Click here to Subscribe in iTunes. Helping you become a better writer. Join Shawn Coyne, author of Story Grid and a top editor for 25+ years, and Tim Grahl, struggling writer, as they discuss the ins and outs of what makes a story great. More at www.StoryGrid.com.
Listeners of Story Grid Podcast that love the show mention: coyne, tim asks, shawn's book, story grid, first draft, fiction writing, story structure, first novel, hearing shawn, listening to tim's, obligatory, writing fiction, creative penn, writing class, write a story, inciting, steven pressfield, resource for writers, every writer, story that works.
This will be the final episode of the Story Grid Podcast for the foreseeable future. Tim gives some background on why this decision was made along with an update on his current writing project and other happenings around Story Grid.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of Crazy Rich Asians at https://storygrid.com/crazy.What can writers learn from studying this 2018 film?This is the final in a four part series analyzing Crazy Rich Asians. The screenplay was written by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim and the movie was based on a 2013 book of the same title written by Kevin Kwan.This episode is hosted by Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl, writer and CEO of Story Grid.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of Crazy Rich Asians at https://storygrid.com/crazy.What can writers learn from studying this 2018 film?This is the second in a four part series analyzing Crazy Rich Asians. The screenplay was written by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim and the movie was based on a 2013 book of the same title written by Kevin Kwan.This episode is hosted by Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl, writer and CEO of Story Grid.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of Crazy Rich Asians at https://storygrid.com/crazy.What can writers learn from studying this 2018 film?This is the first in a four part series analyzing Crazy Rich Asians. The screenplay was written by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim and the movie was based on a 2013 book of the same title written by Kevin Kwan.This episode is hosted by Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl, writer and CEO of Story Grid.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of Crazy Rich Asians at https://storygrid.com/crazy.What can writers learn from studying this 2018 film?This is the first in a four part series analyzing Crazy Rich Asians. The screenplay was written by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim and the movie was based on a 2013 book of the same title written by Kevin Kwan.This episode is hosted by Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl, writer and CEO of Story Grid.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of John Wick at https://storygrid.com/wick.This is the final in a four part series analyzing the movie John Wick using the Story Grid methodology. This 2014 movie, written by Derek Kolstad, is a genre leading action movie.Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl start by looking at the Story Grid Five Leaf Genre Clover before diving into the quadrants and controlling idea.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of John Wick at https://storygrid.com/wick.This is the third in a four part series analyzing the movie John Wick using the Story Grid methodology. This 2014 movie, written by Derek Kolstad, is a genre leading action movie.Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl start by looking at the Story Grid Five Leaf Genre Clover before diving into the quadrants and controlling idea.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of John Wick at https://storygrid.com/wick.This is the second in a four part series analyzing the movie John Wick using the Story Grid methodology. This 2014 movie, written by Derek Kolstad, is a genre leading action movie.Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl start by looking at the Story Grid Five Leaf Genre Clover before diving into the quadrants and controlling idea.
Access the full Story Grid analysis of John Wick at https://storygrid.com/wick.This is the first in a four part series analyzing the movie John Wick using the Story Grid methodology. This 2014 movie, written by Derek Kolstad, is a genre leading action movie.Story Grid Certified Editor Rachel Arsenault (https://www.rachel-arsenault.com) and Tim Grahl start by looking at the Story Grid Five Leaf Genre Clover before diving into the quadrants and controlling idea.
We're down to line edits on Tim's iteration of the masterwork Eye Witness by Ed McBain.Shawn, Danielle, and Leslie provide final feedback on how to clean up the last few error messages still coming through. Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Yma-xAE77UnQMNAjTyOUPxF21P_DaFxuNXyQin-0gHo/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-283—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 283 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Now that Tim has had a breakthrough on his iteration of EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain, we're getting down to fixing individual Beats and checking to make sure he's adhered to the Story Grid 624 Analysis.You really see the Story Grid Tools shine in this episode as Leslie and Danielle apply them to Tim's writing to find places still left to fix. Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b-RzszE7YzLEn5fSlWAqVQ_OkXhuJg3cxfZImXzIkYI/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-282—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 282 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Does Tim Actually Get It Right? How to Nail the Narrative DeviceOn Tim's 10th draft, he finally makes a breakthrough on his iteration of EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain!And it ended up being a simple practice that got him over the hump.Listen in as Shawn, Danielle, Leslie, and Tim discuss how to nail the narrative device. Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RRmqjv90vYpi20B7kbxgdHQwdhFRvB3pESZD6Y52XEg/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-281—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 281 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
In this impromptu episode, Tim and Danielle discuss the ongoing problems with the work on the Ed McBain EYE WITNESS scene and why Tim can't connect with his characters.
