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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

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

Also a good way to write a product definition.

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Here's a great clip of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone explaining this point to a group of film students:

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2011/09/07/arts/television/1000...

It really underscores the basic way to write a plot.

You should avoid trying to start pun threads, though your profile suggests you do this in protest, which is even less useful.

I don't do it in protest, and if you look in my history, my attempts at humour are rare. I'm also not trying to start a thread.

Look at my profile again, and you should see that I'm far more passionate about the inane, arse-backwards moderation system.

This is great! Although I'm confused about the two Because of Thats... can someone provide an example of how to complete this in a way that this part makes sense?

Act II of your story is a chain of not just one cause and effect events.

Once upon a time there was a single father and his son. Every day, the father was overprotective and worried about his boy. One day the boy went out on his own, and got kidnapped. Because of that, the father went on a quest to find him. Because of that, the father had a lot of new experiences, met lots of new and different people, and realized what was important in life. Until finally he rescued his son, and they lived happily ever after.

I'm sure you could write it up other ways, and do a better job with more time, but basically, that's Finding Nemo.

Wow... I've just sat here for a few minutes plugging random words into that. It really does get the brain working :)

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