Last night I completed my 100 day writing challenge. For over three months, I plopped down by my laptop and hammered out at least five hundred words.

I did this under the pretense that showing up every day would make me a better writer — or at least suck a little less (see image above).

Did the challenge help achieve this goal? I like to think so, but I’ll leave that to the discretion of the reader.

The experience did teach me a few lessons about building a writing habit, coming up with ideas, and managing the highs and lows of the creative process. These lessons helped me complete my project, and I believe fellow writers will find them useful.

Below are the seven lessons I learned from writing for 100 days straight.

Lesson 1: Set An Attainable Writing Goal

Consistency and managing expectations: this remarkably unsexy duo is the key to sustaining a daily writing habit.

When setting a goal, it’s tempting to be ambitious. We imagine how much we’d write if we woke up with a full tank of energy and a free schedule, then use that as a target.

This is simply not realistic. Most days you will not roll out of bed eager to work. On the days you do, you will often find yourself hampered down with real world responsibilities: deadlines, errands to run, screaming kids.

Instead of thinking about how much you’d write on a perfect day, consider how much you could get done on a bad day — and make that your goal.

Don’t freak out if your benchmark seems small. Remember this is simply a minimum requirement, there is nothing stopping you from writing more.

For the challenge, I set a goal of either an hour of writing or 500 words. These numbers aren’t sacred, they are simply what worked with my schedule. You’re welcome to increase or shrink them to your liking.

Lesson 2: They’ll Be Duds Along The Way

With a week left in the challenge, I made the regrettable choice of reading some of my old posts. Poor decision! I ended up quarreling with my work and cursing the past version of myself foolish enough to publish it. I almost gave up with 7 days left.

It’s natural for writers to be embarrassed by past work. Most of the time this embarrassment is an overreaction — a healthy sign of your improvement. However, occasionally you’ll unearth a dud — a certified stinker, you’re ashamed to have written.

If you find one, don’t freak out. Duds are part of the process. Both beginners and accomplished authors make them — If you don’t believe me, look at your favorite writer’s body of work. I can guarantee there’s at least a dud or two in there.

We like to believe progress is linear, that each item we put out must be better than the last. This isn’t the case. For factors unknown and often out of your control, we can’t always churn out our best work.

If you’re feeling down about something you wrote, remember the mindful mantra: Simply Begin Again. Forget the past. Each project affords a new opportunity to restart and try again.

Lesson 3: Favor Exciting Ideas Over “Good” Ones

I swiped this piece of advice from Pixar Director Pete Docter. There’s a common belief that good writing is the natural result of a good idea. This misconception causes some to hunt for the “perfect idea” rather than sitting down to write.

In reality, an idea that seems “too good to fail” is an ordinary idea that someone took the time and care to mold into something great. Focusing too much on the idea itself ignores the tough work that went into it.

I’ve found the best way to endure this tough work, is to tackle an idea that excites you. One you’d be happy to write about, whether it succeeded or failed.

Keep this in mind when choosing which project to start on. Use excitement as the criteria for your choice, and avoid lumping ideas into categories like “good” or “bad”.

Lesson 4: Treat Writing And Editing As Separate Activities

This is one of the stock pieces of advice I’d filed under “good to know” and never implemented. But after seeing personal heroes like Jerry Seinfeld emphasize the distinction, I made a point to remind myself:

Writing and editing are not the same things and should not be treated as such.

Writing is free flowing. Your goal is to get ideas on the page in their crudest form — misspellings and typos be damned! In this phase the audience has not entered the fray, your work is for you and you alone.

Editing is exacting. You’re paring and pruning your work into something readable for an audience. In this part of the process you’re concerned with grammar, punctuation, and coherence.

Since the two are separate activities, I recommend focusing on one or the other during your writing sessions. Avoid editing while you write and writing while you edit.

Something I’ve found helpful is using different programs for the two phases. For writing, I use a word processor with spelling and grammar suggestions turned off — nothing sucks you out of the flow of writing like seeing clusters of squiggly lines on a page.

When I’m finished, I’ll paste my work into a program like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to edit.

Lesson 5: Give Your Readers A Reason To Care

When a reader clicks on something you wrote, a single question is looping over in their mind.

Why should I care?

You may have a knee jerk reaction to this: How dare they! People should judge my work on its own merits. How can someone be so egotistical?

But think about it from their perspective: anyone with an internet connection has an endless stream of content to choose from, why should they give you their attention without a reason to care?

A “reason to care’’ is a promise to your reader. A promise that your work is worth their time. This promise can come in many forms: a solution to one of their problems, a distraction from their dull drum life, a story that will amuse and entertain them.

Whatever the reason, say it loud and say it up front. Reassure your audience they have something to gain by reading on.

Lesson 6: Make Peace With Your Neuroses

If you’ve chosen the tiresome, difficult, maddening — and occasionally satisfying vocation of writing, I’m guessing you have a quirk or two.

These peculiarities often fuel your work, but other times they give you the urge to rip out what little hair you have left, and toss your computer off the 3rd floor balcony.

You may look for strategies to outwork or outwit your neuroses. But over the last 100 days, I’ve found it’s better to make peace with them. They’re a part of your personality, you couldn’t will away these mental ticks if you wanted to. Try to work with rather than against them.

Are you most productive past midnight? Good! Scribble away as the world is asleep.

Do you do some of your best writing on the toilet, as I do? Even better! Get to work with your draws down.

Must a treasured toy or trinket watch over your shoulder as you write? No problem! Let your guardian angel’s watchful eye aid your endeavors.

Ask around. There’s “no one size fits all” way to write. Each author, you included, may have an odd-ball way of going about things. If this suits you, stick with it! Let you work speaks for itself.

Lesson 7: Write For The Long Game

Marking the 100th “X” on my calendar brought about a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, I was proud I’d completed the challenge — writing every day is hard for a couple weeks, and even more difficult over a three-month period.

However, completing my chart reminded me how much work I had left to do. During the daily grind, 100 days feels like forever. But when it’s over, you realize it’s a blip in time.

