If you write or just enjoy a good story, you probably admire the work of Pixar’s writers. They have won more than 200 awards since they started – beginning with their second film, a short animation called Luxo Jr. which was released in 1986. They have produced so many beloved films that many audience members just use their name as a shorthand for great films.
It’s no surprise, then, that when former Pixar story artist Emma Coats tweeted about the story basics she learned from more senior Pixar employees in 2011, the internet went crazy for it. Now, we can see what Pixar, one of the most amazingly consistent studios of the past two centuries, uses to guide their storytelling processes.
So let’s look at Pixar’s secrets to great storytelling.
1. You admire a character more for trying than for succeeding.
This point is interesting. We like when characters succeed in their goals – who didn’t tear up a bit when Nemo and his father were reunited? – but what we really want to see is them trying. Their attempts and struggles are what make up the heart of the story and are the reasons why we feel so great when they do finally triumph.
2. You have to keep in mind what is interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. Those can be very different things.
Writer’s writers, ones like James Joyce, are notoriously dense and almost unenjoyably challenging to most readers. Much of this is because of their multi-layered storytelling and the tricks they play with language and plot. These are the things that writers love to play with, but they are not always the best things for the audience. This point reminds us that the point of a story should be to entertain your audience first, and play to your writer’s ego second, if at all.
3. Trying for a theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about until you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
Many writers point out that you will never really know what your story is about until you get it down on the page. Then, you can see that certain themes have emerged, and you can build those up and make use of them in the rewriting. Pixar’s writers clearly think about themes the entire time, but they don’t worry about them too much until the first draft has been completed.
4. Once upon a time, there was a [blank]. Every day, [blank]. One day, [blank]. Because of that, [blank]. Because of that, [blank]. Until finally, [blank].
This is one of the simplest, most direct plots, and with it, you can create an almost infinite number of stories. Still, it gives you a focus that can help you create a well-crafted story. If you follow this formula, you won’t end up with a tale that meanders pointlessly. Your plot will always be moving toward its conclusion.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like your losing valuable stuff, but it sets you free.
This piece of advice combines the restraint of short story writing with the advice to “kill your darlings.” Short stories are, obviously, short, so every element must be useful. It must establish or explain something. There is no space for extraneous details and exposition that comes to no useful purpose. In a format like film, space is even more confined, so the need for fewer characters, simplified plotlines and only the most pertinent of details is crucial. That is the first part of this point.
The second point tells you not to stay emotionally attached to your material, and that is where “kill your darlings” comes in. “Kill your darlings” means the characters you are enamoured by, the setting that you think is so atmospheric and the sentences you think ring with poetic truth should be cut, simplified or changed. Why? Because you can’t think about them objectively. You are so in love with them that you can’t see if they are good for the story or not.
6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
As mentioned in the point about seeing a character striving toward a goal, this one highlights how the story is in the challenge. And what is more challenging than having to deal with the one thing you can’t do well or don’t feel comfortable with? It’s the same for your main character, and that struggle will keep your audience hooked.
7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously, endings are hard. Get yours working up front.
It is easier to map out a route when you know where you are starting your journey and ending it, right? This idea is the same. If you know Point A, the beginning of your story, and Point B, where the characters end up, you will have an easier time mapping out how they get there.
8. Finish your story. Let it go, even if it’s not perfect. In a perfect world, you will have both, but move on. Do better next time.
Creative people of all kinds will find something they dislike about their work. That tendency to see only what’s wrong can help you strengthen your story and become a better writer, but you have to know when enough is enough. Nothing will ever be perfect, and writers will always want to tinker: Stephen King, Mary Shelley and Arthur C. Clarke all rewrote novels after publication. Still, you have to let it go at some point, or it will never find its audience.
9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
This is pretty self-explanatory, and it uses the principle that when you stop focusing on a problem, your subconscious takes over and works it out. At the same time, however, you’re keeping your creative juices flowing, so your brain continues to work in the creative mode.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you. You’ve got to recognise it before you can use it.
One of the biggest lessons in how to be a writer is about examining the stories you think work well. That is why writers have to be consumers of the genre they work in. Ask yourself why you like Wall-E as a character, for example. It’s not his use of language or complex nature, so what is it? What made his story so compelling? Pick the elements out, and see if those qualities would help your story.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
This goes along with point number 8. Keeping things in your mind means they never get shared with the world, and stories are meant to be shared. Just be bold, and do it.
