby-anatomy

Organic Story Anatomy (Truby's Organic Anatomy)

Output language = question language; terms are always anchored back to the original words, see sw-workflow/terms.md, do not invent translated names.

This skill is distilled from John Truby's The Anatomy of Story (John Truby, The Anatomy of Story, 2007). Truby's industry role is "script doctor" — diagnosing the structural illnesses of other people's scripts for production companies, and this method is the diagnosis sheet itself:designing principle, seven key steps, 22 steps, four-corner opposition, moral argument chain, scene weaving. The original book's method is evidenced by step-by-step breakdowns of classics such as The Godfather, Casablanca, and Tootsie; for examples see reference.md。

I. Relationship to the three-act page-number system (read first)

Keep divergences side by side(convention of this library):

• Truby's position: the seven steps "unlike mechanical story structures such as three-act structure, can be arbitrarily imposed on a story from the outside. They exist in the story's inner" (Ch3); the 22 steps "will never tell you what to write, which is what a formula or genre would ask you to do" (Ch8).
• Field/Snyder's position (sw-story-structure): structure = a page-number map. One page per minute, plot points, midpoint, all is lost fall on which page.

The two are not mutually exclusive; they serve different questions: the page-number map governs "how long, what rhythm," while organic anatomy governs "whether the skeleton grows out of the characters." Two usages are recommended; choose one, do not do both:

1. Map first, then verify(most common): after the BS2 beat board is finalized, use this skill to check for gaps in the mid-story components (see Sections IV and V) and the moral argument chain (Section VII).
2. Skeleton first, then page numbers: start from the designing principle and the seven steps to define the organic skeleton, then convert to page numbers according to the workflow of sw-story-structure eleven.

II. Designing principle

• Definition: theoverall strategyof telling the story that can be stated in one sentence. "The designing principle of a story is how the story premise is expanded into a deep structure… it is the story's inner logic, organically gathering the parts together so that the whole pattern of the story is greater than the sum of its parts. This is precisely the story's originality." (Ch2)
• Division of labor with the premise: "All stories have a story premise, but only good stories have a designing principle. The story premise is concrete, it is what actually happens; the story designing principle is abstract, it is the deeper process that occurs within the story…story designing principle = story development process + original technique. " (Ch2) The premise answers "what happens"; the designing principle answers "in what form it is told."
• The three levels each govern one thing and do not replace one another(interface with sw-premise-theme ): Egri's premise (character trait + leads to + outcome) = the responsibility of dialectical proof; McKee's controlling idea (value + cause) = the meaning of the climax; Truby's designing principle = the formal strategy of narration. For the same project, write all three, each as one line in the story bible.
• How to find it: "Induce" the form from the premise like a detective. Common sources: a journey with metaphorical function (going upriver in Heart of Darkness); a single symbol (the letter A in The Scarlet Letter, the whale in Moby-Dick); a unit of time (the four seasons as organizing principle in Meet Me in St. Louis); a distinctive use of narrator (multiple narrators in Citizen Kane); the process itself (making a male chauvinist live a woman's life in Tootsie). For the complete example table, see reference.md section one.
• Warning: "Most writers, instead of finding a unique story design principle, choose a genre and force it onto the story premise... The result is a mechanical, unoriginal piece of ordinary fiction." (Ch2) — this is exactly the same-source warning as sw-premise-theme three (Cron) "a good story comes first, structure comes after"; Truby gives it a positive tool.

Three, the seven key steps and the accordion principle

The seven key steps（organic spine，Ch3）：

#	Step	One sentence	Corresponding existing tool
1	Weakness/need	The protagonist is held back by a serious weakness and must satisfy an inner need in order to live better	Cron's false belief, Hicks's inner need, Egri's three dimensions
2	Desire	The goal one consciously wants to achieve (externally visible)	want (terms.md section two)
3	Opponent	The person who prevents the protagonist from achieving the goal, competing with the protagonist for the same goal but with different values	sw-character-conflict three
4	Plan	A set of strategies or methods for defeating the opponent	"Preparation" among Hicks's ten elements
5	Confrontation	The final conflict with the opponent, deciding who achieves the goal	McKee's climax
6	Revelation of the true self	From the ordeal of the confrontation, realizing how one has mistreated oneself and others	Hicks's self-revelation, McKee's arc
7	New equilibrium	The new state after the need is satisfied or unsatisfied	Indick's "resolution vs ending"