Becoming a better writer, or mastering any skill, is a lifetime project. It takes years to feel comfortable, and decades to get “good” — however you define that. Author David Sedaris says he wrote every day for 15 years before getting published.

As you move forward, you’ll likely come across an infuriating truth: progress is undetectable. It occurs so slowly, it’s difficult to notice. And when you do, it rarely occurs in the way you expect.

If you dare to write, know you are running a marathon and not a sprint. Growth means incremental gains over a long period. Making these small strides requires a leap of faith — an ability to truck on, often when you feel you’re not making any headway.

The sooner you accept this, the sooner you can get to work. So stick around. Look ahead. And keep playing for the long game.

*** Note: If you’re interested in starting a 100 day challenge here’s a link to the chart I used. If you want to start smaller here’s a link to the 30 day version.

What’s a story look like when stripped to the bone?

Before curtains drop, cameras roll, or ink hits the page.

Writers have filled tomes trying to answer this question, applying a full arsenal of images and metaphors. But when seeking to understand the structure of a story, I believe a picture says a thousand words.

In this post, you’ll find 5 images that show the shapes of stories. I’ve listed them in order of complexity, starting with the most basic and adding new layers as we go.

As you’ll see, narratives share similar appearances, but each visualization highlights some unique element about what a story is, and how to tell one. Let’s start at the beginning:

The Story Line

The story line is one of the most common motifs in fiction. It’s a tidy illustration of the major points of a story. It gives you the raw ingredients (the events in the plot) and draws a line to connect them.

The image makes it easy to track parts of your story, and divide your work into a beginning, middle and end — or act 1, act 2, and act 3 as seen in the photo above.

Sure, it has limits — it only looks at where events occur in time- but it’s a good jumping off point… we’re still in storytelling 101.

The Story Spine

Think of the “story spine” as the inverted story line. It shares its linear shape, but flips it on its head.

Both line and spine look at how events move through time, but the spine pays more attention to casualty — how actions and their consequences tower on top of one another to form a story.

It’s a visual version of Pixar’s story blueprint:

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

I also love the spine as a metaphor. Like a spine, the story provides a backbone which props up other parts of your work — genre, setting, character, theme. Without a sturdy spine (ie story), the whole body falls on its face.

The Story Arc

The Arc adds a much needed second axis. We can not only see how a story moves in time, but also chart the rising and falling tension of a narrative.

The ups and downs on the graph capture the natural rhythm of a story. As the story progresses, it scales up the Y axis until reaching a peak point of tension, or climax, after which it tumbles down to a final resolution.

Simply listing events in time may count as a story, but not one you’d want to listen to. The arc shows us the ebb and flow that makes a story exciting.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Story Map

Kurt Vonnegut’s Story Map offers a more detailed version of the arc. In the map, the Y axis measures a character’s fortune. When all is well, we stay in the upper end of the chart. But when things take a turn for the worst, we dip in the realm of ill fortune.

The map recognizes progress is not linear. The character in our story may have multiple arcs (see “boy meets girl” on the top right). They may plateau on their journey (see “Cinderella” on the bottom left). Or they may simply free fall into the abyss (see Kafka on bottom right).

For a more detailed explanation of the story map, watch the master himself, Kurt Vonnegut, describe it below:

Story Circle: The Hero’s Journey

Not a fan of lines? The story circle may be your image of choice! The story circle is modeled off Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.

Campbell discovered the Hero’s Journey after studying the myths of different cultures. He found many of them followed the circular structure above.

In the 1970s, famous film-makers like George Lucas popularized Campbell’s idea. It is now a well-known writing troupe for novelists and screenwriters. You can see it in works like The Lion King, Harry Potter, and The Matrix.

In The Hero’s Journey, a character follows a 12 point path in which they exit the ordinary world (ie their everyday circumstances) and enter a realm unknown. From there they cross a series of thresholds to get a special item or piece of knowledge which they take back home with them.

The journey has a circular shape because both the hero and the audience start and end at the same point. However, the events in the story give them a new lens to view their everyday life.

If the talk of thresholds, inner caves, and elixirs in the image confuses you, check out Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon’s version of the circle — it’s a modern update of Campbell’s principles:

However, I encourage aspiring storytellers to study Joseph Campbell. You can see a clip of him describing the Hero’s Journey below:

In a previous post I talked about artistic genealogies; the idea that specific individuals and genres build off one another.

The idea was inspired by Austin Kleon’s, author of Steal Like An Artist, article on Climbing Your Own Family Tree.

Kleon talks about swimming downstream a particular artist’s genealogy — i.e. looking back in time at the people and work that influenced them.

I like to think of this idea as finding your Hero’s Heroes.

Seeking out your hero’s hero shows you both the roots of artists you adore, and gives you a list of similar work to check out.

It’s also a cool way to link different people in a particular genre or movement. Some of them will know and reference each other. Others will be unaware of the many faceless figures they’re indebted to.

I want to explore this idea by taking a trip through the history of Rock N Roll and examining the influence of three famous, and one not so famous, rock stars.

Let’s begin in the present:

Dave Grohl

If you ask a 16 year old who their favorite rock star is, there’s a good chance they’ll say Foo Fighters front man and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.

In the 21st century, a time when rock music has steadily declined in popularity, Grohl has become the de facto face of the genre.

Grohl holds this position for good reason. Few modern rock stars have done more to celebrate and preserve the music’s legacy.

He’s kept the spirit of rock alive through his music and documentaries like Sound City, HBO’s Sonic Highway and the upcoming series “What Drives Us” — a tribute to the vans that carried famous rockers from gig to gig.

When Grohl cites his influences, of which there are many, one group is at the top of he list: The Beatles.

It’s hard to undersell the importance The Beatles had on Grohl. He mastered guitar by playing along to old Beatles records, and claims to have learned everything he knows about composition and song structure from the group. One could speculate Grohl (the musician), Foo Fighters, and Nirvana might not exist without The Beatles.

