Free The Anatomy of Story by John Truby Page A

infatuated with his daughter's friend Angela. But because he's married and she's a teenager, she becomes another opponent. Living next door to Lester is the rigid and conservative Colonel Frank Fitts, who disapproves of Lester's lifestyle. Brad is Lester's coworker who tries to fire him.
    After Lester blackmails his company into giving him a nice severance package, he begins to live life as he pleases and gains an ally in Ricky Fitts, the boy next door, who sells him pot. Ricky and his father, Frank, are also subplot characters. Lester's central problem is figuring out how to live a meaningful life, one where he can express his deepest desires within a highly conformist society that values appearance and money. Ricky responds to his deadening, militaristic household by selling pot and spying
    on others with his video camera. Frank represses his homosexual desires by exerting an iron discipline over himself and his family.
    ■ Hero Lester
    ■ Main Opponent Carolyn, his wife
    ■ Second Opponent Jane, his daughter
    ■ Third Opponent Angela, Jane's pretty friend
    ■ Fourth Opponent Colonel Frank Fitts
    ■ Fifth Opponent Brad, his coworker
    ■ Ally Ricky Fitts
    ■ Fake-Ally Opponent None
    ■ Fake-Opponent Ally None
    ■ Subplot Characters Frank, Ricky
    CHARACTER TECHNIQUE: TWO MAIN CHARACTERS
    T here are two popular genres, or story forms, that seem to have two main characters, the love story and the buddy picture. The buddy picture is actually a combination of three genres: action, love, and comedy. Let's see how the character web in these two forms actually works, based on the function that each character plays in the story.
    Love Stories
    Having to create two equally well-defined characters makes certain requirements for the character web of your story. The love story is designed to show the audience the value of a community between two equals. The central concept of love stories is quite profound. Love stories say that a person does not become a true individual by being alone. A person becomes a unique and authentic individual only by entering into a community of two. It is through the love of the other that each person grows and becomes his or her deepest self.
    Expressing this profound idea with the right character web is no easy matter. If you try to write a love story with two main characters, you will have two spines, two desire lines, two tracks the story is trying to ride. So
    you have to make sure that one character is a little more central than the other. You must detail the need of both characters at the beginning of the story, but you should give one of the characters the main desire line. Most writers give that line to the man, because in our culture the man is supposed to pursue the woman. But one of the best ways to set your love story apart is to give the woman the driving line, as in Moonstruck, Broadcast News, and Gone with the Wind.
    When you give one character the desire line, you automatically make him or her the more powerful character. In terms of story function, this means that the lover, the desired one, is actually the main opponent, not the second hero. You typically fill out the character web with one or more outside opponents, such as family members who oppose the union. You may also have other suitors for the hero or the lover so that you can compare different versions of a desirable man or woman.
    The Philadelphia Story
    (play by Philip Barry, screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, 1940)
    ■ Hero Tracy Lord
    ■ Main Opponent Dexter, her ex-husband
    ■ Second Opponent Mike, the reporter
    ■ Third Opponent George, her stuffy, social-climbing fiance
    ■ Fake-Ally Opponent Dinah, her sister
    ■ Ally Her mother
    ■ Fake-Opponent Ally Her father
    ■ Subplot Character Liz, the photographer
    Tootsie
    (by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart, 1982)
    ■ Hero Michael
    ■ Main Opponent Julie
    ■ Second Opponent Ron, the