What Walt Disney taught me about writing

Three days in Disneyland Paris last week got me thinking about books and more importantly what Disney can teach us all about writing (and yes I do think about books all the time).

Disneyland Paris is a great place. For anyone with kids of a certain age it is simply magical. Disney has created a world that insists that all who enter suspend their disbelief and walk into a kingdom of magic. It has its critics but for me it’s much the same as the Star Wars universe, Harry Potter, 24 or which other story you choose. You just have to buy into the magic.

The whole park is a story formed around hundreds of mini-narratives. Almost everywhere you turn the presence of the narrative is there, hidden, but present. It is this insistence on a start, middle and an end that really got me thinking.

So with this in mind here are the gems I took away from my three days in Disneyland Paris:

The narrative is the point – It is important that as a writer you consider framing ALL of your writing within a narrative arc. It is easy to see how this works within a story but be aware of other writing. Make sure your writer biography has a start, middle and end. Also your emails, blog posts and even telephone calls. Our brains are hard wired to subconsciously recognise the narrative. It’s just a shame that it took Walt Disney to remind me of this fact.

You can be popular without selling to the masses – One thing Disneyland Paris does well is offer a range of rides and experiences. It caters from the youngest to the oldest (or so they will tell you). However, this offers us writers a serious lesson. So many authors become hung up on writing the next big thing that they forget to write the kind of stories that they themselves would like to read. So, as a writer, are you trying to write a book because you think it will sell or is your book ‘It’s a Small World.’

If you are unfamiliar with ‘It’s a Small World’ it is a ride  that slowly progresses around an almost static display of characters from across the world, throughout the ride plays what some would describe as the annoying ‘small world’ song.

The point is that this is a love it or hate it ride. It has it rabid fans and is always busy. Don’t get me wrong only a small fraction of the visitors will go on this ride. But lots of people go to Disney and a small fraction of a lot is…well a lot. So as a writer it is better to have a small but enthusiastic readership, rather than no readership at all.

Readers will suspend their disbelief – We all know Disney isn’t real. We also know that inside those costumes are sweaty teenagers trying their best to stay in character as small children clamber for attention. But we go along with it, we suspend our disbelief. The same is true for Harry Potter and Star Wars and 24. We know it’s not true but for the sake of entertainment we buy into the concept. As a writer this is a gift. When a reader engages with your text a contract is made. The reader agrees to ‘buy in’, whilst the writer agrees to tell the story. However, the contract is weak. One too many outlandish plot twists and your readers are gone. That’s why you will never EVER see a Disney character at Disneyland Paris with the head of their Mickey suit removed.

Yet in all of this the biggest lesson I took away from Disneyland is that for most people they just want to escape for a few hours into a better, nicer and more wholesome world.