Key points: ① At the beginning, the protagonistshould not be aware of their need, and only becomes aware at the revelation of the true self; ② need must be divided intothe psychological level(hurting only oneself) andthe moral level(at the beginning, always hurting others in some way) — a story that gives only a psychological need has no moral engine running (see section seven for details).

The accordion principle(Ch8): "A story may have more or fewer than twenty-two steps, depending on its genre and length. Try to imagine the story as an accordion... It cannot have fewer than the seven major steps, because those are the steps an organic story must have at minimum. Even a thirty-second commercial... will have these seven key steps." Short films and sitcoms use only the seven steps; films usually have at least 22 steps;multi-strand plot = each strand goes through the seven key steps once. The order need not be dogmatic: "Every good story works by these twenty-two steps, but the order of the steps is slightly different in each. You must find the order that is most appropriate for your unique plot and characters." (Ch8)

Four, the complete table of the 22 steps (with BS2 anchor cross-reference)

The left column follows Truby's original order in Ch8; the right column gives the nearest anchor in BS2 (sw-story-structure three),The correspondence is rough, meant for finding gaps, not cell-by-cell alignment. "Main subsystems" are summarized according to the original book's explanation—the 22 steps are the interweaving of the four systems of character web, moral issue, story world, and plot; each step can belong to more than one subsystem (e.g., "drive" is both a plot step and often an immoral action).

#	Step	Key points	Main subsystems	BS2 nearest anchor
1	Revelation of the true self, need, desire	First determine the endpoint (what he will learn), then return to the beginning (what he knows, what the fallacy is)	Character web + plot	(overall framework, covering opening image/final image)
2	Ghost and story world	Past events haunting the protagonist; the world expresses and worsens the protagonist's weakness	Story world + character web	Opening image / setup
3	Weakness / need	Two layers, psychological + moral; unconscious at the beginning	Character web	Setup / six flaws
4	Trigger event	The event that breaks the balance	Plot	Trigger event
5	Desire	A clear, specific goal	Plot	End of trigger event
6	Ally	Helper; give the ally his or her own desire, but do not make the ally more interesting than the protagonist	Character web	(can enter the subplot)
7	Opponent / mystery	The best opponent is one who "must exist"; a mysterious opponent is harder to defeat	Character web + plot	(within setup)
8	Opponent / false ally	An opponent appearing as an ally, with a double revelation	Character web	BS2 none
9	First revelation and choice	Revelation must carry a choice, and it changes desire and motivation	Plot + moral issue	Around entering Act Two
10	Plan	A specific strategy to defeat the opponent; only when the plan fails can there be struggle	Plot	BS2 none (scattered in the fun and games section)
11	Opponent's plan and main counterattack	The opponent is also acting; give the opponent a plan	Plot + character web	The villain closes in
12	Drive	A series of actions by the protagonist pursuing the goal, often including immoral actions	Plot + moral issue	Fun and games → midpoint
13	Attack by the ally	The ally criticizes the protagonist's methods; the protagonist rationalizes	Moral issue	BS2 none
14	Seeming defeat	Double blow; seemingly total loss	Plot	Losing everything
15	Second revelation and choice	Obsessive drive; desire and motivation change again	Plot + moral issue	Dark night of the soul
16	Revelation to the audience	The audience knows what the protagonist does not, tension reversal	Plot	BS2: none
17	Third revelation and choice	Final pressure and decision	Plot	Before entering Act Three
18	Gate, ordeal, experiencing death	The narrow gate before the climax; symbolic death	Plot + story world	Entering Act Three
19	Showdown	Final conflict with the opponent, where value orientations are decided	Plot + moral issue	Resolution
20	Revelation of the true self	Realizing one's own mistakes and how one ought to treat others	Character web	(Within the resolution)
21	Moral-level choice	Choose one of two actionsProofSelf-revelation; BS2 has no such beat	Moral issue	BS2: none
22	New point of balance	The world is restored, but it is no longer the same	Plot + moral issue	Final image

Reading the gaps: the six places marked "BS2: none" (8 false ally opponent, 10 plan, 13 allies' attack, 16 revelation to the audience, 21 moral choice, plus the entire category of the three revelations and choices) are the mid-structure diseases that the BS2 board cannot detect—when Act Two is loose, check here first. See Section 5 for details.