In the 2013 documentary Sound City, Grohl teamed up with his hero Paul McCartney to write the tune “Cut Me Some Slack”. You can see the two performing the song together in the video below.

The Beatles

That The Beatles are a highly influential rock n roll group is close to a fact of nature. Stating it again is akin to pointing out the sky is blue and the sun sets in the West. Rather than belabor the point I’ll share a few fun facts about the band:

– In their 8 years together, they had 20 number 1 hits and 34 songs on the Billboard top 10.

– At the end of the week of April 4th 1964 the group held all the top 5 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

– The group is not only popular in the US and Europe, they’ve enjoyed eight number 1 hits in Zimbabwe and two in Ethiopia.

– The Beatles song Yesterday is the ranked “the most covered song of all time”. There are an estimated 3,000 recorded covers of the song.

Before the fame and hit tunes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were a couple of lads from Liverpool trying to get their hands on American rock records. Liverpool’s position as a port city allowed the two to hear early rock music before most people in the UK. Their youth was filled by the sounds of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and in particular guitarist Chuck Berry.

Both Lennon and McCartney acknowledge the inspiration of Chuck Berry on The Beatles and the rock genre. Lennon says if you were trying to give Rock N Roll another name you might call it Chuck Berry.

The two heroes met in 1971 when Lennon and his group served as a backing band for Chuck. The clip below shows the 2 song performance- including Yoko Ono’s infamous scream during Johnny Be Goode.

Chuck Berry

While Elvis Presley hoards the title “King Of Rock n Roll”, most acknowledge the crown belongs to Chuck Berry.

In the 1950s Berry popularized rock n roll staples like fast guitar licks, youthful lyrics, and stellar showmanship — his duck walk is one of the most recognizable stage moves of all time.

Chuck Berry was the original guitar god (sorry Hendrix). His playing style pushed the electric guitar to center stage, and made a generation of kids pick Gibsons and Fenders.

The opening riff of Berry’s song Johnny B Goode has been copied and recopied by generations of rockers — including by The Beatles in their single Revolution. You can see Berry performing the tune in one of his earliest televised performances below.

However, Berry did not come up with the riff. He openly admits ripping it off from a name you may not have heard of…

Carl Hogan

If you climbed up our family tree and asked Dave Grohl if he’d heard the name Carl Hogan, my guess is he’d say no (note: I haven’t asked Dave the question so I can’t prove this). Yet the work and careers of Grohl, and everyone else on this tree, are in some ways beholden to him.

Hogan played guitar for Louis Jordan — a big band leader in the 1930s and 40s who influenced Chuck Berry, Bill Hailey, and other early rock icons.

The opening riff for Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode is almost a note for note copy of Carl Hogan’s guitar part on Louis Jordan track “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman.” Check out the first 10 seconds of the video below to see the not-so-subtle resemblance:

Berry is open about the influence of Hogan on the song and his sound. In an early interview he says:

“The first time I heard that riff was in one of Carl Hogan’s riffs in Louis Jordan’s band. We have T-Bone Walker; I love his slurs; he’s bluesy. So I put a little Carl Hogan, a little T-Bone Walker, and a little Charlie Christian together. Ain’t nothing new under the sun.”

Outro

From Carl Hogan to Chuck Berry to The Beatles all the way up to Dave Grohl and Nirvana, all art builds on what came before it. On broad scale this shows how certain styles and sounds meld together to form a genre of music. But when you look closer it tells a more personal story…

One in which music that has changed the world many times over, is merely the product of people trying to live up to the heroes they loved as a kid.

Art does not exist in a vacuum.

What we create and consume comes from who we are, where we are, and what came before us. Steal Like An Artist author Austin Kleon describes these webs of connections as an artistic genealogy.

As both an admirer of the arts and a history nerd I love this idea, and spent most of my morning searching for graphics that shows the lineage and influence of different artists.

For this particular post I focused on music — seeking out images that illustrate the interconnectedness of different genres, albums, and artists.

As much as possible I try to give credit to the person responsible for the pictures, but in some cases that wasn’t possible. If you like any of the illustrations, I urge you to support the artists responsible in whatever way you can.

School Of Rock

The picture above is from Richard Linklater’s School Of Rock. Jack Black’s character uses it to teach his students about Rock N Roll and its many sub genres.

As a teenager, I used both the film and the diagram to acquaint myself with the genre. I still think it’s a great jumping off point for aspiring rockers of all ages.

The Rock N Roll Metro

I couldn’t find a source for this image, but I had to include it. The Metro Map is a cool visual and metaphor for discovering music.

In it we have the major hubs (tent pool artists like Bob Dylan and The Beatles). Specific routes (different genres and subgenres). And of course a bevy of stations, big and small, you can hop out at (individual artists to explore).

Blueprint For Alt Rock

“Alternative Rock” is a notoriously nebulous label. It’s been used as an umbrella term to describe artists ranging from The Pixies to Imagine Dragons. The blueprint above shows its Punk Rock origins and maps how it sprawled out to genres like New Wave and 90s Grunge.

The image comes from UK based designed company Dorothy. If you like what you see, they have similar blueprints for Hip Hop, Electronic Music, and Rock N Roll.

Jazz Family Tree

No list on music genealogy would be complete without an old-fashioned family tree. This picture shows the many roots (Blues and Ragtimes) and branches of Jazz (Be-bop and Bossa Nova). I could not find the name of the artist so I’ll link to the site where I found it.

For a more detailed genealogy of Jazz check out this poster of the history of Jazz in the United States. I would have included it on the list, but it’s a little too detailed to fit nicely on the page.

New York’s Hip Hop Party

Genealogy doesn’t have to span an entire genre of music. It can encompass a particular city or scene. The pic above maps the history of Hip Hop in New York. It marks which borough the cities best rappers grew up in.

The map comes courtesy of visualization company A Very Small Army. They’re site has rad images that illustrate everything from the scope of Disney’s power to the things humans launch in space.

