{"id":15919,"date":"2012-06-09T07:24:36","date_gmt":"2012-06-09T07:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2012\/06\/09\/free-advice-pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling\/"},"modified":"2012-06-09T07:24:36","modified_gmt":"2012-06-09T07:24:36","slug":"free-advice-pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2012\/06\/09\/free-advice-pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Advice: Pixar&#8217;s 22 Rules of Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href='http:\/\/io9.com\/5916970\/the-22-rules-of-storytelling-according-to-pixar'>Free Advice: Pixar&#8217;s 22 Rules of Storytelling<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link_description\">\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/wannabeanimator.tumblr.com\/post\/24731558718\/free-advice-pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling\">wannabeanimator<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s funny\u2014just yesterday I was thinking about looking for writing related material to post, since it\u2019s an extremely important beginning step to animation, and just now my friend tagged me in a post on Facebook linking to this!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.<\/li>\n<li>#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 v. different.<\/li>\n<li>#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<li>#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.<\/li>\n<li>#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You\u2019ll feel like you\u2019re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.<\/li>\n<li>#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?<\/li>\n<li>#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.<\/li>\n<li>#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<li>#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<li>#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<li>#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<li>#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<li>#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive\/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it\u2019s poison to the audience.<\/li>\n<li>#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<li>#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.<\/li>\n<li>#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<li>#17: No work is ever wasted. If it\u2019s not working, let go and move on &#8211; it\u2019ll come back around to be useful later.<\/li>\n<li>#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best &amp; fussing. Story is testing, not refining.<\/li>\n<li>#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.<\/li>\n<li>#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d\u2019you rearrange them into what you DO like?<\/li>\n<li>#21: You gotta identify with your situation\/characters, can\u2019t just write \u2018cool\u2019. What would make YOU act that way?<\/li>\n<li>#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<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free Advice: Pixar&#8217;s 22 Rules of Storytelling wannabeanimator: It\u2019s funny\u2014just yesterday I was thinking about looking for writing related material to post, since it\u2019s an extremely important beginning step to animation, and just now my friend tagged me in a post on Facebook linking to this! #1: You admire a character for trying more than &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2012\/06\/09\/free-advice-pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Free Advice: Pixar&#8217;s 22 Rules of Storytelling<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3013,361,4736,4738,4737,727,137],"class_list":["post-15919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advice","tag-animation","tag-pixar","tag-script","tag-storytelling","tag-tips","tag-writing","post_format-post-format-link","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}