Pixar's 22 Rules for Story Telling

[Twook00]

Writing Excuses did a podcast this week on Pixar's Rules for Writing a Compelling Story. These 22 rules come from storyboard artist, Emma Coats, who began sharing them on Twitter earlier this year.

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the story is actually about til you're at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize it before you can use it.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th — get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it's not working, let go and move on - it'll come back around to be useful later.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d'you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't just write ‘cool'. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What's the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

 

[Ireth]

I believe this very list is already being discussed here: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/writing-questions/4193-storytelling-22-rules-pixar.html

 

[Twook00]

Thanks, Ireth. I must have missed that one (I'll have to pay more attention to the "similar threads" section).

So this isn't a total rehash, I'll add the link to the Writing Excuses episode since they talk a little more about what each rule means.

Writing Excuses 7.48: Pixar Rules for Writing a Compelling Story » Writing Excuses

 

[Anders Ämting]

Writing Excuses did a podcast this week on Pixar's Rules for Writing a Compelling Story. These 22 rules come from storyboard artist, Emma Coats, who began sharing them on Twitter earlier this year.

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

This is basically true, but I think it's more complex then that. I would say that your admiration depends on how the characters succedes, as in the circumstances.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

Good advice, that.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the story is actually about til you're at the end of it. Now rewrite.

Not sure this is a rule so much as something that can happen. If you get the themes right on the first try, there's no need to mess with them.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

So, kill your darlings, pretty much?

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

I think this can be fun to do on occasion, and especially if you are trying to write something humerous, but it's not something you have to do all the time.

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

Honestly, I have a much harder time with middles. The middle is always where things go wrong for me - I'll know how the story should end but have trouble getting there. So, I'm going to say this one depends on the individual writer.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

Classic advice.

#9: When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

That's interesting - I've never heard that one before.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize it before you can use it.

Good advice.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

I can see what they mean with this one, but at the same time I think it's not always ideal to be in a hurry to write things down. I find that ideas need to gestate a bit in ones mind before they really become together.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th — get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

What if the first thing that comes to mind is a really, really good idea? I don't think you should "discount" anything.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.

Seems kinda obvious.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

Eh. Sounds profound without really meaning much. Telling a story is about having a story you want told. I don't see why it needs to be more complicated than that - all you require is the conviction that your story needs to be told.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

Honestly, I don't think I'm a very realistic character.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against.

Pretty standard advice.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it's not working, let go and move on - it'll come back around to be useful later.

What happened to "discard your first four ideas"?

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

Sound advice, though it probably needs to be clarified.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

So basically, I can make a character as unlucky as I want, but I can't make him lucky at all?

I don't know, I don't like this sort of reasoning. Coincidences are random by definition, and they happen all the time in real life. I'd say that using them to get the character into or out of trouble is equally valid, but if you rely on them either way you are doing it wrong because coincidences are inherently unreliable.

That is to say, you can make the character stumble into or out of trouble by accident maybe once or twice per book, but nobody ever gets into trouble coincidentaly on a regular basis. Agency should be the primary driving force of conflict, not chance.

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't just write ‘cool'. What would make YOU act that way?

I'm always cool.

Also, isn't this just 15 all over again?

 

[pmmg]

Hard to argue with Pixar...least past pixar.