The Influence Of Nas’ Illmatic —

Click Here To Open Full Page Version Of Chart

Nas’ Illmatic is arguably the most influential Rap album of all time. Grantland’s chart shows just how influential it is by listing a few of the (at least) 312 times it’s been sampled. As writer Shea Serrano points out, this is especially impressive given the album only has 10 tracks (one of which is an intro).

If you crunch the numbers, on average, each of the tracks on Illmatic have been sampled 35.4 times. In comparison, Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt (also considered a Hip Hop classic), only averages 5 samples per song.

All Hail The Funky Drummer

To round us out I want to show the genealogy of James Brown’s Funky drummer. The song is not only a classic funk tune, but it’s the second most sampled song of all time.

Everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Public Enemy have borrowed parts of the song. Clyde Stubblefield’s drum loop in particular has been heavily influential in Hip Hop. This Flikr image captures a sliver of the estimated 502 songs that have sampled the tune.

In the areas of art and entrepreneurship, much has been written about how to find good ideas.

Countless books and articles have attempted to ask and answer questions like: What is a good idea? How do I hunt one down? What the heck do I do if I manage to capture one of these elusive creatures.

I’ve attempted to write about the subject myself. On more than one occasion.

On its face this seems like a noble pursuit: Don’t all successful business, blogs, and creative projects begin with a good idea?

While this isn’t necessarily false, it’s an incomplete and unhelpful way to assess ideas. Early in a project it is near impossible to distinguish between a good and bad idea — much less anticipate which one will blossom into something fruitful.

That is why I propose a new criterion for evaluating your ideas. Instead of looking for a “good idea” search for an idea that excites you.

An exciting idea is one you can’t stop thinking about. It remains in your head when you wake up and go to bed.

An exciting idea is one that ignites rather than zaps your energy. You lose track of time when working on it.

An exciting idea is one you’ll want to stick with for the long haul. It can withstand the highs and lows of the creative process.

To get a better understanding of why we should seek exciting ideas, let’s start with a simple fact.

What An Idea Really Is…

An idea is not a tangible thing.

This sounds obvious, but it bears mentioning. An idea is the source from which something tangible (i.e. book, play, product) can arise, but it is not the thing itself.

Pixar Director Pete Docter uses a seed metaphor to describe this. Like seeds, your ideas have the potential to sprout leaves and grow into something tall and mighty, but you need to water and care for them for this to happen.

Simply having an idea, even a “good idea”, is not enough. You must take the proper steps to mold it into something exciting. Ideation and execution are separate activities.

JK Rowling was likely not the first person to have the idea of writing a novel about a school for witches and wizards, but she was the one who turned that idea into Harry Potter.

Steve Jobs and Apple were likely not the first to have the idea of storing your music collection on your cell phone, but they were the ones to launch the iPhone.

What’s So Bad About Good Ideas?

If an idea is merely the blueprint for something concrete, it makes little sense to use the same standards of judgement for the two. You wouldn’t assess a tree by the seed it began as.

When starting out, you simply have no clue what an idea will grow into. Thus, it’s not a matter of an idea being good or bad, it is whether you can turn the idea into something good.

In the wrong hands, a great sounding idea can turn into a disaster. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most beloved animated television series of all time, adapting it into a live-action movie seemed like a fantastic idea. However, the film turned into a box office bomb reviled by fans of the show.

The opposite is also true. With the proper care, an idea that seems absurd can turn into something magnificent. If someone suggested the idea of making a hip hop themed musical about an obscure founding father, you might laugh them out of the room. But Lin Manuel Miranda transformed this “bad” idea into the Broadway hit Hamilton.

Why An Idea That Excites?

Willing an idea into existence is no small feat. It requires months, often years, of strenuous work. You’ll likely face doubts from both yourself and others. At many points you’ll be tempted to quit — in fact, most people do.

We all have limited time. Limited focus. And limited energy. Completing a new project will exhaust these resources. The only way you’ll have the stamina and determination to get to the finish line is by working with an idea you’re excited about.

If the idea you’re excited about has promise, you stand a better chance of realizing its potential. If the idea you’re excited about is odd or unconventional (think Hamilton), your enthusiasm will allow you to make the tweaks necessary to transform it into something worthwhile.

This is why excitement is the best frame to look at ideas. It acknowledges the tough work that goes into completing a project. It accepts we can’t know how something will turn out until we start working. And it gives us a simple principle to get started: does this idea excite me or not?

How Do I Know If An Idea Excites Me?

This is a tough question, and one only you can answer. To guide you, I want to share the criteria author Seth Godin uses to decide what project to focus on:

“What would you do if you knew you would fail?”

For our purpose, we can rephrase it as:

“What idea would you work on even if it failed?”

No one can predict how people will react when you release your idea in the wild. Creators of all types admit being surprised by which of their ideas take off and which flop. Steal Like An Artist author Austin Kleon says:

“I’ve written tweets — mind farts! — that have turned into blog posts which became book chapters.”

This uncertainty scares some off, but I say lean into it. By its nature, creative work is tough and messy. Your path will be crooked, and any semblance of success is never guaranteed. The only way to weather the storm is to work on ideas that excite you. The ones you have an insatiable urge to explore, and would pursue no matter if they failed or succeeded.

A good idea is simply one you enjoy working on. Focus on this principle first, and set aside any value judgements until later in process.

There is an expression that: “what is made for everyone is loved by no one.”

In the worlds of art and commercial these words are close to an immutable law. For good reason. In almost every case, trying to satisfy everyone results in pleasant, but quickly disposable content. However, every so often there is something or someone who proves this assumption wrong.

In cinema, Pixar animation is a rare exception to the rule. They make movies beloved by all demographics. Young and old. Critics and consumers. City dwellers and suburban soccer moms.

And they haven’t done it once, they pull off this trick again and again. The studio maintains a near-perfect track record. Since releasing Toy Story in 1995, just about every one of their films has been lauded by critics and rewarded at the Box Office.

