Researchers at Stanford analyzed four years of posts on the Random Acts of Pizza Reddit, according to Lily Hay Newman at Slate.com.

The study, published as “How to Ask for a Favor: A Case Study on the Success of Altruistic Requests,” examined more than 21,000 posts from Random Acts of Pizza, and teased out some information on which requests worked and which didn’t.

Reading Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work –

Emma Coats, a former storyboard artist at Pixar, outline the basic structure of a fairy tale as a kind of Mad Lib that you can fill in with your own elements:

“Once upon a time, there was ______. Every day, ______. One day, ______. Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______. Until finally, ______.”

Pick your favorite story and try to fill in the blanks. It’s striking how often it works.

BTW, Emma Coats has a Tumblr, and describes herself as “freelance director of films, boarder of story, and sometime public speaker.”