Pixar’s 22 rules of storytelling

Kristen Stieffel, a writing coach, spoke on “Satisfying Endings” at the Florida Writers Association‘s 13th Annual Florida Writer’s Conference last month. As a mystery writer, naturally I’m interested in crafting the right endings to my stories, so her topic was of great interest to me. One piece of advice Kristen gave was this: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

Kristen said this came from “”

Monsters, Inc. was one of my favorites movies of all time. Of course, I could also say that about Toy Story 1 through 3 and Wall-E. In fact, Pixar makes great movies that tell great stories. So I clicked on the link and read the 22 rules. If you are a writer–or want to be–I suggest you read them too. Great pointers.

Here’s just one more of Pixar’s rules as a teaser: Rule #1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

My second novel, Double Fake, Double Murder, is now available in both electronic and paperback print versions at Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.