Here are some statistics to show their success:

• All but 4 Pixar films cracked the top 10 in box office earnings the year they came out.
• Only one Pixar movie, Cars 2, has a rotten score (below 60%) on the popular film review site Rotten Tomatoes.
• Since introducing the Best Animated Feature Oscar 16 years ago, Pixar has taken home half the awards.

In the volatile world of filmmaking, Pixar is a certified hit machine. But what is it that makes Pixar films universally appealing? How do they defy odds and pack theatres with such a wide range of people?

One could pick apart each of their films for answers, but I believe there are seven core reasons Pixar is popular. None of them are unique to studio, but the combination of the seven explain why their films are so good.

Here is how Pixar makes movies everyone loves.

*** Most of this article is spoiler free, but the last section has details on the endings of the Pixar movies: Toy Story 3, Inside Out, and Soul.

Reason 1: Cutting Edge Animation

In 1986, computer scientist Ed Catmull, animator John Lasseter, and (then) ex-Apple CEO Steve Jobs formed Pixar Studios. The trio came from diverse backgrounds, but banded together with the goal of creating the first computer animated feature film.

At the time, the idea of a digitally animated feature seemed like a pipe dream. People at Disney doubted the technology would replace their hand drawn style of animation. Even Star Wars creator George Lucas, who both Lasseter and Catmull worked for, questioned its utility. When strapped for cash, Lucasfilm’s Computer Graphics Unit was one of the first to go.

For years Pixar would survive by selling computer hardware and making shorts and commercials. While these early projects were detours from the company’s cinematic goals, they helped establish their style of animation and perfect the technology they would use on their first feature film: Toy Story.

When Toy Story roared to the top of the box office in 1995 it was not only a financial victory, but a vindication of its founders’ belief in digital storytelling. The film proved that computer animation was the way of the future and established Pixar as the leaders of this movement.

Since Toy Story, no studio has spurred more innovations in animation. With each release, Pixar has stretched the limits of computer generated technology. Monster Inc was the first film to animate fur. Finding Nemo was the first film to depict the ocean using computer graphics. The Incredibles was the first film that featured an all human animated cast.

When watching a Pixar film audiences expect to travel to worlds unknown, and see unexplored characters and ideas take form on screen. These feats would not be possible without the studios’ commitment to technology, and desire to meld it with art.

Reason 2: Relentless About Getting The Story Right

Shortly before the release of Toy Story 2, director John Lasseter made major revisions to the story. For most productions this might require some re-shoots and perhaps a trick or two in the editing room, but for a big budget animated movie these revisions meant the entire team would need to redraw and reconstruct much of the film.

The 8 month scramble pushed the company to the brink. Employees ate and slept at their desks. Some barely saw their families. Many sustained stress related injuries. But Lasseter and the creative team never doubted the decision. They believed the effort was worth the cost if it meant getting the story right. In the end it paid off, Toy Story 2 was a smash hit that rivaled, if not topped, the original.

This example, while extreme, shows the care Pixar has for their stories. The studio made their name with technology, but they have built their empire on well-told stories. As co-founder Ed Catmull admits, “visuals don’t matter unless you get the story right.”

Pixar has processes at every level to meet the standards they’ve set for themselves. At the highest level is the Pixar Brain Trust: a team composed of the company’s top creators and story artists. During Brain Trust meetings, Directors show their work to the group and receive honest criticism from their peers.

Outside the Brain Trust, each production reviews their story in meetings called “dailies”. In a daily session, every member of the production, from the director to entry level animators, can suggest improvements for the film.

These practices are arduous — most Pixar movies go through around a dozen versions before their release — but the results are undeniable. Behind their eye-catching animation, each Pixar movie has a story that audiences connect with. The visuals may sell tickets, but it is their stories that keep people coming back, and Pixar tells them as good as anyone in Hollywood.

Reason 3: Relatable And Unique Characters

While working on the script for Toy Story, Pixar struggled with the character Woody. Eager to distance themselves from hokey Disney princes and princesses, they wrote an edgier version of the character. The original Woody was a tyrant who bossed around his friends, and berated anyone who questioned his status as top toy.

As you can guess, this version of Woody didn’t play well for audiences. During test screenings, people complained they couldn’t cheer for the crotchety cowboy. The writers worked for months to craft a new Woody: one whose arrogance came from a place of anxiety and insecurity — a fear that his owner would abandon him. The result was a flawed, but relatable character audiences could root for.

You may ask, why do we identify with a toy in the first place? Or any Pixar character, for that matter? Some of which include talking fish, trash-collecting robots, and a rat with a nose for French cuisine. On the surface these creatures bear no resemblance to ourselves, yet we’re deeply invested in them.

Director Andrew Stanton says Pixar pulls this off by giving their characters an “inner motor” or “unconscious drive” that motivates their actions. For Woody, this drive is to serve his owner. Wall-E’s drive is to find beauty. Marlin, the dad from Finding Nemo’s, drive is to prevent harm. These characters may not look or talk like us, but they think and act like we do.

While this inner motor grounds characters in reality, Pixar gives them ticks that add humor and excitement to their personality. Dory from Finding Nemo is a fish with short-term memory loss. Buzz from Toy Story is blissfully unaware he is a toy. The combination of inner drives and outer eccentricities leads to memorable characters that are equal parts empathetic and amusing.

Reason 4: Appeal To Children And Adults

The early 2000s marked a busy spell for Pixar. Fresh off the success of the Toy Story movies, the company ramped up their production schedule with the goal of putting out a new picture every year.

The tight schedule took a toll on the team. Many employees struggled to balance their work and family life. This included new directors Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton, both of whom were recent fathers. These familial struggles seeped on screen in the upcoming Pixar releases (Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo) and soon became touchstones of the studios’ stories.

It borders on cliché to say that Pixar movies aren’t just for kids. From the beginning, the company has earned a reputation for telling stories both children and adults can enjoy. The films feature whimsical characters and slap-stick gags that kids love. While including mature themes and inside humor for grown-ups.

