April 2026

On April 11, 2026, Kasie and Rex took on Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. Here are the show notes:

Topic: Storytelling by Pixar

Agenda:

• Quick catch up
• What is Pixar?
• 22 rules of storytelling
• How to do it

Segment 1

Pixar is an animation studio known for its three-D animation innovation. Their first recognizable title is Toy Story but since its release in 1995, Pixar has racked up 30 feature films and dozens of shorts using their signature style.Their latest effort, Hoppers, is in theaters now.

The Pixar story is one I tell in my strategic management classes because their origin is fascinating. They began as the computer division of Lucasfilm, George Lucas’s Star Wars studio. When Lucasfilm needed cash, they sold Pixar to Steve Jobs, as a software company. And while operating as a software company, Pixar developed Renderman technology. It’s a breakthrough technology that enables digital animation to replicate panels much faster than the traditional hand-drawn process. Renderman is really valuable as it can fill in the panels between one and 10 so that the miniscule detail emerges.

Pixar, being a studio of artists, wanted to make Renderman available for all of their colleagues in the industry. For free. As you can imagine, a software company doesn’t want to give its software away, but Pixar didn’t think of itself as software anymore. It thought of itself as creators. Get the whole story from their official website about us here.

Eventually, Pixar was ousted from Apple and purchased by Disney. 

Aside from the business history which helps me tell my students about a particular tool called VRIO that evaluates a business asset, the Pixar story shows us that studios evolve under leadership. But all companies have core values and principles and Pixar has developed a storytelling manifesto that guides each of its films through development.

So today, we’re going to talk about that. Find the full document here.

Segments 2 & 3

1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.

3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about until you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

4. Once upon a time there was _____. Every day, _____. One day, _____. Because of that, _____. Because of that, _____. Until finally _____.

5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

12. Discount the first thing that comes to mind. And the second, third, fourth, fifth – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best and fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

20. Exercise: Take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How do you rearrange them into what you DO like?

21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, you can’t just write “cool.” What would make YOU act that way?

22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

Segment 4

We usually do a “how do you do it?” here but the whole list is kind of “how” so here I’ll just add some additional resources for further reading if you’d like to see other approaches or discussions on storytelling:

Another take on the Pixar origin story here

And yet another take on the Pixar origin story here

Here are 7 elements of storytelling to master

And here’s six elements of storytelling

This is six elements of every complete narrative

There’s likely to be some overlap there, of course.

This gets to the basics of storytelling in general and

This is a first draft road map to help you take 10 steps toward your first novel.

And all of those, without using Gemini. HB would be proud. Have a great day!