22 Rules of Storytelling (and a little preview) · 3:15pm Oct 14th, 2013
I was recently introduced to Pixar's twenty-two rules of storytelling (reproduced below for your edification). While I tend to take a rather Barbossan view of rules, these are nonetheless very good. Eleven and eighteen feel particularly relevant for me. I need to stop fussing over ideas in my head and start slapping them down on paper/the screen.
In other news, Thirty-Minute Ponies (the actual blog/tumblr/thing) is on hiatus for at least a month. This is actually pretty good for me, because it means that the few brain cells I have left for writing will be less distracted by TMP prompts and will be better-able to focus on my neglected bigger fics. On that note, here's an itty-bitty snippet from a pensive OctaScratch one-shot I've been chipping away at for a while. It's nowhere near done, but I'm actually really excited about it. I love Octavia and Vinyl, and I'm trying some fun experimental stuff with the structure.
“Two tickets to Manehattan, please,” says Octavia, sliding a hoofful of bits across the counter.
“Round trip or one way?” asks the ticket pony. He looks from Octavia to Vinyl and back again with open curiosity. Vinyl forces her usual cocky grin, wishing she’d brought her shades—the grin is easier when she can hide behind their comforting purple haze. She feels the ticket pony’s gaze rake across her, lingering on her horn, her messy mane, and her rumpled old hat. He doesn’t say anything, but his lips purse slightly, and Vinyl can hear the unvoiced judgement: she doesn’t belong here.
“One way,” says Octavia. Her voice is still calm and polite, but Vinyl can hear the steel beneath the surface, the implacable finality. They aren’t coming back.
I love #4.
Been awhile since I've seen a list like that. Made well, anyway. Really though, so long as you strive to put yourself in the writing process, it turns out to be educational whether you're applying rules or not.
And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little heartbroken, knowing that collection is out the picture for awhile. Whatever allows you to get up to the most enjoyable shenanigans is for the best though.
Also, bonus OctaScratch.
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Well, what I like about these "rules" is that they encourage you as a writer to look at your story and your characters in interesting ways. Admittedly, that works better with original fiction and characters than with fan fiction, but it'll help as I tinker with my Fo:E sidestory.
Re: the TMP prompts: I tried to write for almost all of them, and even if I ultimately didn't finish a short for each one, they still stole my attention away from the fics I should really be working on. I have a lot—like, a lot—of unfinished stories/chapters/ideas scattered across my HD and GDocs, and I want to start actually getting those done. I'm planning to experiment with some changes to my writing process, too, so hopefully I can boost my productivity. Fingers crossed!
And OctaScratch, because Octavia and Vinyl are sweet and sexy and I like telling stories about them.
That's part of what I love about working with thoughts and concepts; perspective just does so much. For example, a lot of the rules are tailored to simplifying what you're working with, recognizing the pieces, and bridging gaps in the broader senses. It's a smart way to pose most of these ideas, because it encourages the writer to stay objective when they're playing with their thoughts. And that gets very interesting when you start drawing comparisons among readers. A piece of prose can usually be broken down to bare collections of facts based on what is presented. While it's possible to have some discrepancies between readers here, most can agree on what's physically present and occurring during a given passage.
But when you start asking them about the organization of individual elements: what they "mean" on their own, what these elements "mean" when interacting with each other, or goodness forbid, within the overall scheme of the story, you'll get a variety of answers that the writer probably never even had in mind when they were writing. Common veins of logical connection are usually found, sure, but just how far off the beaten path people can wander is absolutely baffling. Speaks volumes of how engaging working with the intangible is. Speaking of tangents, I'm on one. As far as these rules go, there's very little lost in the translation of what they want you to consider when writing, and presumably what's most relevant to you will become more apparent through your own experience, which is nice. And Fo:E sidestory? Am intrigue!
Fair enough, just don't burn yourself out or spread yourself thin! And I will be crossing every pair of fingers I see.
All of these reasons are good reasons~.
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I think simplifying helps identify what really makes your story work (or not work, as the case may be). Sometimes less is more.
I spent many an English class debating meaning. Fascinating stuff indeed. Just when you think you've teased the last possible nuance from a bit of Romeo and Juliet, someone else suggests a bizarre new reading that, shockingly, makes sense.
And yes, Fo:E sidestory. It's well-trodden fic territory at this point, but I want to try my hand at it, too.
Mm, fair enough. Guess it'd depend on what in particular you were considering. Progression of events definitely benefits from taking a step back, characters and their development do as well with some scrutiny, and setting could work with anything mentioned so far. There are other things to poke at, but those are the big ones.
Jeez, I haven't had a literary discussion like that in awhile. Then again, most of them involved a few students bouncing ideas off the teacher for a paper while the rest of the class took naps or played Connect Four, or something.
Fallout and Ponies are two great things that go great together, and you writing an Fo:E fic can only turn out neat! I mean, sure it's been done before, but what hasn't in fiction? The point is if you care about it enough to want to try writing it yourself.