But Pixar goes a step further. Their stories don’t just appeal to kids and adults, they feature characters of different ages dealing with similar struggles. For instance, Finding Nemo tackles coming of age from the eyes of both parent and child. We see the conflict from young Nemo’s perspective as he tests the limits of his freedom, as well as his father Marlin’s who must accept that his son is growing up and he can no longer protect him.

What’s more impressive, Pixar links these arcs into a single message that applies to kids and adults. At the end of Finding Nemo, both characters learn the importance of confronting fear and embracing the unknown: a truth we learn in our youth, but must remind ourselves of as we grow old.

Reason 5: Eye For Detail

If you comb through Pixar’s annual budget, you might find an odd item in the ledger: Field Trips. Like school kids, the Pixar team takes time out of their busy schedule to go on field trips before starting production on a film.

It’s easy to dismiss these trips as one of the company’s kooky Bay Area practices, but there is a reason behind them. As an animation studio, Pixar has to develop a precise eye for detail to draw and render everything that appears on screen. Pixar’s field trips are part of the meticulous research and development they do to accomplish this.

For Finding Nemo, the crew visited the Pacific Ocean and got scuba certified so they could properly animate the ocean. Before the production of Ratatouille, the team spent a week in Paris to learn the layout of 5 star restaurants. For Up, they took balloon rides in Bolivia to familiarize themselves with the tropical terrain.

This research goes beyond the physical world. Pixar conducts exhaustive interviews to understand the themes and philosophies of their movies. For Inside Out they talked to dozens of psychologists to understand how emotions and memory work. For Soul they spoke with gurus and leaders of the world’s major religions to learn their thoughts on the meaning of life.

This eye for detail is clear to anyone who has watched a Pixar movie. The world on screen, whether it be real or imagined, feels intricate and lived in. This is no accident. Everyone involved with a film has a deep understanding of its subject matter. While the audience may not have been to the places on screen, they can tell when the creative team has done their homework.

Reason 6: Original Stories

In 2015, Marvel released Avengers: Age of Ultron. The success of the Avenger movies and their sequels gave studios a new blueprint for success: find established franchises and produce as many movies as possible around them.

This Marvel style of film-making didn’t happen in a vacuum, it was the culmination of a trend away from original ideas. As box office numbers plummeted, and audiences shunned the cinema in favor of streaming services, studios have clung to pre-existing ideas and property.

You only have to look at the box office receipts in 2015 to see this. Of the top ten box office earners, only one was based on an original idea. Pixar’s Inside Out: a high concept story that takes place inside an 11-year-old girl’s mind.

The release of a movie like Inside Out may seem like a bold choice, but it is a choice that Pixar makes again and again. The studio built their reputation on original ideas. In their 25 year history, they’ve never purchased a script or adapted material. Their in-house creative team develops each of the stories you see on screen.

These stories are not only original, but feature bold ideas most mainstream movies don’t explore. Animating a movie inside the human mind seems like something that would play to an art house crowd, but Pixar packaged it for general audiences in Inside Out. Few studios would dare make a near silent film with an environmental message, but Pixar did that with Wall-E. Creating an existential movie set in the afterlife might seem too risky for a children’s film, but Pixar pulled it off in Soul.

The success of these movies contradict the belief that people only crave familiar stories. As other large studios grow more conservative, Pixar continues to take creative risks. As co-founder Ed Catmull says: “if we aren’t always at least a little scared, we’re not doing our job.”

Reason 7: Films Have An Emotional Core

Cutting edge computer animation, exquisite storytelling, unique characters — these elements alone would be enough to make a “good movie”. But there is one crucial ingredient that elevates Pixar movies from “enjoyable entertainment” to beloved stories that people revisit repeatedly: an emotional heart.

Every Pixar movie touches on some part of what it means to be alive. They explore the most complex and poignant pieces of the human condition — projecting our deepest thoughts and fears onto the silver screen.

Pixar doesn’t just address these emotional themes, they handle them in mature ways. Too often films that deal with sensitive issues, especially animated ones, come off as sappy or trite. They offer audiences cookie cutter clichés for complex problems, or sentimental reassurances that no matter what happens, we’ll all “live happily ever after.”

Pixar films take a more nuanced look at their subjects. They respect their audience enough to give them ambiguous answers to life’s questions. And aren’t afraid to end their films on a bittersweet note.

At the end of Toy Story 3, Andy must grow up and hand down his toys, even his beloved Woody doll, to his neighbor Bonny. In Inside Out, Joy must accept that sadness will forever touch some of Riley’s core memories. In Soul, Joe Gardner must realize that landing a dream gig won’t make his life complete, and real meaning comes from the subtle pleasures he’d ignored.

It’s strange that in mainstream movies it is an animation studio that tackles serious themes in sophisticated ways. Pixar films may feature robots, quirky animals, and talking toys but they deftly deal with the ups and downs of the human condition. They merge technology and art to connect us to life’s joys and sorrows.

This is the magic of filmmaking. This is the magic of storytelling. This is the magic of Pixar.

How do you write an unforgettable story?

Director Andrew Stanton knows as well as anyone. He’s been doing it for three decades at Pixar studios.

His work as a writer produced animated classics like Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. His time as a director brought beloved stories like Finding Nemo and Wall-E to life.

In a recent TED talk, Stanton shares how Pixar veterans like him and Pete Docter use storytelling to inspire audiences.

The bad news: there is no instruction manual for a great story. While Pixar has a process for discovering ideas, each story comes with its unique set of challenges.

The good news: an excellent story leaves clues. Clues writers can follow to construct compelling stories of their own.

Here are Andrew Stanton’s 7 clues to a great story:

Clue 1: Make The Audience Care

Andrew Stanton identifies this as, perhaps, his most important storytelling clue. Your audience must care before they commit to your story.

Can you blame them? Whether it’s a rambling professor at your university, or a dull co-worker talking about their weekend, we all know what it’s like not to care about a story.

But what makes us stop what we’re doing and listen?

We care when a story gives us a character to root for, a world we wish to live in, a promise we can’t wait to see paid off. Your first job as a storyteller is to find something in your work the audience can care about.

