Ernie, this is excellent! I will read it over and over!

Have you seen Pixar Story Rules LEGOfied?

http://pandawhale.com/post/3969/pixar-story-rules-legofied

I hadn't; very cool. I should've known this had been PWed before. :-)

Emma Coates' 22 Rules of Storytelling are a fine addition to that!

I'm always looking for more good rules...

More good rules:

http://pandawhale.com/post/47540/ted-clues-to-a-great-story-golden-rules-of-storytelling

The 22 rules come from tweets of Emma Coates: https://twitter.com/lawnrocket

Here are my ten favorites:

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

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

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.

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 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – 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.

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.

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

19 is great.  so true to life, too.  we all want to see each other succeed... but not TOO easily.  :)  the story is in the trying.

Yes! The story is in the trying! There are no good shortcuts. :)