Pixar's rules of storytelling.

Hey guys.

Thanks to my brother for sending me this link. It's really made me think about my characters, and who they are, and about why stories are interesting, and I think these are things I have tried to keep in the back of my mind, but don't usually think about normally.

Anyway, I am having issues with with my eyes, hay fever still. But I went to the doctor and got drops finally, and now I can kinda see without getting a headache. And I changed from a drug that's like Claratin to one that's like Allegra, at the doctors request. Overall, I'm hoping it works, I'm still feeling some irritation, but I think things are getting better.

With that in mind, I'm going to highlight some of my favorite of the Pixar rules, and how I think it applies to the Magic World story. It's useful to me, and hopefully entertaining to you.

I'll be paraphrasing these here, but here we go.

#1 You admire a character more for trying, than for succeeding.
Davin is a success at the things he has the most experience with, which is magic. However as the story progresses, we'll see him being afraid or nervous of situations, but he'll have to try anyway. So, I'm looking forward to seeing how he performs.

#6 Challenge your character with the exact opposite of what they're comfortable with.
Robert and Miranda are pretty much complete opposites, and I'm really thinking about having their intro stories cross paths, just to see how they'll react.

#10 Deconstruct your favorite stories, and understand why you like them, because that's something that's in you.
Oh yeah. I find myself using stuff from my favorite stories all the time. Stuff from Dresden, Harry Potter, Fullmetal Alchemist, and other fantasy stories, but also things like Leverage, The A-Team, Firefly. Stuff like that. I identify with a number of things in these stories, like the person gifted in one area having to face challenges they aren't prepared for. Or helping the underdog. Or being the underdog, and depending on your friends and your team to get the job done.  I'm thinking that my "Team" should have a failure prior to learning to work together. Even that comes from some of my favorite stories.

#11 Ideas can never be complete until you put them to paper.
I've had a lot of ideas. But they're only thoughts in my head until I type them out or write them down. That's the whole purpose of this blog, and why I've been working so hard to make sure I never miss a day.

#19 Coincidence should be a foil, not a crutch.
Oh yeah. Deus ex Machina is the worst storytelling tool ever. If your characters aren't able to use their own skills to out of their predicament, the either you're not telling the story right, or you're not fully plumbing the depths of your characters abilities. You make something up if you have to. You scrape them against the walls if it comes to it. And if that STILL doesn't work, make sure your character has friends. That's not cheating, that's just good planning. 

There's more of course but... eh. I'm ready for a shower, a warm compress, and more eye drops.

Comments and suggestions welcomed, as per usual.

Thanks for reading!