V. Five key mid-section components (where BS2 coverage is thinnest)

1. Opponent / false ally (Step 8)

An opponent who appears in the guise of an ally; the person the protagonist trusts most happens to be the one who wounds him most deeply. It bringsDouble revelation: revelation to the protagonist (he finally sees clearly) and revelation to the audience (the audience knew all along). Original criterion: the false ally opponent is "the best position from which to win by exploiting the protagonist's weakness"—the opponent attacks the weakness under the name of friendship, and the protagonist has no way to defend. In The Godfather, Michael's chain of false allies: the driver, bodyguard Fabrizio, brother-in-law Carlo, and Tessio, who defects to the enemy camp (reference.md 3.8).

2. Revelation and choice sequence (Steps 9/15/17)

Truby's fundamental requirement for the mid-section:Every revelation must carry a choice, and change the protagonist's desire or motive—if a revelation does not change the direction of action, it is merely decorative information. "In fact, these twenty-two steps ensure that the plot is driven by the main characters" (Ch8). The division of labor among the three revelations: the first changes desire and motive (entering the opposition); the second is the driving force of blind obsession (sinking deeper and deeper); the third is the final pressure (pushing toward the showdown). In design, you can work backward: first define the showdown, then lay the three-level revelation ladder back in.

3. Allies' attack (Step 13)

A dramatizing device for the moral issue: the protagonist begins to take immoral actions in order to win,the ally confronts him, and the protagonist rationalizes on the spot:("I did this for..."). Both the criticism and the rationalization must be performed, not declared in dialogue (interface with McKee: never use explanatory dialogue). Without this step, the protagonist's downfall is only a stream of events, not a moral arc.

4. Revelation to the audience (Step 16)

The audience knows but the protagonist does not. The tension flips from "what happens next" to "when will he find out"—the same information gap serves two kinds of suspense (akin to the dramatic irony of sw-series-structure and Truby designates it as a plot step rather than an optional technique).

5. The moral choice (Step 21)

A beat between the climax (the showdown) and the resolution: the protagonist is intwo courses of actionand chooses between them, proving through action that the self-revelation is real. Projects that "end the moment the climax hits" are mostly missing this beat. McKee's crisis dilemma governs "what to choose"; Truby's moral choice governs "what to use to prove it after choosing"—the two connect without overlapping.

Six, Four-Corner Opposition

"A better story will go beyond the simple opposition of protagonist and main opponent" (Ch4). The method: protagonist + main opponent + at least two secondary opponents, each occupying one corner of a rectangle.

Four key features (summarized from the original Ch4 text, in worksheet format):

1. Each opponent attacks the protagonist's major weakness in a different way—the opponent's core purpose is to attack the weakness; the first way to distinguish opponents is by their different methods of attack; this ties all conflict organically to the protagonist's flaw, and the four corners are at the same time a microcosm of the group.
2. Pairwise conflict: not only does the protagonist fight the three, but the opponents also come into conflict with one another—"the number of conflicts multiplies."
3. All four sets of values are placed into conflict: give each character a set of values (do not give just one word), and identify the positive and negative forms of each value (resolute/aggressive; honest/insensitive)—"under what circumstances is one most likely to err while fighting for a belief" becomes visible from this.
4. Push the characters toward each corner as much as possible: maximize the differences between people.

