This may be the most useful writing advice I've ever come across

[oloriel]

(discovered via Elleth.)

The 22 rules of Storytelling, according to Pixar

#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.


You know why I like these so much? Because they aren't about form, but about content. In the end, story is all about content. In this time and age, form is variable; presumably every rule about form has been broken by someone who was hugely succesful anyway. I'm sick of "Show, don't tell" (YES, but!), "Don't use adverbs" (YES, but!), "Don't use different words for 'say'" (YES, but!), "Eradicate cliche" (YES, but!) and "Use strong verbs" (YES, but!) and so on and so on. Besides, everyone knows the formal rules at some point - everyone's taking the same Creative Writing classes and reading the same specific advice...
Anyway. Yes. Content. Function over form, and all that.

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ok, fair enough. But then, it's still the same couple of people who bother, isn't it? So they're going to repeat the same advice over and over to the same few people (which results in writers actually "showing" every single movement of their protagonist's facial muscles, and yes, I've come across that. Seriously, sometimes there's just nothing wrong with "she frowned" or "she smiled"!)
But I'm not actually opposed to these tips, either. I just don't need to read them again and again in every other writer's "Top Ten Writing Tips". ^^

You know, that's something else I noticed about these writing tips: They often repeat themselves. I recently read a list which went something like this:
1. Write better sentences.
2. ...
3. ...
4. Pay attention to your sentences.
5. ...
6. Sentences are important.
7. ...
8. ...
9. Construct sentences cleverly.
10. ...
And it didn't come across as if that was done on purpose to drive the point home or to be funny. I just wanted to scream YES I GOT IT YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH SENTENCES MOVE ON ALREADY! XD
Personally though, I think 13 is completely different - it says to give your characters opinions, not that you are to give them your opinions. 15 goes sort of in the same direction, but I think it's rather advice what to do when you aren't certain how your characters would feel about something (-> think about how you'd feel about it, that'll give you a starting point). Or 21: I think what they mean isn't that all characters should act like you would, but that your characters should act like real people would, not like you need them to act. (This is something I'm occasionally struggling with, so maybe I'm just applying it to my experience - so to me, it's quite different from 15.)

[sermanya.livejournal.com]

So they're going to repeat the same advice over and over to the same few people


err. actually. I have to admit that I heard about these rules for the first time. I'm not really writing things although people told me I was talented when i was still at school. But I'd like to (if I had more time) and I'm thankful that you repeated the stuff for the 200th time, because this time I was here to read it and it was something interesting and new for me :o)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Careful if you write in German, though - in that case, the "only use 'say'" might definitely be frowned upon, at least if what I was taught in school is still in use. Here, you're supposed to vary sagt(e) as much as possible... :D

If you were planning to write something (non-academical) for publication, though, wouldn't you first go and check at least for some basic advice?

[sermanya.livejournal.com]

No, I think, if I was going to write, I would go and write something. Even now after starting to read the discussions in your journal, I think, I still would. I'm a learning-by-doing personality and I don't like reading boring books before having tried out how the stuff they are writing about feels for me.

I was naive enough to not even think about the possible existence of "rules" or books about writing style. I just now realize HOW naive that was. (I mean there are people even going to university to discuss and learn about literature and writing styles and whatever else I cannot imagine...) So for me - what I got out of these discussions here - I learnt that I shouldn't be too proud of future trials in writing and expect some more criticism. And I also learnt that I could look out for books on the topic if I feel like getting better :)

Thanks for the hint with german and english styles - the "saying" thing DID confuse me a lot.

[sermanya.livejournal.com]

On the list you posted above: It feels very Pixar-like. That means for me it sounds like a good advice on how to write a children's story and I think that if you keep exactly to those rules you will get out the perfect Pixar childrens story.
Especially #4 makes me feel "yuck". I belief that a good story for a more complex person than a child can be more complex than this rule. And I do also belief that for a more complex non-Pixar story the writer must break some of these rules from time to time.
Anyway they are interesting statments and keeping to them in general while keeping in mind that they are made for the authors of children's stories sounds like a good idea to me :)



...I didn't think that I'd love your journal as much as I do. This is completely new stuff for my brain to munch and enjoy :)
(and I hope I will still have time for reading you when I'm finally back to work - hopefully next week...)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

#4 looks more simple than it is, really. In proper literary terms, you could re-word it to something like "Deviation X from the protagonist's usual routine leads to event Y until conclusion Z". Once upon a time there was Werther. Every day, he led a normal, respectable life. One day he fell in love with Lotte. Because of that, he became depressed because she was engaged to another man. Because of that, he eventually borrowed a pair of pistols. Until finally he shot himself. It's not just kiddy stories ;)

But anyway, breaking the rules tends to be necessary for all writing rules. The trick is (supposedly) to first know the rules so, when you break them, you break them in the right ways for the right reasons. Or something.

However, let's be honest: A couple of literary smash hits - not just of the past years - have broken various rules on how to write literature. Twilight and Shades of Grey are violating so many rules you stop counting after a while, yet they're hugely succesful. The Lord of the Rings also breaks a healthy amount of rules, yet we all know it's got a dedicated following. So you don't always have to know the rules in order to be successful. Perhaps readers are so bored of mainstream literature following the same set of rules that they're eager to read something completely different sometimes ;)

So, in conclusion: Sticking to the rules doesn't always mean you produce great literature; they're just the means to an end. Breaking the rules doesn't always have to mean you won't be able to sell your work; it doesn't even have to mean that it's bad. Ideally, at some point (or even from the start, if you're lucky), you'll know which rules work for you and which don't, and then you can write your own set of writing rules for other people to read and discuss ;)