The Heart of Storytelling: Principles, Not Rules
If you’re looking to create a timeless sense of purpose and to shape the overall mission of your life, then you should use principles. Establishing a set of principles creates a compass to which you can refer whenever something is in doubt or you need to take a stand or evaluate any particular opportunity, behavior, or situation.
Just a moment...
Students at NYU asked the creators of South Park the million-dollar question:
“What makes a good story?”
They gave one of the best explanations of story I’ve heard:
“If we can take the beats of your outline, and the words ‘and then’ belong between those beats… you got something pretty boring.
What should happen between every beat you’ve written... See more
This is what storytellers do. They create moments of unexpected change that seize the attention of their protagonists and, by extension, their readers and viewers.