Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling – Rule 12

Hey there!

There is nothing more key to excellence in the art of your VO practice than storytelling, and you should always remember how important it is to your VO career to develop and hone your storytelling skills.

It’s essential.

So, every so often, I like to roll out items from this list from Emma Coats, who used to work at Pixar as a story artist, and who serially tweeted Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.

I’ve been sharing with you one of these rules every so often, along with how you can apply each rule to your VO artistry.

Today, Rule 12…

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

This may seem counterintuitive to the earlier KISS rule of keep it simple – but this is about taking it too easy.

Be healthy and suspect about choices that come too quickly – be careful that they’re not common, mundane or typical.

Make bold choices, but if they arrive really fast – regard those choices with suspicion.

Choose to give your characters a second look, third look and so on.

If those first choices keep arriving at the top of the quality heap, then go with them.

But don’t just take the first thing that comes along.

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Next rule?

Embolden your characters.

I’ll share that with you next time.