12. Discount the first thing that comes to mind. And the second, third, fourth, fifth – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
The first few things that come to your mind are probably coming for good reason: they are tropes, clichés and well-versed phrases that have been repeated since time immemorial. Humans spot patterns, and we hold on to them. That is how we can see pictures in clouds and star clusters. It is also how we end up saying the same things over and over again. If you want to be original, you have to get these out of the way to get to the unique stuff.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
Passive characters are great for a writer because they will do whatever the writer wants. But think about the most charismatic people in fiction and in real life. They stand up for things. They believe in things. They have opinions and points of view, and though they may change their minds, they are consistent and strong. To make your characters interesting, they have to be opinionated.
14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
There is a reason you want to tell your story. Maybe you want to explore some element of the human condition. Maybe you just wonder how the world would be different if everything were exactly the same, except bread is able to talk. The point is, there is a reason why you find that particular idea compelling, and if you figure out that reason, you can keep it in the middle of everything you do when you work on the story. And if you know why you care about the story, you can express that to the audience, helping them understand why they should care, too.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
You know how actors stereotypically talk about their characters’ motivations? That’s all about getting to the heart of a real emotion, so the audience can empathise. When the audience empathises, they care and they have hope for the character. The best way to make sure your character’s emotions are real is to think about how you would feel, and write that into the character.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
This is similar to the points about a character struggling with an impossible situation. The odds need to be great enough against the character to make the audience desperate to know that things will work out for them. So make things hard for the character, then see if you can make them harder. Even if they fail, they have something compelling to struggle for and fight against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
Sometimes things don’t work in stories. There are any number of reasons why they don’t work, but the important thing is that they just don’t. Think of these elements as that nice person you went out with once or twice back in the day. They were lovely, but they weren’t right for you. It’s the same with the elements in your story that aren’t working. Maybe they’re lovely, but they just aren’t right for this story. They’ll find their story, eventually, and you’ll find the element that does work for the story you’re writing right now.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best and fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
This is what you have to come to terms with to follow point number 8. You have to know when you are making the story stronger and when you are just changing things because it makes you feel better. The only way you’ll learn this is to practice and get better at it, as this is a writing skill on par with constructing good sentences.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
You’ve probably heard of deus ex machina, “the god from the machine”. That is a plot element that comes out of nowhere to get characters out of a situation, and once you start looking for it, you will see it everywhere. And that will drive you insane. Plots should be moved by characters, not the other way around. Your characters should have the ability to get themselves out of situations that seem impossible. If they can’t, something about your story needs to be changed. Otherwise, you are cheating your characters and your audience out of satisfying actions.
On the other hand, coincidences that get characters into trouble – like Buddy, Mr Incredible’s biggest fan, becoming his biggest enemy – can help you stack the odds against your character. This can help increase the tension and make the audience pull for the character even more.
20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How would you rearrange them into what you do like?
This is the opposite side of the coin that point number 10 is on. Looking at things you love shows you how things work, but often you learn more about how something works by looking at a story that doesn’t. It’s like making mistakes in life. Will you learn more about life by simply following all the rules or by examining why mistakes are wrong? The same idea can be transferred to storytelling.
21. You have to identify with your situation and characters. You can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make you act that way?
Similar to point number 15, this one tells the writer to make characters relatable. They have to feel true, even if they are cooking rats, robots with a heart of gold, or an old man whose loneliness makes him lash out at others’ kindness. In Pixar’s storytelling, each of these characters – Remy, Wall-E, and Carl from Up – is relatable, and that makes them feel more real to the audience.
22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
In this way, a story is like a car. Strip it down to the barest components – the things that it must have to be a car. Then you can add on accents, colour and texture to make it more comfortable, more exciting, more emotional or whatever else. But by stripping it back first, you will add only those things that make it more exciting or more emotional in the way you want. Stripping back and adding actually gives you more control over how your story is told.
Those are Pixar’s secrets to great storytelling. They give us a lot to think about, but it is important to remember that guidelines are not the same as rules. Every writer and storyteller has their own way of getting their stories out, so you must figure out what works for you on your own.
The best way to do that? Start writing, of course! And now that you know Pixar’s secrets to great storytelling, what are you going to write about?
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