You Aren’t Born With Greatness. You Are Born With Great Potential. Song Ten Thousand Hours.

22 Storytelling Tips from Pixar

Waaay back in the olden days (2012) Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats gave some amazing writing tips. I love these and have read them dozens of times.

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#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.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

#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.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

#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.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds 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.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d'you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

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Hope you liked these!

I think one of the kindest things you can do for yourself as an artist is to accept that you will make bad drawings sometimes and just…stop caring about it. It’s not like that bad sketch you drew was your one and only chance to ever draw the thing. It’s so much easier emotionally to just say “lol what is that?” delete it and start over than it is to spend the next six hours crying about it.

Once you stop treating every single thing you draw as something precious and learn to just throw stuff away it takes so much stress away. One bad drawing doesn’t make you a bad artist, or a fraud. Even the best pro artists are gonna have moments where they draw things wrong.

You’re going to make bad drawings so just go out there and make them so you can move on with your life. Chances are your second attempt will be better. 

Adorable baby fakes crying when daddy tries to cut her fingernails. (x)

On the right is the first pen drawing I ever did about two years ago. On the left is the same guy drawn today. It's kind of amazing how much progress comes with practice. #harry styles #art #nocontrol #drawing #one direction

Okay, so for any artists out there who can’t think of something to draw, I’ve found that the Bean exercise is a great way to warm up your arting muscles and really get into the groove. Now for those who don’t know the bean exercise is quite simple.  Step 1) draw two circles close to each other in any configuration. 

Step 2) Start adding humany bits. the great thing about the beans you just drew is that they become a spring board for any number of fun dynamic poses, best part being that you literally just come up with these poses as you draw, no prior thought needed for the most part! :D

Or if you’re like me and you just want to cheer yourself up, you can always use the beans to make fuzzy lil animals. >w<

Surreal Creatures Bloom And Burst Across Sketchbook

Tomorrowland was kind of the most amazing movie ever. ❤️ #art #drawing #tomorrowland #iwantone

Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn’t the way they actually are.

Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’  (via harrisonjamie)

harry’s reaction when he got flashed 😂