From Jenn: Based on Pixar's 22 rules of storytelling, we had a bit of a play round with rule #4, sometimes called the Story spine or Once up on a time. It goes like this. Any good story can be broken down into the following categories. Looking at stories this way (your own or others) can help you diagnose what is wrong or not working or more importantly, what makes a good story so good.
Once up on a time....
Every day....
Until one day....
Because of that...
Because of that...
Until finally....
And ever since that day....
So an example:
Once upon a time, a girl lived with her father in a small town.
Every day, she read books and looked after her travelling salesman father and was generally a happy bunny.
Until one day, her father did not return from a trip.
Because of her father's disappearance, the girl was forced to leave their home and search for him.
Because her father had been taken as a hostage, the girl had to try and save him and she offered to switch places with her father.
Because she was now a hostage, she was forced to stay in the castle with the castle owner,
Until finally, she realised that she loved the grumpy castle dude and he let her go (I think that's how it happened) but she came back...
And ever since that day, they lived happily ever after.
So this is my attempt at applying this to Beauty and the Beast. Although we looked at a few fairytales, this idea could be applied to any story to help diagnose or solve a structural problem. Let me know if you agree or how this worked for you guys!
Once up on a time....
Every day....
Until one day....
Because of that...
Because of that...
Until finally....
And ever since that day....
So an example:
Once upon a time, a girl lived with her father in a small town.
Every day, she read books and looked after her travelling salesman father and was generally a happy bunny.
Until one day, her father did not return from a trip.
Because of her father's disappearance, the girl was forced to leave their home and search for him.
Because her father had been taken as a hostage, the girl had to try and save him and she offered to switch places with her father.
Because she was now a hostage, she was forced to stay in the castle with the castle owner,
Until finally, she realised that she loved the grumpy castle dude and he let her go (I think that's how it happened) but she came back...
And ever since that day, they lived happily ever after.
So this is my attempt at applying this to Beauty and the Beast. Although we looked at a few fairytales, this idea could be applied to any story to help diagnose or solve a structural problem. Let me know if you agree or how this worked for you guys!