Worksheet (to be written into the character section of the story-bible):

Corner	Character	Method of attacking the protagonist's weakness	Value set (+ positive and negative forms)	Conflict with the other three corners

Division of labor with existing tools: "give the opponent a knife" (sw-character-conflict 3) is to add stakes toa singleopponent; four-corner opposition is amulti-opponent topology—use four corners when one opponent cannot carry the theme. Jung's fourfold unity (hero/shadow/wise one/love object) divides roles bycomplementary function, while four-corner opposition divides roles byconflictual opposition, and the two tables can be used stacked: the fourfold unity determines "who is missing," and the four corners determine "who collides with whom."

Seven, Moral Argument Strategy Chain

McKee (sw-premise-theme 2) gives the principle: idea vs. counter-idea, with equal firepower. Truby gives the chain: dramatize the theme as a series of actions by the protagonist. The basic strategy (Ch5, in the original order):

1. Values: the protagonist starts from a set of beliefs.
2. Moral weakness: harms others in some way at the beginning (not evil, just affected by the weakness).
3. Moral need: must learn to treat people correctly in order to grow.
4. First immoral action: taken almost immediately, it is the first evidence of the protagonist's basic moral flaw.
5. Desire: sets a goal and collides head-on with an opponent holding different values.
6. Driving force: a series of actions by both sides.
7. Immoral Action → Criticism → Rationalization: After losing to an opponent, he goes all in; others criticize; the protagonist justifies himself.
8. Attack by Allies: The people closest to him point out that he is wrong (same source as Step 13).
9. The driving force of unrepentant obsession: immoral actions escalate, and criticism and rationalization escalate along with them.
10. The theme is grasped by the audience in four places:Duel(value orientation determines victory or defeat) →Moral Self-Revelation(born of severe trials) →Moral Choice(proven by choice) →Revelation of the Theme(beyond the character, landing on the universal realization of "how people should treat one another").

Balance of Power Criterion: "The balance of power between the protagonist and the main opponent is not only important for character and plot, but also crucial for the moral issue. If the protagonist is too strong and too good, the opponent cannot bring sufficient tests, and he will not therefore make moral-level mistakes. If the opponent is too strong... the protagonist becomes the victim, and the opponent becomes evil or nearly evil." (Ch5) The book's counterexample: The Portrait of a Lady. This aligns with McKee's "opposing forces must be proportionate," but what it gives is the criterion forwhether the moral engine can start, not merely a criterion for conflict intensity.

Eight, Ghost and Story World (Boundary Section)

Take only four principles,the two layers of story world and symbolic network are not expanded in this book——Land Forces core scene / dramatic guts / dramatic eye (sw-premise-theme Ten) and McKee's image system already cover most uses:

1. Ghost = an event that happened in the past and still haunts the protagonist, an "exposed wound," often the source of psychological and moral weakness; the ghost can be thought of asthe protagonist's inner opponent——"desire pushes him forward, the ghost pulls him back" (Ch8). It is the same thing as Krong's primal scene: Krong handles the writing method (first-person detailed writing of the rooting moment), Truby handles the structural position (it is Step 2, before the inciting incident).
2. The second kind of ghost (rare): the paradise world the protagonist initially enjoys freely and loses after being attacked (Meet Me in St. Louis, The Deer Hunter).
3. Opening exposition discipline: "Try to hold back a lot of information about the protagonist first, including various details of his ghost. The audience will guess at certain things you are hiding, and thus truly enter your story." (Ch8)
4. Two key points of the story world: the world should be a way of expressing the protagonist; if the protagonist is enslaved at the beginning, the world should also be enslaving and worsen his major weakness. For deeper writing methods, see sw-scene-craft Eight (scenes should be appropriate).

Nine, Scene Weave

The last step before writing the complete script, "more general names include: scene list, scene-by-scene outline" (Ch9). Division of labor with sw-scene-craft/BS2 presentation board: the 40 cards handle the four-row distribution and turning point positions, while scene weave handleseach scene'sthree things:

1. Single Action: "Each scene should list only a single, necessary action"——write it in one or two sentences, and the whole film should be listable within a few pages; Hollywood films average 40–70 scenes.
2. Structural Step Label: Label the scenes that represent structural steps (desire, plan, apparent defeat...); it is normal for many scenes to have no label.
3. Narrative Line Numbering: When there are multiple lines/multiple subplots, label each scene with its line number—in multi-line storylines = each line goes through all seven major steps (accordion in section 3).

