5 Essential Storytelling Rules I Just Made Up

Never listen to any one who says how to make a good screenwriting/movie or any thing. Those are things that needs to be honest, about your emotions. Maybe some random dude from internet will say its wrong because he lives by the rule that every thing needs to be right because he doesnt have a talent, but in art especially there are no rules and every things done by talent, hardwork and emotions. Screenwriting is a process of telling a story etc, and you may have illogical things because its YOURS, never listen if any one says dont do it that way, its your view. BUT do what you do neatly! Do the fuck you want, you shall not change the way you think just bcs someone told you. Its your way and your view.

I sold my first script in 1978. I was 30. Took me six years to learn what this fellow says to you on a video in ten ministers. Wow. Good job.

Why did you remove your avatar videos? 😭

Rejected by women in boots 😂

When you say, characters are not people, I feel like this reminds me of the three main characters I’m writing. They don’t function like normal people, and their mentality is based on animals (crows being the main component). Basically, they’re less of actual people and more like forces of nature that don’t abide by human rules (they have their own).

I found this very interesting. It’s almost the polar opposite to my approach to writing. I’m a published author and I also create (full stop, save the music, my boyfriend does that) visual novel video games with branching narratives, and literally, only .5-1.5 of the rules you’ve outlined would ever work for me, on a surface level. I will say, I don’t approach things in a super cringey fanfic way, but I can’t see myself being successful with your first three methods. Your fourth point I agree about, no one should ever tell you that your manuscript or film script or any script is too wordy. Words make all of the difference, but “show don’t tell” was always presented to me as “don’t tell the reader/viewer/player obvious shit that they can be informed of in a better way,” which I believe is annoying and a waste of time. Especially in the video game niche I work in, you don’t have every female character just TELL your audience that some guy is hot, show it; the ways he dresses, the tone of his voice, the words he uses, if it’s a film or a video game, it can be showed in the film, or the character illustrations and sprites. Otherwise, it just feels like being at some trashfire of a boyband concert you never wanted to be at. I love your last idea. It’s something I’ve done, but usually I find that at some point I have to step in or it turns into that page of “Goodnight Moon” with the picture of lumpy grains in a bowl that just says “goodnight, mush.” Anyways, the point is, that your video really made me think. I would be super interested to read a piece of yours to see how you employ the first three rules — thought I suppose I also kind of get your rule 3, in my own way, my approach is just more “Your audience is only as smart as you let them be,” — because I’m curious to see how those implementations work on the page, not just as examples or guidelines. Given, for me, there is a lot of character driven stuff I have to deal with, especially in my game writing that kind of automatically throws up the mental block without me getting a chance to sink my teeth into it right away; I have to tear the wall down first, but it would be rad to see it I could implement all or some of these into my own toolbox, if with a bit of tweaking. That being said, I don’t expect you to be running to the frontlines to swap stories with a stranger or let someone read your work for nothing, haha. I just think it would be awesome to see the results. Thank you for sharing this, despite it possibly being deemed as “unpopular ideas” (though that still doesn’t invalidate them, I find them very thought provoking), it’s given me a lot to think on, and even more to be curious about. Cheers!

I find writing a mixture of show and tell. Show to enhance the story; tell to take necessary shortcuts. I am currently working on an ultimate story with a special plot. The character development is simple. They are different yet fighting for the same goal. Will they cooperate, will they betray each other? You have to read the story to find out. Explaining what happens ahead of time will obviously ruin it.

Dune sucked ass. The fact you doing a act on a horrible movie is beyond me.

Dude, you are KILLING it with these writing videos.... only just discovering you now and you give such awesome insight. Absolutely love your insight :)
I just make roleplaying adventures (haven't written fully-fledged stories yet) but your advice is invaluable. My fave part of this one was when you said just sit back and let the characters have at it... it was the Let the Dominoes Fall advice. Awesome idea.... will have to try that next time I write another adventure.
Keep these up,.... these videos are awesome.... good stuff :)

I dont know the exact reasons but for some reasons this is the best video about storytelling

"Bottom-line: If I fully develop a character and get attached before I even know how that character slots into the bigger picture it throws my writing process into COMPLETE chaos."
HAAAH.

...HAHA. SO GLAD I CAN'T RELATE OR ANYTHING
fuck me what am I going to do

Mid comment: where is your avatar video? Can’t find it, based on the thumbnail in your video. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough :P

Thanks for the work — cool channel !

Holy shit it's crazy how much you've grown. Your content has really reinvigorated my passion for writing and reminded me it's okay to have fun with it. Thank you, man.

The part about creating characters representing different views about the plot is so big brain! I’ve always wanted to have my characters show a certain theme in my story but I’ve never been able to find a way to do that. Thank you!

I just want to say thank you SO much for sharing your method of developing a plot/ storyline. I have ADHD and have NEVER been able to plan my writing for shit, be it high school essays or my next story. I just go off of whatever I come up with in the moment, and for the most part, it works. But then I lose motivation to keep world building because I'm developing the story as I go, and honestly, that can be EXHAUSTING at time. You easily chunked it up and asked VERY basic questions which can be expanded upon as much as you want, or kept as simple as you'd like. This helps me LOADS and I appreciate it tons

I’m confused, where number 5? Did I miss it twice, or does it not exist?

