Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Save your money. The other reviews that quote the Publisher's Weekly review are unfortunately correct. The Anatomy of Story is a prime example of a book written by an expert in their field who doesn't quite understand their own process well enough to explain it clearly and succinctly; however, they are somehow convinced that writing a story any other way produces an inferior product. Yikes! If you are a beginning writer, or someone who has not read a lot of craft books previously, skip this one. Or alternatively, save it for the very bottom of your book list. Mr. Truby's process is so overly (and unnecessarily) complicated it's probably just going to confuse you. For a much more accessible explanation of story, and how to put one together, I recommend looking into books by Jeff Kitchen, Deb Dixon, William C. Martell, Syd Field, Joseph Campbell, Michael Hague, and the tried and true Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. Yes, I realize Mr. Truby doesn't like beat sheets, but using one doesn't make a story any more generic than using the hero's journey or the standard three act structure. It's a framework, nothing more. I normally don't mind paying so much for a craft related book, but the author's explanations are so poorly defined, I'm more than a little disappointed I paid for this. Desire line, moral line... just call it goal, motivation, and conflict already. If you are looking for structure, this one riffs off the hero's journey. Before shelling out any money, you can see it yourself by doing a Google Image Search for Truby's 22 Steps. Simply speaking, there are other books that cover the character's journey and do a better job of explaining it. It's not all bad, though. The high point in this book for me was the set of exercises near the beginning that suggest writing down as many premises and story ideas as you can think of, and then using your results as a list to figure out who you are as a writer and the types of stories you're truly interested in. Now that is genius. It's not enough information to justify the cost of the book, in my opinion, but it can seriously help you get a grasp on what you like, and help you nail down your genre.