Planning, Scripting & Ideas
But-therefore rule
Also called: but therefore, and then vs but therefore, South Park rule
Trey Parker and Matt Stone described this as what turned South Park scripts from lists of events into stories. Read an outline aloud and put a conjunction between every beat. If and then fits, the beats are merely sequential and the audience has no reason to stay. If but or therefore fits, each beat is either causing the next or standing in its way, and momentum comes for free. It works on a tutorial or a vlog as readily as on drama: I tried the obvious approach, but it failed, therefore I had to do something stranger. Anything that survives only with an and then can usually be cut.