Learning Story Structure from Pixar Films

What can Disney® Pixar movies teach us about story structure? More than you might think.

By Julie Cohen
Posted on 5/1/2012

Kids like to watch the same thing over and over and over again. In my case, my son loves the film Cars. I have seen that film roughly sixty trillion times. It was only after I realized that two of my novels had the plot “hotshot loner is trapped in small-town community and finds love there”—that is, the exact same plot as Cars without the talking vehicles—that I understood I wasn’t just watching that film. I was absorbing it. I was learning from it.

Creating Authentic Settings in Fiction

“In a world where . . .”

By Marilyn Brant
Posted on 6/1/2012

We all know those big-budget Hollywood movie trailers that begin, “In a world where . . .” (fill in the blank with a terrifying/surprising/absurd premise designed to inspire great curiosity in the viewers). That short description, which is often accompanied by suspenseful music and a video montage, can visually set the scene for a two-hour blockbuster in less than 20 seconds of screen time. We’re made immediately aware of what the story’s setting will be, how this particular place is different from the world we’re familiar with, and what makes this location potentially challenging to the story’s characters.

Playing with a Full Deck Claudia Welch uses playing cards to illustrate not only the concept of fiction elements, but also the varying levels of theme. By Claudia Welch Posted on 6/1/2012 I don’t want to scare you. Don’t panic. I’m about to write a word that, since your long-ago days as a middle school student, has sent you screaming from the room. That word is theme.
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POV: It’s All in How You Look at It

Who’s in control of your scenes?

By Nancy Gideon
Posted on 6/1/2012

Like many authors with a backlist that stretches into the ‘80s, I was eager to dust off some of my older books to get new mileage out of them. Just a quick touch-up, I thought, then good to go . . . until I started rereading my first published novel: My hero is speaking. The heroine considers what his revelation means to her and her future plans. He studies her expression, trying to gauge her mood. Then, she answers, and her response infuriates him. No problem—if all this hadn’t taken place within the same paragraph! What was I thinking? Where was my editor? Clearly, neither of us was in control of that scene. The point of view (POV) had run amok. If I’d known then what I know now . . .

The Eye of the Beholder: Nine Elements of Point of View that Bring Characters to Life

Good description engages readers’ emotions, allowing them to experience the story through the viewpoint characters

By Virginia Kantra
Posted on 7/1/2012

Sights, sounds, and other sensory details bring a story to life. That’s why contest judges are always advising entrants to include the five senses in their writing, and why workshops are taught on “show, don’t tell.”

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