This is especially important with the surplus of entertainment options available. The average person is a click away from a stream of breaking news, YouTube clips, and Netflix series. Now more than ever they need to know up front your story is worth their time.

Clue 2: Begin With An End In Mind

Stanton starts his speech with a joke about a goat-shagging Scotsman. He does this to illustrate that jokes and stories share similar structures.

Both have 3 parts — beats for a joke and acts for a story. Both involve forming and breaking patterns. And most importantly, both build towards a final punchline or climax.

There is an implicit promise, in both jokes and stories, that the details you provide work towards a greater purpose. Without a punchline a joke is just a series of amusing facts. Without a resolution your story is just a compilation of events without a theme.

While this revelation is the last thing the audience learns, it is the first thing the writer should know when composing a story. It is the guiding star of your work. You must arrange all other details with this end in mind.

Clue 3: In The World Of Stories 2+2≠4

One of the cardinal sins of the internet is spoiling a story. It’s why you see the words SPOILER ALERT bolded at the top of any article talking about a film or TV series.

But what, exactly, makes spoiling a story such a grave offense?

Stanton provides an answer in his “unifying theory of two plus two”. The theory states audience members want to put together a story on their own. You can show them 2+2, but don’t you dare tell them it equals 4!

Humans are natural problem solvers. Part of the fun of watching a movie is piecing together the plot; making sense of the details that the creator provides and omits. It’s a lot of work, but our problem solving brains will gleefully clock in overtime to crack the code.

Doing the work for the audience (ie spoiling) robs them of this process of discovery. If a stranger on the internet does this, it’s inconsiderate. But if the storyteller themselves is the culprit, it’s unforgivable.

Remember, your job as a storyteller is to leave the audience some crumbs, but make them earn their meal.

Clue 4: Give Your Character An Unscratchable Itch

You’ve probably heard the writing advice: “characters must work towards a goal.” This isn’t terrible advice, but it’s incomplete. A well-written character needs both an outer goal, and an inner motive that propels their actions.

Stanton describes this inner motive, as an “itch” your character wants to scratch.

An itch differs from a goal. Someone can achieve a goal, but an itch is something you can claw away at and never fully scratch.

Some examples Stanton gives are:

• In The Godfather, Michael Corleone’s “itch” is to please his father.
  
• In Toy Story, Woody’s itch is to “do what’s best for his owner.”
  
• In Finding Nemo, Marlin’s itch is to “prevent harm.”

These characters are unaware of their itch. It is the unconscious force that guides their actions. Pursuing it causes questionable choices, and often leads to trouble. But it makes for a complex and entertaining story.

Clue 5: Story Is Anticipation Mingled With Uncertainty

For this clue, Andrew Stanton turns to the words of playwright William Archer:

“Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty.”

The quote speaks to two layers of tension in a story. The anticipation audiences feel from scene to scene. And the uncertainty they feel about how the story will conclude.

Anticipation is short-term tension. It deals with how a character works their way out of a specific situation? Will Woody and Buzz escape from Sid’s house? Will Dory and Marlin get through the swarm of jellyfish?

Uncertainty is tension that runs throughout the narrative. It involves the drama at the heart of the story. Will Woody and Buzz reunite with Andy before he moves? Will Marlin rescue his son Nemo?

A great story balances these two elements. It builds anticipation to keep viewers engaged moment to moment, and uses uncertainty so they will invest in the larger arc.

Clue 6: When In Doubt, Define Your Story By “What It Is Not”

In 1993 Pixar hit an impasse on the script for Toy Story. The movie was their first feature and they struggled to find an identity for themselves and their story.

To narrow their focus, Stanton and his team agreed on a list of “unwritten rules”. These rules detailed what they would not include in the film:

• No songs
• No “I want” moment
• No happy village
• No love story
• No villain

The list was a repudiation of practically every trope for animated movies at the time. In particular, those popularized by Disney — Pixar’s business partner.

By defining what they didn’t want to do, Pixar and Stanton distinguished themselves as storytellers. They created a blueprint they would use, not just for Toy Story, but all their future releases.

If you’re struggling to tell your story, think of what you won’t include. List the type of devices, themes, and characters you want to avoid at all costs.

Don’t do this to play the contrarian. Think of it more as a process of elimination. You’re getting rid of the items that don’t fit so you can be more precise about the story you want to tell.

Clue 7: Invoke Wonder

If you’ve chosen a creative career or hobby, I suspect there was a specific moment that made you fall in love with your craft. The concert that made you pick up the guitar. The trip to the museum that convinced you to paint.

For Andrew Stanton, this moment came at age 5 when his mom took him to see Disney’s Bambi. He describes walking out of the theatre “wide eyed with wonder.” And feeling the urge to spread the sensation he’d experienced with others.

That feeling of wonder is what draws us to stories. It is why books make us lose our sense of space and time, and cinemas are considered a sacred spot.

It is not a feeling easily evoked. Stanton says it can only come naturally, never with force. But on the rare occasions we capture it, it makes the toil of the creative process worth the cost. It affirms there is still magic in a mundane world. And it reminds us why generation after generation we continue to stare down a blank page and write: Once Upon A Time.

How are stories made? Pixar’s Pete Docter — the director of such Pixar hits as Monsters, Inc., Up, and Inside Out, says a “story isn’t made, it’s discovered.”

As a young animator, Docter believed Walt Disney woke up with fully formed stories in his head. When Pixar hired him at 21, he learned what looked like a flash of inspiration was a painstaking process.

This is a process Pixar has mastered as good as any in the business. Over the past few decades, they’ve enjoyed a near flawless track record. With Pete himself directing many of their most celebrated movies: Monsters Inc, Up, Inside Out, and most recently Soul.

Pete and Pixar may have a team of talented animators and writers at their disposal, but anyone can copy their creative process. Here are their 7 steps for discovering a story, and some tips to use them on your own work.

Step 1: Finding An Idea That Excites

The film Toy Story became Pixar’s first mega-hit, but it started as a simple idea: What if toys came alive when you stopped playing with them?

