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Writing Advice From Creators of South Park
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Author bio: Allen Quang is a professional photographer from Tokyo. Despite studying a computer science his work schedule go-to option is homework help programming.
There are a few good reasons why animated series South Park has 8.7/10 rating on its IMDB page. The show has been successful mainly because of its cynical, unapologetic and humorous attitude. However, it remained relevant and continues to sustain its popularity over the years is their usage of the skill to hold a viewer interested in the story of each episode. Trey Parker and Matt Stone shared this formula with students during the seminar.
Everything comes down to the ability to use words “therefore” and “but” between the events of the story. By using these essential words author will force himself to continue to look in the right direction.
It is also vital to avoid word “then” to separate those parts. The only self-evident and small detail that Trey and Matt didn’t bother to mention, is that these key separating words should not be insignificant all the time. For instance it is okay, when character misses first shot and hits the second right away. But it’s not okay if he is diagnosed with a cancer and the next day his test results shows that he is healthy as a horse. If story line continues to evolve without having no links with “but” to that healing transition, it will cause a viewer to feel like someone tried to fooled them.
The first half of “Bohemian Rhapsody” (spoiler alert) is a great example of the abuse of word “then” and insignificant placing of “but” and “therefore”. As a result, a viewer gets to see a story that develops like this: Freddy meets the band, then Freddy joins the band, then Freddy meets a girl and they start to have a good relationships, then band gets signed, then band gets booked for a tour, then band gets popular. And the first important “but” kicks in only when Freddy starts to engage with other men during his touring.
On the contrary, episodes of South Park contain the proper alternation of events with proper words. Many successful writers understood and have been using this principle intuitively for centuries. But it was writing stuff of South Park who formulated it, and it were Trey Parker and Matt Stone who shared it with us publicly.