The greatest story commandment is: Make me care.
Interpretation
Engaging storytelling elicits emotions and connections from the audience.
This quote emphasizes the importance of emotional engagement in storytelling. Andrew Stanton suggests that a compelling narrative must resonate with the audience, making them feel invested in the characters and the plot, thereby creating a memorable experience that captures their attention and empathy.
In practice
During a writing workshop, when discussing the fundamentals of captivating narratives.
We all fall into our habits, our routines, our ruts. They're used quite often, consciously or unconsciously, to avoid living, to avoid doing the messy part of having relationships with other people, of dealing with a person next to us. That's why we can all be in a room on our cell phones and not have to deal with one another.
Change is fundamental in story. If things go static, stories die.
I've learned that the movies [Star Wars] will never finally end. It just goes on and on and on and on. I mean, it's going to be in 3D, then it's going to be smellivision, then it's going to be a ride in an amusement park, then they'll come to your house and perform it with puppets on your lawn ... it'll never end! I accepted that a long time ago.
And then there came the pounding of another drum, as if another giant were coming yards behind him, and each giant, intent on his own drum, gave no notice to the rhythm of the other. The sound grew louder and louder until it seemed to fill not just my hearing but all my senses, to be throbbing in my lips and fingers, in the flesh of my temples, in my veins.
Writing is an act of empathy. You are occupying and understanding a point of view that might be alien to your own--and work is often the keyhole through which you peer.
Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
Hip-hop is the streets. Hip-hop is a couple of elements that it comes from back in the days... that feel of music with urgency that speaks to you. It speaks to your livelihood and it's not compromised. It's blunt. It's raw, straight off the street - from the beat to the voice to the words.
Art is long, life is short; judgement difficult, opportunity transient.
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