How to Create a Story

So you want to create a new story for a short film, a feature film, a book, a comic book or whatever... They're all made the same way. All stories come from the same source. Storytelling goes as far back as history can tell. We as people love stories, we love to hear them, share them, write songs about them and as the years pass on by... create films about them. Stories were used to do many things... but the essence of a story is to give information. Whether we are telling a story about the best place to go hunt. To understand how humans interact, to better understand our God. Stories are vital to our society. Stories bring people closer together and share experiences.

Creating or writing a story isn't as complicated as most people think. All you have to do is come up with a premise, a goal, and ending. That's it! Once you come up with that, fill in the gaps which include; characters, history, plot twists, turning points and other story elements that will keep the story interesting and fresh.

The biggest hurdle for anyone trying to create a new story idea is this: Don't try to think of what people have done in the past. There are many stories that have already be done before and there will be more stories in the future. So dwelling on what has be done will not only slow your progress down, it could stop your creativity altogether. Many people will come to a point when creating their new and original idea and ask themselves,  "hasn't this been done before?".... "isn't this idea just like in that other movie?".... "is this original enough?". These question will derail your efforts in creating a new and amazing story in an instant. So don't ask those questions. Wait until after you did the work. The best thing to do is go ahead and put all your ideas on the table, arrange them into a coherent story, and then later see if your story has similarities to something in the past and if it does change it. Sometimes, you may find yourself nit picking every idea to be original and comparing them too much to past work, that you would miss the fact that your ideas may not be a similar to an old movie as you may think it is.

Here is one big confusion that people have, "Every story has been told"... this is completely false. Not every story has been told, not everything in art has been done. There is no way for anyone to know that, since we cannot see the future and see every possible story in the world. Many people refer to the Monomyth, The Hero's Journey, The Hero with a Thousand Faces created by Joseph Campbell as proof that all stories have been told and are all the same. Should people actually read Campbell's writings and they would understand, it's not that the stories are the same but premises are. We then can conclude that stories are similar because they are  based on premises that are the same.

For example: Say you are with a group of friends, and someone begins to tell a funny story that recently happened to them... and everyone begins to laugh... eventually someone else is reminded of a story that is similar to the first one that was just told... and the laughing continues (hopefully, the second story was as good as the first). What just happened was that a story was told with a particular premise, another story was told with the same premise, but the second story is different. The second story did not have the same people, location, or events as the first, thus making it a new and original story. But I will say this, if two stories that have the same premise, the characters are too similar, the progression of the story is almost exactly them same, and the ending is just a copy... well then, you got yourself two stories, one which is not original... Just like Avatar... but I'm not going to talk about that movie, it will take to long.... moving on...

What are premises?... These are very simple ideas that are straight to the point.  
Boy meets girl and fall in love. 
Monster shark terrorizes beach goers. 
Good guy must stop bad guy to save the world. 
Girl is magically taken to a wonderland.
These are usually very simple to come up with, since they are very common. Once you have this in place you then begin to build on it. This is what is called the story structure. The story structure is made up of different elements which are:

1. Premise - The basic idea for the story
2. Introduction - The beginning of the story
3. Character History - Facts about the character(s) that are important to the character(s) development and story progression.
4. Rising Action - How the story progresses over time
5.Turning Points - Conscious decisions made by the lead character that change the direction of the story
6. Confrontation - The time in the story when the lead character goes to action
7. Plot Twists - Events in the story that reveal important facts in the story's development
8. Conflicts - Distractions in the story that causes the character(s) to develop and to make important decisions
9. Climax - The moment in the story everyone is waiting to see
10. Resolution - The time when everything is finalizing to the end

To learn more about this visit this website: CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE

Here is a graph on how all this is laid out.

Once you get all those elements in place you'll see that your story is based on a strong structure that will entertain your audience. Now let's talk about the short film. Short films are anything that is less than 40 minutes long or less. The normal animated short film is normally no more than 10 minutes long. Due the amount of work needed to create an animated short film. The best time for an animated short film should be around 5 minutes long. Ideally, the short film is based around a moral or something that the creator wants to convey to their audience. This makes it not only easier for the creator to begin creating the story, but also will leave an impression in the audience's mind. The short film follows the same story structure as already mentioned. But the story telling is quicker and straight to the point. The goal of the creator when making the short film is to not go over board. To limit all the elements of the story to the basic premise. Should the creator fail in doing this, the audience tends to either be confused or bored... or even both. There are different types of short films. I came up with four categories of short films, which are:

1. THE GOAL
2. THE NON - OBJECTIVE
3. THE JOKE
4. THE ALL OF THE ABOVE


Here are a few examples of these short films. Keep in mind how everything is simple and does not stray from the initial premise.

The Goal - This type of short film is goal oriented. The character(s) has a goal in mind and has to complete it. Whether or not the character(s) complete the goal is part of the story telling. Here is a great example of this, this short is called KIWI

The Non Objective - This type of short film has no "real" goal in mind. It's mostly emotional driven and symbolic. The audience is left to interpret the meaning of the short in his/her own way. This example is called THOUGHT OF YOU

The Joke - This type of short film is dependent on a simple joke or gag. It's usually quick and the shortest of the short films. This is an old example but still funny JURASSIC FART

The All in One - This type of short film uses some or all of the other types of short films. It is usually the longest and the more elaborate. This example is called MEET BUCK

As you can see all these short films follow everything that was mentioned before, with the exception of the NON OBJECTIVE short. Try to stick to what I mentioned in this tutorial and you should have no problem with creating your new and exciting story. I look forward to whatever original ideas you come up with and I hope to see them in the theaters, tv, online, book, comic book or whatever!

Good luck and later animators!!!