Enjoy the Journey!
Karen Gorback, San Fernando Branch
Happy New Year! I hope 2024 brings each of you good health, happiness and bushels of creative energy to continue along your writing journey!
Several months ago, I ran across “Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling,” It’s been around for a while; but it was new to me, and I love it. Credit goes to Emma Coates, former Pixar story artist who tweeted these principles in 2011. I’d like to share with you a few that resonate loudest with me.
#1 You admire a character for more than their successes.
As a hardcore foodie, I consume too many hours of television food programs. What I admire most about the lead “characters” in the cooking competition shows is their vulnerability and willingness to lose the “game,” unless, of course, the storylines are orchestrated by the producers, who understand Coates’ first principle. Regardless, as I develop the characters in my fiction, I try to remember that they, like all of us, occasionally experience failure; and for that, I admire them all the more.
#8 Finish your story, even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world, you would have both, but move on. Do better next time.
I’m a perfectionist, so this one is especially difficult for me. Still, I know that I can’t move forward until the ideas bouncing around in my head exit my brain and land in a Word document. Voltaire was correct when he said, “Perfect is the enemy of good.” I try to remember this when I spend hour upon hour searching for exactly the right words for my manuscripts, as well as for this column each month. Number 8 is a tough one for me.
#14 Why must you tell THIS story? What is the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of?
That’s the heart of it. I discussed this a bit in Karen’s Corner last month. One of the reasons why I need to write is to give voice to the themes and beliefs that are burning inside me. It doesn’t matter whether I’m writing a memoir, a legislative proposal, a poem, or a novel. The themes in my heart are always at the core of anything I compose.
As you continue writing in the new year, I hope you’ll refer to “Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling” to help you move forward. However, I also hope you’ll also consider Karen’s First Rule of Writing Anything, which is “No matter how long it takes, or how difficult it may be, or how many of Pixar’s 22 Rules you observe or break, don’t forget to enjoy the journey!
“Enjoy the Journey” first appeared as the January 2024
SFV president’s message in The Valley Scribe,
newsletter of the San Fernando Branch.