“I saw the submissions of the past winners of this workshop. Their story reels flow very effortlessly even though they didn’t fully animate it. How do I achieve such seamless transitions between scenes without knowing how to animate?”

I’d first like to mention that you can always refine and make your story reel more detailed after the Story Xperiential program is over. Towards the end of the Story Xperiential program, you’d most likely want to have a working version of your story to show your audience (from beginning to end), whether these are only the most important moments of your story roughly sketched out, or a more detailed version.

In order to achieve this, my advice would be to work from the biggest to smaller chunks. That would mean to start drawing the major beats of your story first, the most important story moments. After that, you can draw the minor beats, the most important moments in-between the major beats. You can continue with other story moments in-between both major and minor beats and work your way into more detailed story moments. This approach ensures that you at least can deliver a version of your story that the audience can follow.

If you find yourself taking too long on one drawing, consider setting a timer. Set it on 3 - 5 minutes, and see how far you can get. This eventually forces you to get rid of details and only put the essentials on paper.

Also, accept that things doesn’t have to look finished right away.

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“I have so much ideas, but I cannot draw and hence haven't completed the previous weeks work. what do I do?”

One of the approaches you could try, is an approach called ‘reference drawing’. If you know what you want to see on paper, go on the internet and find references photos of that particular scene. For example, a bear in a forest. You can even make a moodboard or collage for it. Having done that, start tracing those photos and see what the most important lines are to represent that photo. Based on that, you can learn more about the essence of drawing different things and develop your own style around that!

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“How do I separate my story into three Acts?”

Here's a quick reminder on which moments could split the story into the 3 Acts. This is not a fixed rule, but rather a recommendation.

ACT 1 to ACT 2
ACT 1 is about the introduction of your character and the world the character inhabits. Since ACT 2 is about the journey of that character, you’d most likely want to break
your ACT 1 into ACT 2 during the inciting incident; the event that sets the plot in motion and sets the main character on the journey. This is the moment where everything is about to change for your main character.

ACT 2 to ACT 3
Your ACT 3 is about the resolution of your character’s journey they went through in ACT 2. But before your main character can give everything to reach for that resolution, he or she’s in a moment of crisis, experiencing a low point; this tragedy shatters the character’s world and clears a path for the villain to succeed. It’s where everything in your story seems lost.