John Truby?
Eric Balkan
He's a WGA member who offers a bunch of audio courses on different
aspects of screenwriting. Anyone familiar with these?
Eric Balkan
Skip Press
wrote:
>I just wandered through John Truby's Website: http://www.truby.com
>He's a WGA member who offers a bunch of audio courses on different
>aspects of screenwriting. Anyone familiar with these?
I review his basics in my book but can't cover them all. John's a good guy
who set out to challenge the paradigm set down by Aristotle, basically.
Can't fault his ambition but I'm not sure he pulls it off. Also, by the
time you get through buying all his modules at $99 each for the complete
set, you're out quite a bit of money. Not that that would be bad, I guess,
if you thought you got your money's worth. He was a big thing before McKee
came along. McKee's kind of eclipsed everyone. Truby's structure is more
complex and a bit like Dramatica he thinks he's dissected every single
possible story structure there is, yet I don't think he has that many
writing credits--I haven't checked lately.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, because lots of great teachers
can convey very well what they observe and help others create better work,
yet aren't always stellar award-winners themselves. Lajos Egri on writing,
for example, or Lee Strasberg on acting.
Hope that helps.
--
All the best,
Skip Press, the Duke of URL
Hollywood: http://www.primapublishing.com/PageBuilder.asp?Page=76150399
Write What You Want: http://www.cmonline.com/boson/howto.html
Business Edge: http://www.computoredge.com/Editorial/business.htm
Edward Feit
method. One reason he's so convincing is that he genuinely believes that
he's discovered the Holy Grail, and, if you use his method, (according to
his advertising) you'll become a "great writer." Trouble is, only God can
make you a great writer, no course can.
Basically, Truby first identifies 5 steps which he breaks down into 22
steps. I won't go into detail, it would take too long, but his invention (or
paradigm) is not all that original. As Truby admits, it fits right into the
three-act structure. In other words, Truby has elaborated that structure in
an original albeit restrictive way.
Now, whether you get anything useful out of Truby's courses or software
depends on whether you can work within his 22 step routine. However, Truby,
in his own audio analyses of blockbuster movies is forced to admit that many
of these hits *don't* follow his paradigm.
As to his software, I'll quote from a previous posting of mine:
As I wrote in an earlier posting, all plotting software is based on
outlining. In other words, each is little more than an elaborate means of
writing an outline.
I'm quite familiar with Truby's software, at least in my version. As I see
it, Truby is an excellent teacher but the software leaves a lot to be
desired.
First, it has a clunking interface. Like so many programs Blockbuster began
with DOS and is now adapted for Windows. Unfortunately, it isn't adapted at
all well. The slightest error, for instance, throws you out of the program.
Fortunately, the program saves your work, but it is a nuisance. Also the
outlining is page-based, i.e. you have to turn to a new page each time you
fill out, say, eight outline points. Although this is relatively minor, the
software has one of the most hideous graphics I've come upon.
In addition to some other shortcomings, I don't like Truby's pricing policy.
I find $99 for a 3.5-inch genre diskettes outrageous. Many of the analyses
I've seen make me doubt that the analysts actually saw the pictures they
analyze. The more so as many of the genre diskettes contain essentially the
same forms and there's no manual or in-program help! (I'm speaking of help
for these specific diskettes). This may have changed since my purchase, so I
may be wrong here.)
What's good about it? Well, the main-program help is extensive, almost a
course in screenwriting. One can certainly benefit by its use.
The summation: I find Blockbuster overpriced and overhyped. It can be useful
if you want to adopt Truby's 22-steps, but not otherwise.
I hope this helps,
Regards
Edward
Eric Balkan wrote in message <361543A5...@telogy.com>...
>I just wandered through John Truby's Website: http://www.truby.com
>He's a WGA member who offers a bunch of audio courses on different
>aspects of screenwriting. Anyone familiar with these?
>
> Eric Balkan
>
rhi...@mail.idt.net
>
> Trouble is, only God can
> make you a great writer, no course can.
Only you can make _yourself_ a good writer.
Unless you have a good agent...
Bob Miller
>I just wandered through John Truby's Website: http://www.truby.com
>He's a WGA member who offers a bunch of audio courses on different
>aspects of screenwriting. Anyone familiar with these?
>
> Eric Balkan
I've got his basic course -- 12 audio tapes -- and I find it valuable
and useful. As to whether you should buy it, it depends. If you've
already read a good number of books on screenwriting, and you're
looking for still another angle on the craft, Truby could be useful.
But if you have not yet read much on screenwriting, I'd say buy a few
books first; the cost of Truby's course, $299 or whatever, will buy
you 10 to 20 books on the craft, and expose you to a much wider
variety of ideas on how to write what you write.
My opinion only...
Bob
Edward Feit
afterwards. Remember Edison? "Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90
percent perspiration!" But, he cannily added: "That 10 percent must be
there!" God (or your genetic heritage) supplies most of that 10 percent.
Good luck in your writing,
Regards
Edward
rhi...@mail.idt.net wrote in message <36169A...@mail.idt.net>...
JKaraf
The one thing that Truby offers that is not offered by any other software
developer or publisher is genre analysis. I know that he offers it in both
software and audio tape format, and while I have never seen his produtcs, I am
interested because no one else seems to want to focus on specific genres. If
anyone knows of publisher who does it at a more reasonable price than John
Truby, please let me know.
Eric Balkan
The Dancyger & Rush book Alternative Screenwriting provides some
focus, though not a lot, on genres, including genre combinations.
(Despite the title, they actually discuss both conventional structure
and alternatives.)
Eric Balkan