Shawn takes a crack at rewriting Tim's scene to help him understand what he's missing on the Narrative Device.Then we hear Leslie and Danielle's edits and feedback on what he got right and wrong.When they ask Tim what he thinks of all this, lots of emotions start coming out including his feeling that he's not writing anymore... he's pretending to write. Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QZGyUNetvNGfKAjwyfF3m4r9RPoMQN4g3Q18oWXoLOw/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-279—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 279 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
There are lots of insights in this week's episode of the podcast.We look at the emotional connection between the hero and victim, ensuring there is conflict at every level of the story, and how better to lock in to the narrative device.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V6ja3HN4uKuS0J4x6pvWBUwkZUiE5uJov5jM3Gj-Yvw/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-278—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 278 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Nobody is innocent in your story. Everyone is hiding something.You must adjust these levels correctly in order for your reader to connect with the right characters.This is the focus Danielle, Leslie, and Shawn take on Tim's scene this week.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M_rP2ARaDQbSlGBmNRESszzYuNN-nrxa0pdJjt0qQRU/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-277—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 277 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Who is the Hero, Victim, and Perpetrator in your story?What are the relationships between each of them?The more vague or ungrounded each of these relationships are, the more the story will not read as believable.This is the focus Danielle, Leslie, and Shawn take on Tim's scene this week.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OQd5NxTcn2JLwrphueCX91A4wXN9BEQFBYwbyN7NJ1M/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-275—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 275 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Figuring out your Story Theme is the key to unlocking the entire roadmap of your story.Scott Mann is the author of the new book → Operation Pineapple Express: The Incredible Story of a Group of Americans Who Undertook One Last Mission and Honored a Promise in Afghanistan.Randall Surles is a Story Grid Certified Editor and worked with Scott to develop and produce the book under an extremely tight deadline.In this interview, they discuss what went into writing the book, how they worked together, and what it meant to write a book like this.
How do you ground your characters in a reality that your reader will believe even though you are making the whole thing up?This week Tim makes the mistake of sterilizing his protagonist to the point where he is no longer interesting or believable. Shawn, Danielle, and Leslie walk him through the steps of using character development and a strong narrative device to fix these problems.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10bdr_tF4ASohz0cHoNjlbNmsLOVXiDpFw54ugHYLZI8/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-274—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 274 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Who is telling your story? Who are they telling it to? Why are they telling it?This is the Narrative Device!The Narrative Device consists of three main components:Author: The Author is someone who is capable of telling the POP premise as a story to shed light on the problem another person has.SAM: The Single Audience Member is a person with a problem related to the one the protagonist faces in the POP premise.Problem: A specific problem that the POP premise can shed light on.What Shawn, Danielle, and Leslie are trying to teach Tim this week is how this affects every single word of his writing.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ugNstol1I3DGyIcOQ13pdkkgyKKGddFvAE7LH_-OLng/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-273—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 273 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Shawn, Leslie, Danielle and Tim face a hard question...Is the Story Grid Podcast still worth doing?You might be surprised by what they have to say.
What happens when you can't connect to your protagonist?This week Tim makes some progress on his scene, but it's still missing something. The soul in the writing isn't there.Shawn, Leslie, and Danielle talk through how to use emotional pain to connect into the story.
