Rules of storytelling, according to Pixar
- Emphasize trying more than success.
- Having an initial theme while writing is important but don’t get too attached to it.
- Cutting things out is important part of the writing process.
- Challenge your characters with their polar opposite.
- Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle.
- 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.
- Audiences don’t like passive/malleable characters, so give yours opinions.
- Imagining what you would do in the place of your character helps you lend credibility to unbelievable situations.
- Give the consumers reason to root for the character. Stack the odds against them and make the stakes clear.
- Story is testing, not refining.
- Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
- Trying to rewrite a movie you dislike into one you like without messing too much with the structure is a good exercise.
- Summarize the essence of your story. If you know that, you can build out from there.
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