Video Games are Real

Tag: Vonnegut

  • Pixar’s Rules for Storytelling 7 – Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

    Pixar’s Rules for Storytelling 7 – Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

    Yes, I am going to make a video for each of the Pixar’s 22 Rules for Storytelling (the full list can be found here). Be sure to subscribe to this channel to not miss any of the forthcoming videos. I plan to release one/week.

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

    A good outline lays the foundation for a story that honors the core of this rule: you must know your ending of your story so that you can be sure to support that ending with a well-structured beginning and middle.

    Vonnegut, too, knew what he was talking about when he said “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible… Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”

  • Colored Chalk, the zine: Issue Two

    Colored Chalk, the zine: Issue Two

    This issue’s theme spawns from the great mind of Kurt Vonnegut, via your issue two editor, Jason Heim.

    Vonnegut wrote:

    “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”

    And that’s just what we aimed to do with this issue of Colored Chalk.Colored Chalk Issue 2

    I have a piece in this issue, “Exhibit One: A Letter From Alex Fumar,” which I hesitate to mention simply because it’s impact is so reliant on context. Read outside the Colored Chalk zine my piece would make absolutely no sense, and could possibly put first time readers off of my work for good. My logic is that if I called attention to “Exhibit One,” then I might as well call attention to other printed pieces which would make no sense out of context. For instance, my letter to the editor in the June 2007 issue of Spirit, the Southwest Airlines magazine (yes, THE Southwest Airlines magazine).

    But, I’m a whore, so go on and read: “Exhibit One: A Letter From Alex Fumar.”

    And while your at it, here’s Spirit Magazine’s Letter of the Month from June 2007.

    Don’t forget, the Colored Chalk zine can be printed and distributed, hassle-free (and all other kinds of free) if you’re in the mood to spread the word. Just click here, print, staple, and force upon strangers.

    And if you are in the mood to not spread the word, pick up a copy at Kansas City’s own Prospero Books on 39th Street.