There are times in your story when you need to switch out the protagonist. This can even happen in the middle of a scene or short story.But how do you do it the right way?This week Shawn, Danielle, and Leslie look at Tim's draft to see how you can hand off the protagonist to a different character without confusion.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T9K3Reuspp3oXJdBm_Aj8QLuUXv0Lcj7wPTG9SZKKGI/edit?usp=sharingTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-270—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 270 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Great stories always answer two-factor problems.In this episode we see how Tim's mistake of choosing the wrong protagonist messes up the two factor problem. Shawn, Danielle, and Leslie help him sort out how to fix this problem.Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yNGyDX5dkbchjT6UcrixUNv_2PI_WT7GrZn04H0nIh0/editTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-269—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 269 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
In this episode we start comparing the Story Grid 624 Analysis of the first draft of Tim's scene to EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain. Pretty quickly we see that Tim made one small mistake that ends up having a huge impact on the rest of the scene.In EYE WITNESS, the author switches the protagonist near the beginning of the scene. Tim doesn't do this and, as you'll see, this causes a lot of problems!Click here to read Tim's scene: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tbbo6LuApXL9Y6YGCcXC44dcRYrTcR_8snOV9UCShwo/edit#heading=h.ukpkmg7nyrlrTo see the transcript of this episode, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-268—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 268 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Tim has written a first draft of his scene based on the in-depth analysis of Ed McBain's EYE WITNESS.Listen in as Shawn, Danielle and Leslie give their feedback and start diving into the analysis of the first draft. For the transcript and downloads for this episode, visit https://storygrid.com/267—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 266 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Tim has written a first draft of his scene based on the in-depth analysis of Ed McBain's EYE WITNESS. Listen in as Shawn, Danielle and Leslie give their initial feedback and start diving into the analysis of the first draft. For the transcript and downloads for this episode, visit https://storygrid.com/266 — Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.com This is Episode 266 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
How do we use all of this masterwork analysis to actually iterate our own short story?In this week's episode, we look at the 624, Beat, and Trope analysis for the short story EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain (https://amzn.to/3Q2UpqV) and start discussing what kind of short story I might write based on all of the analysis.This is where things start to go off the rails.As you'll see, Shawn and Tim aren't always on the same page and struggle to communicate with each other.We decided to leave this episode in so you can see what it looks like when an editor and author don's see eye-to-eye.For the transcript and downloads for this episode, visit https://storygrid.com/265—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 265 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
What are Tropes and how can they actually help your writing?Tropes are a toolbox of common components to build a certain kind of story. You can put these building blocks together to create a story that meets the reader expectations for your particular GENRE.Most lists of tropes are a grab bag of story types and/or their components and aspects. They don't fit together, so they don't provide a process for consistently crafting scenes and stories that satisfy readers.In the Story Grid Universe, we provide this process by limiting the definition of a trope to a particular level of Story. Story Grid tropes are small story units that are the building blocks writers need to create the arc of change within scenes.In this episode, we start working through the Tropes for the short story EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain (https://amzn.to/3Q2UpqV).To download the Trope Breakdown, visit: https://storygrid.com/episode-264—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comThis is Episode 264 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcast
Learn how your line-by-line writing can be improved by the Story Grid Beat methodology.In this episode, we show you the final line graph generated by our beat-by-beat analysis and how this can help you write better scenes.—Get a free copy of our book Story Grid 101: The First Five Principles of the Story Grid Methodology: https://storygrid101.comFor episode transcript and downloads: https://storygrid.com/episode-263This is Episode 263 of the Story Grid Podcast: https://storygrid.com/podcastThis is our in-depth analysis of the short story EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain: https://amzn.to/3Q2UpqV
In this episode, Danielle continues walking Tim through every single line of Ed McBain's EYE WITNESS to help him identify the beats and what they are doing. This is a perfect episode for the story nerds!
Now that we have finished up the Story Grid 624 Analysis of Ed McBain's EYE WITNESS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WLiCyxIsCk), it's time to dive all the way down to the line-by-line writing. In this episode, Danielle begins walking Tim through every single line of the short story to help him identify the beats and what they are doing. This is a perfect episode for the story nerds!
We have wrapped up our 624 analysis of Ed McBain's short story EYE WITNESS. In this episode, Leslie does a review of the 624 then Danielle does an introduction for Tropes and Shawn follows up with introducing Beats.
