Tale Spinning is a method that grows stories from theme and character outward. Every beat earned, every beat inevitable. It's used to teach storytellers to build that way. It is also a diagnostic apparatus: a way to read a finished or unfinished story and name precisely where the structure holds and where it gives.
The read is structural, not notes-on-instinct. It locates the contradiction inside the protagonist, checks whether the Trifecta around them actually pressurizes that contradiction or just decorates it, and tests whether the ending is inevitable or merely convenient. If you read coverage, run a room, or assess projects at the pitch, outline, or draft stage, that's a vocabulary for what's missing, and a shared language for the conversation in the room.
The work, shown
The pairings essays are the clearest proof. Each one takes two films that share nothing on the surface and shows they are, underneath, the same story: same protagonist, same Trifecta, same earned ending.
- Ratatouille / In Bruges: a Pixar kitchen comedy and a Belgian hitman drama, built on the identical structure down to the final beat.
One essay is live now; the series runs one per story type, with the Kind Tragedy, Cruel Comedy, and Cruel Tragedy pairings to follow. A few minutes with one of them is enough to know whether the read is real.
What working together could look like
Not a fixed menu, but a sense of the conversations I'm open to:
- A structural read on a project. Pitch, outline, or draft. I apply the lens and return a read on where the structure holds and where it breaks, in language a team can act on.
- Vocabulary for a room or development team. A working session that gives the people around a script shared terms for the structural problems they're already trying to name.
- Consulting on a specific story problem. A story that isn't working and won't say why. The lens tends to surface what other frameworks miss.
Get in touch
A short note about what you're working on is plenty to start. Email me directly at thijs@tale-spinning.com. I'm open to inquiries from development teams in film and TV.
Or follow the work
I'm publishing a pairing essay for each of the four story types. Not ready to reach out yet? Subscribe to the newsletter below and each new one lands in your inbox.