Last year, over the course of a month and a half, Pixar story artist Emma Coats grabbed the Internet's attention when she shared some of Pixar's golden rules of storytelling, via Twitter. They were guidelines that she had learned, that she wanted to pass along to others. There were 22 in all. Just recently, Alex Eylar, aka ICanLegoThat, took 12 of those rules and illustrated them using, what else, but Legos! Storyteller, writer or not, they're golden nuggets of information one can apply to one's own life in one way or another.
Coincidences
You gotta identify with your characters
You admire a character for trying
When you're stuck, make a list of what wouldn't happen next
What is your character good at, comfortable with?
you gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience
get obvious out of the way
Give your characters opinions.
Combine characters.
Give us the reason to root for the character.
trying for theme is important...
Finish your story.
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