Nice to have Saul Goodman narrating this video.

Did you remove some of your videos? I feel like there were more, or am I glitching?

i once tried to rewrite a character 'cursed' with superpowers as a normal kid without superpowers, because i was paranoid that the character/story wasn't deep enough on their own, but ultimately i realized personality without purpose only gets you so far. The story exists BECAUSE there's a weird invisible kid hiding in the protagonist's attic! Not in spite of it!

GOD this is like the third time I watch this video and every time I get to the part that Local jokes about OC's the music in the background tickles my brain from a long lost memory and I cant for the life of me remember where it from. If anyone sees this and knows what song that is, please, tell me.

Found your channel the other day and have watched several of your videos. Great stuff. I've found myself agreeing with a LOT of what you've said or talked about, especially in this one. As a writer myself, it's always interesting hearing and learning other writers' perspectives and creative processes. Actually recognized a few from this video that I use myself. While scripts and novels may be written in different formats and the way they're constructed may be different, the core of it all is storytelling, and a lot of what you talk about applies to novels as well as scripts, and I love hearing what you have to say and how you say it. Great video! Can't wait to watch more.

I mean this advice works for writing scripts, but creating a novel is a bit more complex.

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of our age, he practically invented science fiction as we know it. Many of the themes explored in Sci Fi he laid out the foundations for. Many science fiction movies you've watched are adaptations of his work without you knowing it. His characters had almost no personality. Because even a "good character story" places characters second to the plot. Why? Because in the description "character story" the noun is STORY and without a plot there is no story to explore your characters in.

This is excellent

Sometimes I can’t make a story unless I already have an idea of a character

You’re freaking awesome man what you said in that last two minutes was the wax seal on my decision to start my beginner filmmaking channel.

What Avatar video?

lols

ur the best man love ur vids keep it up a étranger believes in you ;)

Let the characters develop themselves - that is soooo true. I somehow wrote the main character and his backstory without a real story around him and then started worldbuilding, writing several first chapters until it fit somehow. I finished the first book, working at the sequel. Now I'm checking book 1 and realized that I had a completely different character at the end of book 1 and only then I could write the dialoges and relationships more intensly in the first chapters so it really fits into the story. Funny to watch them grow. At this point of the story it really writes itself. I'm more like a guide or something. If I turn against it, it often feels forced and unaturally: that's not how my characters would behave in this situation.

Thank you for all your videos and insight and wisdom! I don’t even write, I just barely have the time to fantasize about a story or a character or world building. Your videos are inspiring, educational, and very fun. Thank you thank you!

Damn, its like, the complete opposite of how I like to do things. Or more a reversed way.
I like to do characters frist and then build the world around them, this is building the word frist and then doing the characters. In the end its the same result; Characters and worlds that seem like they are for eachother.
I have more fun my way tho, I guess chaos is my place. Thanks for the vid, its really good.

I’m at 2 minutes and I feel like this sounds like terrible advice. What a quick way to take out all of the fun in writing. I understand we all have to be self aware as people but I can’t see myself ever treating a character like that. I draw. I’m an artist, not a writer. But I can never see myself ever following this sort of advice.

I have yet to complete the video, but si far this has actually made me more confident about my current project. I've only included what feel like necessary scenes and have I made (at least what feels like to me) reasonably deep characters without trying to recreate a complete person (or technically, Dinosaur), and the characters so far have fit well and are, well not quite absolutely necessary, but still not just unnecessary fluff.

Heh, "long and hard."

Are there not things that any character can say such as "I love you," "I hate you," "Fuck off," and "I'll take a double cheeseburger, a large fry, and a chocolate shake"?

Does this entire video only apply to screenwriting? Am I wasting my time watching this because I'm just a writer, not a screenwriter? You still make some good points, and obviously fanfictions aren't movies (although some movies feel like fanfiction), but this seems to be a lot more geared to writing movies specifically.

I'm writing original characters in original fiction (although I originally made them for a Digimon fanficton that involved Crests), but the characters are in an ongoing superhero/fantasy/sci-fi multiverse thingy, and their purposes are to be heroes, I guess. They take on the mantles of their parents and then save the world time and time again.

Does Batman have a purpose beyond his own war on crime and being Batman? Is his purpose his war on crime? He's Batman so that no one else has to be? My sneak thief character who's totally not a Green Arrow rip-off is there to be a Robin Hood style vigilante thief hero. His purpose is being a hero. I don't really know.

Avatar is just Pocahontas except the New World is a literal new world, the natives are a non-human blue analog, and the White people are... White people. Were any of the villains not White and old? Also, John Smith becomes Jake Sully.

It was only popular because of the 3D and the concept of the Avatars.

By "just," do you mean simply or just now? Because obviously it's not the latter if you've talked about the first one before.

So, who is this guy? Is he a famous writer or something

"Show, don't tell" is a phrase referring to exposition, not dialogue.

The whole show don't tell rule can be mixed in with the purpose before personality. Its easy to have a discriptor on your character and telling the audience what the character is. But most of the interesting characters are made to have show what they value most in their traits. You can give them purpose and have their values based on what purpose you gave them. A good hearted person torn down because the one they love killed their family or good friends that one is secretly betraying the other for power.