Andrew Stanton TED Talk: “Clues to a Great Story”

A 10-part series analyzing the Pixar writer-director’s TED Talk.

Andrew Stanton is one of the key members of Pixar’s ‘braintrust’ whose screenwriting credits include Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Wall-E and Finding Dory which he also directed [along with A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo and Wall-E].

Back in March 2012, Stanton delivered a TED Talk: “The Clues to a Great Story.” Given his Pixar connection and the deep insights Stanton provided in his talk, I produced a transcription of the entire 19-minute presentation along with analysis of his comments.

Today: Part 4.

I don’t mean to make this sound like it’s an actual exact science, it’s not. That’s what so special about stories. They’re not a widget. They’re not exact. Stories are inevitable if they’re good, but they’re not predictable.

I took a seminar this year with an acting teacher named Judith Weston and I learned a key insight to character. She believed that all well-drawn characters have a spine. And the idea is that the character has an inner motor, a dominant inner goal, an itch they can’t scratch. She gave a wonderful example of Michael Corleone, Al Pacino’s character in The Godfather. His spine was to please his father. It always drove his choices. Even after his father died, he was still trying to scratch that itch.

I took to this like a duck to water. Wall-e’s was to find the beauty. Marlin, the father in Nemo, was to prevent harm. And Woody’s was to do what was best for his child.

These spines don’t always drive you to make the best choices. Sometimes you can make some horrible choices with them.

I’m blessed to be a parent and watching your children grow, I firmly believe that you’re born with a temperament, and you’re wired a certain way, and you don’t have any say about it. There’s no changing it. All you can do is recognize it and own it.

Some of us are born with temperament that are positive, some are negative. But a major threshold is passed when you mature enough to acknowledge what drives you and to take the wheel and steer it.

As parent, you’re always learning who your children are. They’re learning who they are. And you’re still learning who you are. So we’re all learning all the time. And that’s why change is fundamental in story. If things go static, stories die because life is never static.

A few things:

• “Stories are inevitable if they’re good, but they’re not predictable”: This is a good insight. Inevitable in that what drives the characters and the events derives from within the story universe, the natural flow of the narrative. If the hand of the writer is visible in manipulating things, that’s when the story comes off as predictable.
• “The idea is that the character has an inner motor, a dominant inner goal”: This is exactly what I preach, how Protagonist characters have an inner Need [Unconscious Goal] that is what increasingly impacts their psychological metamorphosis and their decisions.
• “All you can do is recognize it and own it”: It is the Protagonist’s rising awareness and embrace of their Need that fuels their move toward Unity.

For Part 1 of Stanton’s TED Talk, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

Tomorrow: Part 5.

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