
Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling - fidgross
http://aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/07/pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling/
======
tptacek
_Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that,
___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___._

Also a good way to write a product definition.

~~~
rexreed
This is great! Although I'm confused about the two Because of Thats... can
someone provide an example of how to complete this in a way that this part
makes sense?

~~~
wellpast
Act II of your story is a chain of not just one cause and effect events.

------
stephenhuey
Emma Coates originally shared this on her blog:
[http://storyshots.tumblr.com/post/25032057278/22-storybasics...](http://storyshots.tumblr.com/post/25032057278/22-storybasics-
ive-picked-up-in-my-time-at-pixar)

~~~
triplesec
Thank you _grumble grumble blogs that don't link back to original content_

~~~
LukeShu
To be fair, I don't think they realized that it was on her blog. Both her blog
entry, and the linked article were aggregated from her Twitter.

------
mcherm
The article had a link to a "related post" which had Neil Gaiman's 8 rules for
writing: [http://aerogrammestudio.com/2013/02/28/neil-gaimns-eight-
rul...](http://aerogrammestudio.com/2013/02/28/neil-gaimns-eight-rules-of-
writing/)

I found those far more useful than the Pixar ones. (Although I admit that
"when stuck, list everything that would NOT happen next" is a pretty good
one.)

~~~
entropic
"Perfection is like chasing the horizon." \- Neil Gaiman

Great quote, applicable to nearly everything.

------
shrikant
Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4086805>

------
cafard
As suggestions to tape on your wall, these seem excellent, something to look
at when you are stuck. As rules, maybe not.

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

Interesting notion, but then I think of _War and Peace_. Pierre Bezuhov is
good at nothing much at all. He is challenged, and transformed. But what is
the polar opposite of being a prisoner of the French in Moscow and during the
retreat? Prince Andrei is good at a hell of a lot of things; what seems to
transform him is being shot up to one degree or another...

~~~
StavrosK
First you think you're above the rules, then you know enough to follow them,
then you know enough to break them.

------
dferlemann
"Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously.
Endings are hard, get yours working up front." Mass Effect 3... 17 suck
endings. That got to be a record somewhere.

~~~
Tloewald
Even further on this tangent -- Mass Effect's problems began right at the
setup. It starts too big. You begin as a hero, chosen by Earth to be, in
essence, the representative for all humanity. (Recall your choice of back
stories each points to your character having a past more interesting than
anything that happens in the actual story -- always a bad sign and indicative
of lazy writing.) It's a terrible way to start a story, it's a cheap trick
(raising the stakes by giving them really big important labels). It's a
testament to the game's execution that it is as good as it is despite this
quite awful setup.

~~~
chewxy
Given the scale of the problem (reapers), starting at a Spectre scale is
pretty logical. Else you'd have character progression that is too fast

~~~
Tloewald
They picked the scale of the problem too.

------
brc
This is great. It also makes me think that, for whatever reasons, Cars 2 was
not written by Pixar.

It's a horrible sequel. The original story had fully rounded characters,
personal discovery, redemption, recognition of working with others, a whole
pile of admirable qualities.

Cars 2 has a bunch of animated effects, celebrity cameos, and lots of guns,
shooting and rockets. There may have been a story with a message but I'm not
sure what it was.

Would it have been that hard to come up with a better story for the follow up?

~~~
Jackim
Cars was quite profitable post-box office, I can't help but think Disney
pushed for a sequel before the buzz ran off.

~~~
brc
To my cynical eye, Cars 2 was written solely from a merchandise expansion
point of view.

I just don't understand why someone didn't stand up and say 'can't we write a
good sequel and make lots of money?'

In short : why not Empire Strikes Back? Lots of cool merch in that one, but a
good story as well. It can be done.

------
wiredfool
Bujold's method of plotting is to start with characters that her readers care
for, and then ask: What's the worst thing that can happen to them?

And then do that.

------
norswap
I like the old Disney cartoons better, and they obviously weren't written
using those rules. I feel that nowadays movie get more and more similar. Could
we still get something as atypical as the Robin Hood cartoon or Snow White by
following those rules?

------
shmerl
It's not bad but it feels too formal and restrictive. 23rd rule is that there
are no rules for an author to create something really great.

------
ryanong
It is interesting how replacing character with object makes it a decent guide
to figuring out problems or refactoring in programming.

