It’s interesting how good story telling relies on being able to act. I took some animation classes and the first thing they taught us was to act out a scene before animating it to get a better understanding of the action. I can see how this could also relate to writing.

Well, Howard once expressed that advice in the form of “well-stolen is half-composed”. If you count the “cut everything that doesn’t fit” part of the advice as the other half of composing, I think you have a pretty good fifth rule of storytelling. (Not sure stealing applies to puppetry in the real world, sadly. Stealing puppetry techniques sounds awesome. )

Also, I don’t think you should feel bad about how well she schooled you guys. As I thought about it, I realized that she has basically been a storyteller for twenty years anyways. She is just doing it through another medium now. So no wonder she is awesome.