“22 story basics from Pixar”: #19–22

By now I’m pretty sure nearly everyone has seen this list — “22 storybasics I’ve picked up in my time at Pixar” — aggregated by Emma Coats, a storyboard artist at the studio. As opposed to just printing them out, tacking them up, then forgetting about them, I thought we could break down the list and analyze it this week in the hope that some of these insights might actually stick with us. So each day let’s look at 4–5 of these concepts about narrative.

#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.

I have lots of thoughts about this list, but in lieu of my pontificating, let’s hear from you first. Which ones of these hit home the most with you? Why? What takeaway do you get from these ideas?

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned from this list?

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