Yesterday, someone posted on Reddit the rules Chuck Jones had when creating Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner cartoons. The list is amazing and here it is:
I can appreciate this on many levels but the most important to me is how defined these simple characters are based on just this list. Something that pulls me out of a lot of fiction is when a character does something I don’t believe they would. That’s not to say characters have to be predictable or can’t grow but if Wile E. Coyote gives up and decides the Road Runner isn’t worth it, then it’s no fun anymore.
My favorites from this list are definitely 8 and 9. Remember, “Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy,” is telling us all that there is always something holding us down. And replace “The Coyote” with “Matt” in: “The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures,” to sum up my life pretty well.
