The Story Grid. How To Tell A Story That Resonates With Shawn Coyne
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
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If a reader can't put your book down, it's because you wrote a good story.
And if a reader makes it to the end of the book and is satisfied, they are likely to buy your next book. And that makes for happy readers ... and writers! In today's show, I interview Shawn Coyne about his upcoming book, The Story Grid, which deconstructs the most effective way to tell stories based on the books we know and love.
storygrid.com/
Shawn's 25 years of publishing experience as an editor has enabled him to break down the best way to tell a story.
Writers need to learn how to edit themselves.
What do writers get wrong? Writers seem to be fearful or have contempt for ‘genre,' even though this is core to story. Every story has a genre - it's just a way of classifying what we've been telling for thousands of years. Writers need to embrace genre.
This will help you ask the right questions to work out if your book is working. Genre as Amazon category and how publishing has developed genre for the industry.
On writing as an artist, vs editing from the structural angle. Don't edit on a first draft. The goal for your first draft is to get to the end. Shawn recommends an overview map, that gives you a highlight of what you need to hit in the story. foolscap methodHe calls this the Foolscap Method: what genre do you want to write in? Beginning hook, middle build and ending pay-off. It's for when you want to take your story to the next level, OR/ it's just a mess and you need to get it into shape. Change ‘hats' to become an editor.
On getting better as a writer over time, with more books and stories under your belt.
On the change in story values and polarity shift in a scene
Story values are positive or negative things in our lives e.g. life vs death - but there's also the fate worse than death = damnation; or justice - unfairness - injustice - tyranny. Damnation and tyranny here are the ‘negation of the negation,' a very powerful change for a story.
The primary unit for a novelist or screenwriter is the scene. It has to have a value at state. It might be the overarching value of the whole story, OR/ it's a value within the scene. When you start the scene, you are at a value - then turning point, something happens - and you end up at the polarity shift of values. A scene moves from one value to another - of a different polarity.
On writing screenplays to improve your storytelling, and some of the pros and cons of screenwriting.
Characteristics of breakout stories
Example of LA Requiem by Robert Crais, before he was a huge name. Taking the character to the negation of the negation, and going through extreme change, which means nothing will ever be the same. This is really back to story values. Understand the core value of the genre you write in and taking it to the end of the line.
On being a creative entrepreneur
Black Irish Books' motto is “get in the ring.” This is to encourage authors to fight the creative fight, do those things that you know you have to push yourself into. Fight the inner war of Resistance.
On indie publishing and the new digital revolution. How Shawn has shifted from mainstream big publishers to choosing himself and starting Black Irish. Part of that decision is based on freedom of creative expression and the ability to try things out. On the entrepreneurial mindset and the type of person who suits the indie way of doing things. You can learn it, for sure, but there are people who are more suited to it. On launching and the long haul approach.
You can find Shawn Coyne at www.TheStoryGri... and Story Grid is here on Amazon. You can also find Black Irish Books and their books and audios here.
The Story Grid is the single-most useful tool I have found in 30+ years as a book coach and editor. Highly recommended!
It is a great book!
I've read Shawn's book, and it's absolutely one of the best investments I ever made. Being able to see how a professional editor breaks down a story, and analyses what does and doesn't work is a real eye-opener. Thank you so much for sharing this interview, because The Story Grid is a resource that so many people could benefit from.
I am SO glad you decided to continue with the podcasts and videos Joanna! Honestly, they just keep getting better and better! I greatly enjoyed this interview with Shawn Coyne and learnt a lot. Definitely becoming a tribe member :) Although I love SPP and the guys, I appreciate your focused, on topic (!!) discussions. Thank you.
I love your videos. However I don't catch all the words, because of accents that are different to mine. This happens especially with technical.words, which are unfamiliar to me. Subtitles would be very useful.
Excellent! Thank you, Joanna and Shawn! Another great interview for writers. Highly inspirational, jam-packed with tips. I'm off to buy Shawn's book....!
This is perhaps the single best, useful, and insightful writing advice I've come across. I've spent a lot of time looking for some sort of structure or lens through which to view story creation and this is finally something that really clicks with me. Thank you so much!
Definitely get The Story Grid book - it's super useful :)
This is fantastic. Thank you both. I would love to hear you talk to Shawn again sometime.
Very interesting and very inspiring. Thank you, both.
Inevitable but surprising, great tip.
@joanna Penn, can you give me a close look at that genre flower picture you have on your wall please. Would love to see it in more details. Love your videos.
www.storygrid.com/genre-review/
I don't want to write a book that resonates with Shawn. I want to write a book that resonates with many people.
Hi Joanna and Shawn, could you let me know where to find one of your resources that explains the obligatory scenes for Literary fiction? I have watched some story grid videos and have noticed that obligatory scenes are mentioned as necessary for each genre. I have seen this laid out for thrillers and romance but I remain stumped about what they would be for literary fiction along the lines of The English Patient and Atonement. I'd be very grateful if you could pass me to a resource for this. Thank you. (Joanna ,this is Chandi who you interviewed last year :-) )
Hi Chandi, best to go to Shawn's site and ask him :) storygrid.com/