The three revision actions after the list:Reorder(First arrange the overall progression sequence, then check adjacent juxtapositions),Merge("Sometimes the author creates a new scene just to set up one good line of dialogue"),Delete/add(the less fat the better; only add a new scene if a gap appears after deletion).

Interface:sw-workflow In Stage 4 step-outline row format there is already a "structural position" column—BS2 beat names and the 22 step names share the same column for general use, and multi-line projects add the line number at the end of the row.

10. Diagnostic checklist (ten questions for a sagging middle)

When Act Two breaks apart into isolated events, or "every scene is fine but they don't connect," ask one by one:

1. Is there "driving force"—a series ofcontinuousactions by the protagonist to achieve the goal, or a string of events that do not propel each other?
2. Is there a false ally/adversary? Which weakness of the protagonist is he attacking?
3. Are all three revelations and choices present? Does each revelationchange desire or motivation? If not = decorative revelation, cut or change it.
4. Are the opponent's plan and main counterattack written out? Does the opponent have a set of his own?
5. After the protagonist loses to the opponent, does he take immoral action? Is there criticism and rationalization? Has an ally attacked him?
6. Is there "revelation to the audience"—when does the audience begin to know more than the protagonist?
7. Before the showdown, is there a gate/severe test/experience of death?
8. After the climax, is there a moral-level choice (choose one of two actions), or is it simply over when it's over?
9. Is the balance of power right: is the protagonist too strong (no moral cost) or too weak (pure victim)?
10. Are all four corners filled: does each opponent attack the protagonist's weakness in a different way? Is there conflict among the opponents? Do the four sets of values clash with one another?

The first three questions cover 80% of "soft belly of Act Two" cases; the division of labor with McKee's progressive complications (sw-story-structure 7): the gap governs the strength of escalation in action, while this checklist governswhether the mid-section components are present—first check the components, then check the strength.

11. Workflow (interface with sw-workflow the long-form stage table)

1. End of Stage 1: after the premise and controlling idea are finalized, find the design principle (method in section 2). If after two iterations it is still the same sentence as the premise = the idea does not yet have form, send it back to the furnace.
2. Stage 2: after the BS2 board is finalized, go through the comparison table in section 4 and check whether the six "BS2 none" components should have been there in the first place (short films skip according to the accordion principle).
3. Stage 3: pair the character table with the four-corner opposition worksheet (section 6); check the criteria for balance of power.
4. Stage 4: mark the step outline with the 22 step names and line numbers, and run the three scene-arrangement actions (section 9).
5. During Stage 5 writing: if stuck in Act Two → run the first three questions of section 10.
6. Stage 6: check the ten mid-section questions + the moral issue chain link by link (section 7, links 1–10).

When not to use this skill: short films and one-act plays only need the seven steps; Chekhov/Ozu-style anti-climax and multi-protagonist projects (chekhov-dramaturgy、ozu-screenplay-style) There is no central confrontation, so steps 19–21 do not apply; episodic projects follow the sw-workflow episodic stage table, using the act out engine as the unit, and do not mechanically apply the 22 steps (for the priority of scene-level tools in S5, see that table). Opera projects do not enter (for media boundaries, see sw-chinese-opera-banqiang）。

Section 12, Anti-Patterns

• Treating the 22 steps as a second page-number table to be aligned cell by cell—it is an anchor, not a grid.
• Inventing fake steps to fill out all 22; the accordion principle allows for expansion and contraction.
• Turning the four-corner opposition into four villains—the opponent need not be evil (Hicks/Hockstar agree), it is enough to attack a weakness.
• Writing the moral issue chain as declarative dialogue—critique, rationalization, and ally attacks must all be carried by character action.
• For the same project, filling out both the BS2 board and the 22 steps in detail—do only one detailed table, and use the other table for verification.
• Using design principles to replace the premise or controlling idea—each of the three layers handles one thing (Section 2).