{"id":3276,"date":"2013-03-14T09:04:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T13:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/?p=3276"},"modified":"2013-03-14T09:04:42","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T13:04:42","slug":"storytelling-rules-from-pixar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/2013\/03\/storytelling-rules-from-pixar\/","title":{"rendered":"Storytelling Rules from Pixar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former Pixar storyboard artist\u00a0Emma Coats<\/a>\u00a0tweeted a number of valuable storytelling rules during her time at the animation studio.<\/p>\n

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    \n
  1. You admire a character for trying more, \u00a0than for their successes.<\/li>\n
  2. You gotta keep in mind what\u2019s interesting to you as an audience, not what\u2019s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.<\/li>\n
  3. Trying for theme is important, but you won\u2019t see what the story is actually about til you\u2019re at the end of it. Now rewrite.<\/li>\n
  4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.<\/li>\n
  5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You\u2019ll feel like you\u2019re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.<\/li>\n
  6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?<\/li>\n
  7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.<\/li>\n
  8. Finish your story, let go even if it\u2019s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.<\/li>\n
  9. When you\u2019re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN\u2019T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.<\/li>\n
  10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you\u2019ve got to recognize it before you can use it.<\/li>\n
  11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you\u2019ll never share it with anyone.<\/li>\n
  12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th \u2013 get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.<\/li>\n
  13. Give your characters opinions. Passive\/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it\u2019s poison to the audience.<\/li>\n
  14. Why must you tell THIS story? What\u2019s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That\u2019s the heart of it.<\/li>\n
  15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.<\/li>\n
  16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don\u2019t succeed? Stack the odds against.<\/li>\n
  17. No work is ever wasted. If it\u2019s not working, let go and move on \u2013 it\u2019ll come back around to be useful later.<\/li>\n
  18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.<\/li>\n
  19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.<\/li>\n
  20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d\u2019you rearrange them into what you DO like?<\/li>\n
  21. You gotta identify with your situation\/characters, can\u2019t just write \u2018cool\u2019. What would make YOU act that way?<\/li>\n
  22. What\u2019s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Former Pixar storyboard artist\u00a0Emma Coats\u00a0tweeted a number of valuable storytelling rules during her time at the animation studio. You admire a character for trying more, \u00a0than for their successes. You gotta keep in mind what\u2019s interesting to you as an audience, not what\u2019s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different. Trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-film-insights","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3276"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3283,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3276\/revisions\/3283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}