How the Horror Genre Works

Otherppl with Brad Listi

Brad Listi

Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.8 • 555 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2023

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the latest "Craftwork" episode, a deep-dive conversation about the horror genre with author and story expert John Truby. His latest book, The Anatomy of Genres: How Story Forms Explain the Way the World Works, is available from Picador. Truby is the founder and director of Truby's Writers Studio. Over the past thirty years, he has taught more than fifty thousand students worldwide, including novelists, screenwriters, and TV writers. Together, these writers have generated more than fifteen billion dollars at the box office. Truby has an ongoing program where he works with students who are actively creating shows, movies, and novel series. He regularly applies his genre techniques in story consulting work with major studios including Disney, Sony Pictures, Fox, HBO, the BBC, Canal Plus, Globo, and AMC. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Leslie, and their two cats, Tink and Peanut. For story software and courses, please visit Truby.com. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi’s email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram YouTube TikTok Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, how you doing? Welcome to the Other People podcast. I'm Brad Listy here in Los Angeles, California. It's good to be with you. I hope you're doing all right wherever you happen to be. Don't forget to subscribe to the Other People show wherever you listen. You can also subscribe on YouTube.
0:26.5	Today we're going to do some craft work. We're going to talk about the horror genre. I will be in conversation with John Truby. He is the founder and
0:36.9	director of Truby Writer Studio, and his latest book is called The Anatomy of Genres, How Story Forms, Explain the Way the World Works.
0:46.3	It is available now in trade paperback from Piccador.
0:51.3	Over the past 30 years, John Truby has taught more than 50,000 students worldwide, novelists,
0:58.7	screenwriters, and TV writers.
1:01.5	And together, these writers have generated more than $15 billion at the box office.
1:08.3	In addition to teaching and writing, John Truby does story consulting work on a regular basis with major studios, including Disney, Sony Pictures, Fox, HBO, the BBC, Canal Plus, and AMC.
1:25.3	And once again, John and I will be talking today about a genre that is both extremely popular and enduring and also is often looked down upon.
1:38.3	It is the horror genre, horror movies, horror fiction, stories that are built,
1:46.5	that are designed to scare the shit out of us.
1:51.2	Stories that work on us in a very primal way,
1:54.6	bringing us into contact with our fear of death
1:58.0	and our desire to escape it.
2:01.7	So let's get to it, shall we?
2:05.4	This is my conversation with John Truby about how the horror genre works.
2:13.7	The genre is simply a type of story, but more specifically, it's a type of plot.
2:21.0	And these are story forms, story variations that have been developed over hundreds and sometimes thousands of years.
2:32.0	And they've been proven to be successful. That's why I always call
2:37.0	genres, especially the 14 genres that determine storytelling today. I call them the all-stars of
2:43.1	the story world because they have been proven to be successful with readers and viewers.
2:50.0	And the reason for that primarily is that each genre has anywhere from 15 to 20 major plot beats
	...

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