Continuing our 624 analysis of Ed McBain's short story EYE WITNESS, we are talking through the Five Commandments of Storytelling.This is the third in a three part episode as we deep dive through each commandment. In this episode, we go through the Climax and Resolution.
Continuing our 624 analysis of Ed McBain's short story EYE WITNESS, we are talking through the Five Commandments of Storytelling.This is the second in a three part episode as we deep dive through each commandment. In this episode, we go through the Crisis and Crisis Matrix.
Continuing our 624 analysis of Ed McBain's short story EYE WITNESS, we are talking through the Five Commandments of Storytelling.This is a three part episode as we deep dive through each commandment. In this episode, we go through the Inciting Incident and the Turning Point Progressive Complication.
There are four story analysis questions you must answer for every scene in your story: 1. What are the Avatars literally doing?2. What are the essential tactics of the Avatars?3. What universal human value has changed for one or more Avatars in the scene?4. What Story Event sums up the scene's global value change? In this episode we make it to the final one! Last week we covered the first three.
There are four story analysis questions you must answer for every scene in your story: 1. What are the Avatars literally doing?2. What are the essential tactics of the Avatars?3. What universal human value has changed for one or more Avatars in the scene?4. What Story Event sums up the scene's global value change? In this episode we make it through the first three! Next week is a whole episode on the fourth question.
Is it first or third person? Past or present tense?As you'll see in this week's podcast episode, Point of View is about way more than this.See more here:https://storygrid.com/point-of-view/A story's global Point of View includes the technical choices writers make to deliver the story to the reader. The POP premise and Narrative Device suggest Point of View combinations that create the effect of the story told by the Author to the single Audience member.Person refers to the vantage point from which the written story is presented the reader.First Person: I (or we) wrote a story.Second Person: You wrote a story.Third Person: Alex (or she or he or they) wrote a story.Tense distinguishes the timeframe of the story.Past: I wrote a scene.Present: You write (or are writing) a scene.Future: Alex will write a scene.Mode: The final technical choice focuses on how the information is presented. This is the storytelling Mode.Showing is an objective and immediate mode that creates the effect of being present and observing the events of the story. Here are some examples.First Person: The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsSecond Person: Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerneyThird Person: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, or “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest HemingwayTelling is a subjective mode that readers experience as if someone or something is collecting, collating, and sharing the events and circumstances of the story.First Person: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, or Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen FieldingSecond Person: “How to Be an Other Woman” by Lorrie Moore.Third Person: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, Animal Farm by George Orwell, or Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa CatherListen as Shawn Coyne, Tim Grahl, Leslie Watts, and Danielle Kiowski work through the Point of View for the the short story EYE WITNESS by Ed McBain: https://www.amazon.com/McBain-Brief-Ed-ebook/dp/B01KFBQEY4/This is a Episode 254 of the Story Grid Podcast - https://storygrid.com/podcast
Figuring out the Narrative Device for your story will unlock your writing in ways you never thought possible. There are three questions you must answer: - Who is the Author of the story? (Hint... it's not you, the writer) - Who is the Single Audience Member? - What is the Problem? See more here: https://storygrid.com/point-of-view/
How do you boil your story down into one "What If" statement? There are four parts to building out the answer to this question and Shawn, Leslie, Danielle, and Tim walk through it together in this week's episode.
The genre of your story is way more than one thing. In this episode of the Story Grid Podcast, learn the five important pieces of understanding your genre — Time, Style, Structure, Reality, and Content.
Shawn and Kim go back to the beginning and discuss the origins of Story Grid.
Shawn Coyne walks through the role you, as the Artist, plays in getting your own wants, needs and desires into your story.
Shawn Coyne discusses the role backstory plays in your character's wants, needs, and desires.
Shawn Coyne walks through character wants, needs, and desires and how they impact your storytelling.
Shawn and Kim discuss Objects of Desire and how they work with your characters and storytelling.
Continuing the discussion on the three different types of Beats that build up to Scenes, how do Expository Beats work inside a scene?
Continuing the discussion on the three different types of Beats that build up to Scenes, how do Passive Beats work inside a scene?
There are three different types of Beats that build up to Scenes. How do Active Beats work inside a scene?
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