31–40 of 77 posts
Storytelling is about more than just deciding the plot. It is very much about staging the reveal of details.
> 4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. This one reminds me of writing advice from South Park's Trey Parker: write better stories by figuring out how to replace all your "ands" and "buts" with "therefore". http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2015/05/the-k... > 20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you disli…
Just a minor change in order of the same scenes completely changed a movie.
I violently disagree with 19. The overuse of contrived means of creating tension is lazy, predictable, and frustrating. More unpleasant is the tendency of characters to become inexplicably stupid, inexperienced, and illogical under those circumstances. I’m not asking for purely rationalist fiction, but if the tension is utterly contrived, I check out. Contrived tension is no more useful than contrived resolution of t…
So stories like The Fugitive, The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, Leon, Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Up, Die Hard, and The Big Lebowski sucked because they made use of this technique?
It's interesting the focus on the beginning and the end. It seems that would mean you should think a lot about how things at the end are similar or different from the start, like circumstances and character, and how you feel about all that.
http://www.ghostlittle.com/blog/testing-the-dan-harmon-story...
> 4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. This one reminds me of writing advice from South Park's Trey Parker: write better stories by figuring out how to replace all your "ands" and "buts" with "therefore". http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2015/05/the-k... > 20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you disli…
That leads to a cliche - the nobody who becomes a hero. That's so Pixar.
Biography movies of real people aren't like that, because real life usually isn't.
I violently disagree with 19. The overuse of contrived means of creating tension is lazy, predictable, and frustrating. More unpleasant is the tendency of characters to become inexplicably stupid, inexperienced, and illogical under those circumstances. I’m not asking for purely rationalist fiction, but if the tension is utterly contrived, I check out. Contrived tension is no more useful than contrived resolution of t…
"Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way." I make this my personal rule when replying to something on the internet: if it's the first thing you thought of, there are already 20 other replies saying exactly the same thing!
There's a full Khan Academy course specifically on Pixar storytelling techniques. https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar
> 4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. This one reminds me of writing advice from South Park's Trey Parker: write better stories by figuring out how to replace all your "ands" and "buts" with "therefore". http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2015/05/the-k... > 20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you disli…
Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. That leads to a cliche - the nobody who becomes a hero. That's so Pixar. Biography movies of real people aren't like that, because real life usually isn't.
> 4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. This one reminds me of writing advice from South Park's Trey Parker: write better stories by figuring out how to replace all your "ands" and "buts" with "therefore". http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2015/05/the-k... > 20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you disli…
Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. That leads to a cliche - the nobody who becomes a hero. That's so Pixar. Biography movies of real people aren't like that, because real life usually isn't.