- Constantly ask yourself what you can leave out. Your short story should be like a marble sculpture, where you remove everything that is not crucial to the work of art you plan to deliver. Trace through your story and apply the word "why" to every scene, action, character and line of dialogue. Ask yourself, "Why is this element in my film?" Every component of your story needs to be a step along the path to the climax or punch line. Each scene needs to bring about a change or a movement that directly leads to your story's conclusion or the exploration of its central theme, contributes to setting a mood or provides necessary information about a character or a current event. If a scene does not satisfy one of these conditions, it should probably be cut (see Figure 30). If you have an early scene that establishes the setting of your story, ask yourself whether revealing the locale or era of your story is absolutely necessary. Sometimes it is indeed important for creating a mood, but your story might be just as effective if the setting is vague or not initially established. If you've written a particularly creative or exciting scene and you're certain that it will look really cool on the screen but it contributes nothing to your story's narrative flow, cut it. Is every minor character in your story absolutely required? Can two be combined as one? If a line of dialogue is redundant to an action, get rid of it.
- Once you've established the necessity of every scene, analyze each one for economy and efficiency. Is every scene as succinct as possible? Is there a faster way to deliver a particular story point or characterize your protagonist?
- Can important plot points be simply referred to in previous or subsequent scenes or acts, rather than actually being played out? Not every beat of your story necessarily needs to be shown. Often a line or two of dialogue can replace a missing scene, especially if that scene falls under the category of back-story. Sometimes it is desirable to leave out a lengthy first act where the characters and conflicts are established and jump right into the action. With some clear visuals or a couple of lines of dialogue, it's usually pretty easy to bring the audience up to speed.
- Exaggerate. Because a short story delivers less information than a full-length narrative, it is often necessary to exaggerate its elements in the interest of clarity and efficiency. You must deliver more with less and do so in a limited timeframe. Character traits usually need to be more obvious, indicative, and perhaps rather stereotypical. Conflicts should be magnified where the forces of antagonism are often exaggerated. The stakes should be higher, the crises more extreme, the villains more direct and the odds against the hero succeeding quite significant. The more exaggerated your story elements, the less time it will take to describe or develop them.
- Consider using text or voiceover narration at the beginning or end of your short to complete the story (but not to reveal a moral), rather than trying to contain too many events within the scope of the film itself. After all, even though most stories have a complete narrative structure unto themselves, no story exists on an island. Something always came before and something always happens after. Even in a four-hour movie, an author must decide where in the context of a larger story his sub-story will take place. If you feel that your audience requires some additional information with regard to events outside the scope of your actual film for it to stand on its own, text and narration can be effective shortcuts for creating such narrative totality.
- Keep plot twists and digressions to a minimum. Fairly simple, somewhat linear plots without significant sub-plots are generally recommended.
- Once your story is fully formed in your head or on paper, try to summarize it in a single paragraph as if you were writing the descriptive text for the back of your film's future DVD case. If it takes more than a few sentences to describe the gist of your story, it might be too long or too complex and you should see what you can do to increase its narrative efficiency.
![[Figure 29] Audiences will graciously accept bizarre, unexplained, abstract, surreal, exaggerated or fantastical scenarios and characters in a short animated film.](http://www.awn.com/files/imagepicker/1/shorts02-29.jpg)
![[Figure 30] Constantly ask yourself, “Why is this scene or character in my film?” If you don’t have a satisfactory answer, cut it.](http://www.awn.com/files/imagepicker/1/shorts02-30.jpg)
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