the best storytelling advice · 6:16am Jun 7th, 2016
I once watched an old TV interview with Quentin Tarantino from the early 90s. Not like a late-night talk show, but a real, involved interview. In one part he talks about how he approaches writing his scripts. He described his view something like (my paraphrasing).... a story should unfold. a movie where at the beginning you already know exactly how it will end isn't really a story. and neither should the ending be a completely unpredictable twist out of nowhere.
It was pretty interesting advice, but..... still kinda vague. it's a nice metaphor to remember, "unfold", but it's hard to specify what does or doesn't count as unfolding. 
forget all that.
just watch this video, from Every Frame a Painting. watch it, right now.
actually, I recommend everything on that channel. it's really good. the Jackie Chan video in particular is pretty fun. aaaaand I don't really watch movies at all; I don't care about film editing! but his analysis is so inspiring. even if you can't directly apply it to prose writing, it makes you think about approaches to storytelling you might not have considered before. some of them may contradict each other. there's more than one effective path.
but that short 4:31 video essay taught me more than anything I've seen in my life. even if it does steal a lot of the advice from other sources. well, that's fine too. Orson Welles approves of such trickery. 
THEREFORE / BUT
MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH
you'll find mountains of advice on how to design characters, write descriptions, or "show don't tell." but it's so rare to see anyone talk about structure. and in those 2 very simple rules, it all makes SO MUCH SENSE. "unfolding" is fancy but too complicated to get across. simpler is better.
remember, rules aren't laws. a law in mathematics or physics is always true; it never makes a mistake. rules are different. it's just a map to help you get back on the road, when you feel lost. usually you can get by just fine on intuition, and some successful writers break the rules. save the rules for when your intuition fails, but you're not sure why things are going wrong in your writing.
been leaving short reviews for the most recent WriteOff competition. looking at stories through the above rules has helped a lot. I mean, I don't need them to tell me if I like or dislike a story. but I've noticed that it helps me understand my personal reasons why.
it's pretty often that I see a clever, unique idea, written with skillful prose..... and there's no structure to make it lead to anything. those stories don't stick with me, or I'm not really paying much attention while reading. I won't remember them. and then there's stories that take a common, ordinary idea, and maybe the prose is a little clumsy.... but they grabbed my attention! 
I wanted to see what happens next, simply because they had some kind of structure to them.
It's not about what you get, it's how you cut it, and what comes out the other end.
and in a minific (400-750 words), you might not have enough room for fancy backstory to explain your ideas, or beautiful descriptions to inspire emotion. but there's always room for a basic structure. it makes readers pay attention, and care. I find that's something I'm valuing more as a reader over time; it's also the reaction I want to receive when I write something.
I can't promise my WriteOff entries were perfectly executed and brilliant in this aspect, though. 
Yeah, that's why I try to talk about it in my own Writeoff reviews when I can. Good on you for joining the club.
4007720
yes! i'm in the club!
time to cause trouble
I've seen that "therefore but" video--great stuff. It's one of those ideas that sounds so simple you wonder why you never thought of it. What I really like about it is that the "therefore" kinda forces you to think about and understand your characters. And it prevents you from making characters do things without any real reason besides plot necessity.
4010394
Oh yeah. It doesn't sound like it directly affects writing characters ("just don't be OOC!"), but it seems crucial to avoiding the biggest mistakes out there.
- Characters with no agency just have random things happening TO them constantly, without reacting
- Mary Sues are constantly doing things TO the world around them, without getting a reaction.
it just now occurs to me that this is exactly what the turn structure of Mouse Guard RPG was teaching.
4011114
This point in particular is a huge stumbling block to writers, I feel, even myself. I still find myself falling I to it on occassion. I wonder why it's so prevalent.