© Warner Bros.

If you want to write animation—or if you just want to produce or direct it—it’s important to know the difference between live action and animation writing. First the similarities: 

Animation stories are developed pretty much the same as in live action.  You come up with a concept, sometimes called a premise, describing the basic beginning, middle and end of the story.  The next stage is an outline, laying out each scene, including action and gags.  The final step is the script, with full scene description and dialogue. 

The script form in animation is virtually identical to live action. 

It’s the differences that are important to understand.

 

WHAT ARE THE FAVORITE CARTOON SERIES OF THE PAST 50 YEARS? 

A funny thing happened on the way to my Facebook page.  A handful of professional contacts refused to be my friend, not because they didn’t like me, but because they weren’t on Facebook.  The interesting thing was that they seemed to take pride in not being on Facebook.  This reminded me of something I’ve noticed over my career, an odd anomaly about many writers and artists: They don’t like to promote themselves.  Not a good idea!  Here's why...

If you are familiar with screenwriting software such as Final Draft and Screenwriter, you know that they make it easier to write scripts by automatically formatting script elements such as character names, dialog and description. But I’ve used Microsoft Word to write hundreds of scripts and actually find it easier to use than expensive screenwriting software—and in most cases just as good.

Follow my instructions, below, and you can turn Word into an effective screenwriting program.  

©Disney PIXAR

Write me the next “Toy Story”!

Oh, and did I mention there’s only $25,000 for the script?

The reason I use Excel to develop story structure is based on a writing principle I discovered years ago.  I call it getting a God’s-Eye View of the story. 

I realized that by writing my outline beats in a normal word processing program it took screen after screen to go through my scenes.  So while I was looking at one portion of my story, the rest of the story was out of sight.  And as they say, “Out of sight, out of mind”. 

But when I write I want all of my story in mind.  And here’s how I do it...

UPDATED

The book publishing industry, like the newspaper biz, is on a glide path to oblivion.  It's just too easy and cheap to download a book to your computer, iPad or Kindle. 

And that was last year!

Now it takes less time to publish your own book than it does to write a query letter to publishers, let alone send it out and wait for the rejection letters. 

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing is so easy it's frightening (to the publishing industry). How easy?

Does self-promotion really work? 

What happens when you promote your writing via blog, Facebook and LinkedIn? 

Over the past several weeks I've done just that. 

The results are in. 

Check out this post and find out exactly what happened with my experiment in self-promotion...

© BIG Animation

Here's a tip for professional television and film screenwriters. 

If you haven't thought of this one yet it will save you time by eliminating the need to write some things twice.  But best of all, in just a couple of minutes it will let you see that you've probably already written half of your script.  And that will make most any writer feel GREAT! 

What I do is this: After I've written an outline, and am ready to start the script, I cut and paste the outline directly into my script document. 

But then I take it one important step further...

©DreamWorks Animation

One of the most useful maxims in life is known by the acronym K.I.S.S. I'm sure you've heard of it. It stands for “Keep It Simple Stupid”. But simplicity is not just the key to a happy life; it's also the key to great storytelling—which only makes sense because stories are about life.

Well-written animated features, no matter how complex they may seem upon first viewing, have basic character and plot elements that are very simple. To create a simple, well-constructed story you need only answer a few questions. Let me demonstrate using Kung Fu Panda...