In the beginning, you record information about the story without a judgment that it’s good or bad. One of the biggest problems with assessing your writing is gaining the distance and objectivity to decide what you should cut or keep and where the problems are so you can fix them.īecause this method uses straightforward data, it creates a barrier to separate yourself from the work. But this tool is akin to magic and well worth your time.Ĭoyne wrote The Story Grid so that writers could use his method to revise their own stories. Not every writing tool will work for every writer. Second, it involves grunt work that takes time, and writers don’t want to waste their time.
![story grid scene types story grid scene types](https://i1.wp.com/dyingwords.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Story-Grid-Foolscap.jpg)
First people wonder how these bits of data organized in a spreadsheet can help them write a better story. When I talk to people about my love of the Story Grid, I tend to hear two reactions. You can see exactly how it works and how Coyne evaluates the story. On a macro-level, you assess the parts of the story (generally and for your genre) to make sure they’re present and accounted for.Ĭoyne applies his process to The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. On the micro-level, you look at numbers, like the word count and characters in a scene, but also more qualitative data, like the story event, the scene’s turning point, and shifts in story values. The process tests the story by looking at the entire plot and individual scenes. He needed a method to decide if a story was worth the investment for the publisher, and that meant understanding whether the story worked and, if so, what needed improvement.
![story grid scene types story grid scene types](https://printablemapforyou.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/45-professional-plot-diagram-templates-plot-pyramid-e19085-template-lab-free-printable-story-map.jpg)
The Story Grid as a process came from Coyne’s over 25 years as an editor, both for big publishing houses and independent. I gush about it, but I wanted to write a proper post about what’s so great about the Story Grid. The book and the process are useful for so many aspects of writing, and I’m clear that it works for me. If you listen to the podcast, you may have heard me talk about The Story Grid, a book by Shawn Coyne that I love and one of my favorite books on the craft of writing.