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Screenwriting Expo 5 came and went last week in LA. I had a blast at Expo 4 last year, but it wasn’t in the cards for me to attend this year, which is quite a bummer, since members of the Pixar team would be discussing their storytelling process.

Thanks the TAG (The Animation Guild) Blog, we get to read the crib notes from the presentation.

A great summary that gets to the meat of the presentation and gives you a good idea of what it was like to actually be there.

My personal takeaways:
- “Writing is Rewriting” - Get that first draft done so you can get to the real work.
- “Key Image” - A visual that represents what the story is all about
- “Unity of Opposites” - Characters need clear goals that oppose each other. This is especially hard when you don’t have villains.

As promised, here is Part 2.

My personal highlight of part 2:

“Writing is like Archeology.” - you have to be willing to keep digging and even more willing to throw away what doesn’t work. Be prepared to kill your “sacred cows”.