Aristotle's Poetics was an interesting read. It's supposedly the most basic 'rules' of storytelling. I don't think there was anything in there that I hadn't heard a thousand times before, but I guess it did put things in perspective that these things had been written several thousand years ago and yet I'm still being told to do them today. I still insist that storytelling doesn't have rules, merely conventions. However, I think these are always worth knowing. Here are my notes:
- Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
- Scenes whose presence or absence makes no visible difference are not organic parts of the whole. Stories must be a 'unity'.
- Use 'cause and effect'. Not coincidence and accident.
- Should have one central theme; no more than one.
- There is no tragedy found in enemy killing enemy. Only in friend killing friend.
- A plot should follow either the necessary or the probable.
- The plot should conclude due to the plot itself, never Deus ex Machina.
- Always remember, you are not writing literature, but film.
- Tragedy has two parts: complication and unravelling. Complication is the beginning of the action and unravelling is how it concludes.
- Clarity is king.
- Your hero should have only one goal, and we should see it in its entirety; beginning, middle and end.
- Errors should always be avoided, but if a factual error improves your art, then it's more forgivable.
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