Pixar Storytelling Rules

This is the rules that Pixar storywriters abide to when they are writing scripts:

1. Admire a character for trying more than their successes.
2. Keep in mind what is interesting to an audience, not what is fun for a writer.
3. You won't see what the story is actually about until you finish it- see a theme and then rewrite to surround the theme better.
4. Once upon a time there was _________. Everyday __________. One day __________. Because of that ________. Because of that _________. Until finally _________.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours.
6. What are your character's strengths? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7. Come up with the ending before you figure out your middle.
8. Finish the story - let go even if it's not perfect.
9. When stuck, make a list of what wouldn't happen next.
10. Pull apart stories you like and find the best features; they are an embodiment of you as a writer.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. if it stays in your head, you won't share it with anyone.
12. Discount the first thing that comes to mind- get the obvious out of the way.
13. give your characters opinions; passive/ malleable characters are poison to the audience.
14. Why must you tell THIS story?
15. If you were the character in the situation, how would you feel?
16. What are the stakes? Give the audience a reason to root for the character. What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against them.
17. if it is not working, let go and move on; it will be useful later.
18. story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out are cheating.
20. Take the building blocks of a film you dislike. Rearrange them into something you do like.
21. You've got to identify with your situation/characters.
22. What's the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build from there.