Ideas like this are the seeds from which stories grow. Everything from childhood fables like the Tortoise and The Hare to cinematic epics like The Godfather begins as ideas in their creator’s heads.

To tell a captivating story, you need an idea; or ideas if we’re being more accurate. An intriguing idea rarely comes on your first go around. You often need to produce many crummy ones to find one you like. As Docter describes:

“Finding ideas is like digging for buried treasure: you might find a coin or two on the top, but usually the chest full of doubloons is buried deeper.”

During this process, it’s tempting to apply labels like “good” or “bad” to your ideas. Pete advises against this. Instead of chasing the elusive “perfect idea”, look for one that excites you.

Remember, at this stage, your ideas are still seedlings. You don’t know what they’ll grow into until you take the time to develop them. Find one you’ll be eager to work on for the long haul.

Step 2: Elaborate On Your Idea

So what comes after talking toys?

If you’ve completed step 1, you’re now armed with an idea to work with. It may be a theme you’d like to explore, a funny bit you want to perform, or a specific experience you wish to share.

Your next job is to expand on your idea. Find ways to stretch it out and connect it with other subjects.

Some ideas fit together nicely. Docter says for a movie like Monsters Inc., that involves scary creatures, he knew he’d have to deal with themes like fear and anxiety.

Others require more creativity to connect. If you’re having trouble linking ideas, try free association. Simply list everything that comes to mind when you think of a subject.

It can help to ask questions. For instance, if you’re writing about Vampires, you might ask things like: Do vampires have a specific blood type they prefer? What does that preference say about their personality? What if there was a vampire who hated the taste of blood?

Step 3: Look Beyond What You Know

You’ve probably heard the storytelling cliche: “write what you know.” This isn’t poor advice. Writing “what you know” fills a story with your unique style, personality, and experiences. But it will only get you so far. You must also push past your knowledge and seek out new information and fresh perspectives.

Before production, Pete Docter and his team conduct extensive research on the subjects they’re writing about. For Inside Out, they interviewed dozens of psychologists and clinical researchers to learn about human emotions. For Soul they talked to gurus and experts from the world’s major religions to get their thoughts on souls and the meaning of life.

Your Rolodex might not be as large as Pixar’s, but there are likely people in your life you can collaborate with. If not, hit the shelves of your local library. Or plug your ideas into your Google search bar. Follow your curiosity and see where it takes you.

Step 4: Establish Character & Relationship

Whether it’s a “space ranger” that doesn’t know he’s a toy, a pair of professional monsters that clock in and out of work, or a love-stricken trash robot, Pixar knows how to create memorable characters.

Docter believes characters and their relationships connect people to your story. This makes sense. Humans are social creatures. We’ve evolved to relate and care about others. This is true in life and art.

While there is no fail-safe way to write compelling characters, your research and brainstorming in the previous step should give you a place to start. You can also lean on your experience. Think of people you know. Combine the personalities of different friends and family members to create someone unique.

Remember, your characters don’t need to be kind or likable, but they need to be interesting and relatable. Audiences will gladly root for a flawed hero if they’re written well. As Pete points out “Al Capone isn’t someone you’d likely want to live with, but wouldn’t you love to have had dinner with him?”

Step 5: Find Your Story’s Emotional Heart

It’s near impossible to find someone who hasn’t been moved by a Pixar movie. Just try to watch the first 10 minutes of Up without shedding a tear.

What is it about Pixar movies that affect people like this?

The answer to this question lies in the emotional heart of their stories. Each one touches on some part of what it means to be human. They speak to our common experiences: falling in love, growing up, facing death.

Pete and Pixar are masters at exploring these universal subjects. Just think of your favorite Pixar movie. On the surface, it appears fun and fanciful, but at its core, it deals with a deeper theme.

Finding Nemo is not just a film about fish, it’s a story about parenthood. Up dazzles viewers with talking dogs and floating houses, but it’s really a story about grief. Soul has swinging jazz and sparkling images, but below the surface, it’s a story about searching for meaning in life.

Like Pixar, you must find an emotional pulse for your story. This doesn’t have to be difficult. Just being human equips you with an arsenal of material to choose from. Look to your core experiences or something you’re currently struggling with. While this struggle may seem unique to you, there is likely something within it others can relate to.

Step 6: Seek Feedback

Pixar perfects its films through an extensive feedback process. Writers and animators go through many rounds of edits to come up with what you see on screen. According to Pete, the Pixar team screen tested 7 to 8 versions of Inside Out before completing the story.

The word “feedback” might make you shiver. You’ve spent weeks, months, possibly years on a project, now your work stands naked in front of an audience.

This fear makes some avoid feedback. No one wants to see their precious work torn to shreds. But it is precisely because your work is so precious that you must show it to others.

Pete is emphatic on this point. When you spend a lot of time on a project, you get too close to the story. From this cozy position, you can no longer remain objective about what is or isn’t working. Seeing someone else’s reaction gives you an idea of how a person, other than yourself, will respond.

Step 7: Will Your Story To Completion

If the 6 steps above seem like a lot of work, it’s because they are. Even with millions of dollars to play with and a team of brilliant people, it takes Pixar 4–5 years to make a movie.

Pete is brutally honest about the work that goes into completing each picture. For every project he’s worked on, he estimates the ratio of “fun” to “hard work” is about 10% fun to 90% hard work. Towards the end of the process, there is always a point he has to “drive himself to keep going.”

You will experience similar struggles when discovering your story. At many points, you’ll question your work, your abilities, and even yourself. If you’re tempted to quit, remember doubt is part of the game. Everyone, even the most talented people, deals with it. The only way forward is to continue working, even if you don’t want to.

While the work itself may tax you, the reward is worth the struggle. What you create has the potential to inspire. When done well, it connects your personal ideas with a large audience. At its best, it alters the way someone sees themselves and the world around them.

Pete Docter may be one of our most popular storytellers, but for each of his movies he claims, “If no one ever saw it but me, I would’ve still considered myself incredibly lucky to have had the chance to make it.”