by Faith P. Nelson •  April 26, 2024

When I sent my first middle grade story to an editor and it came back with a long list of things to correct, my writing self literally shriveled. It was clear from the critique, that I had missed the course on good story structure and had broken what little rules I knew for my beloved humanoid dragon story. Once I recovered from the blow, I began looking for practical tools to improve my first drafts. Knowing my shortcomings, I wouldn’t have the patience for a dozen rewrites. I just couldn’t see myself doing those. I need to write a better first draft.

For a year, I tried many systems. I went back to the Snowflake method. I read very dense texts by famous writers but those didn’t give me a methodical process. The famous screenwriting Save the Cat process was working for other writers. It didn’t work for me. Then, I stumbled on Shawn Coyne’s book, The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know. Simply leafing through the book gave me relief. It promised the systematic approach I needed. The book has become my storytelling salvation. It has given me a tool to think like an editor and to understand story structure.

Voracious Reading Doesn't Guarantee Stephen King Level Writing

My heavily-underlined Story Grid pages gave me a glimmer of freedom as a self-editor and rid me of my first misconception. I had come to long-form writing with the belief that because I was a voracious reader, I had conscious knowledge of the rules and was on my way to successful storytelling. However, voracious reading doesn’t guarantee you’ll be aware of the structural frame of the story absorbing your attention and emotions.

Further proof I had not magically learned about form came when Story Grid helped reveal the structural underpinnings of two of my most adored stories: Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Now I could see how these geniuses, Coelho and Bach, had swaddled me in a thick cloud of emotions. I cried buckets when the heroes triumphed. The hero of Bach's book was a seagull, for heaven's sake. I wanted my stories to have the same depth.  

Shawn Coyne, Editor And Story Nerd

An expert built the Story Grid system. A self-described nerd and respected editor, Coyne had served in leadership roles at some of the major publishing houses and had acquired and edited books by authors like Harlan Coben, David Mamet, Robert McKee, and Steven Pressfield. Having a systems mindset, he codified the process of editing because there wasn’t much out there by way of books on the subject. It was a well-kept secret. While the Story Grid system is targeted to editors, it’s a miracle worker for early stage writers and their first drafts. The 334-page tome edited by the renowned Steven Pressfield, should be reference material in every library. Coyne gives a nod to several expert systems including Robert McKee’s Story: Style, Structure, Substance and The Principles of Screenwriting. The book satisfied my wildest dream about defining the overarching structure of a story.

Find All The Genres In One Place--The Genre Map

Page 60 and 61 hold one of the most treasured graphic in the world as far as I am concerned. The graphic is a genre map on a 5-leaf clover. Now, I’m aware neither Tolkien nor Jane Austen needed this guide. But then, they were masters. I need this guide. Never again will I mistake a thriller novel with a doomsday plot for an action adventure novel with a doomsday plot. The graphic differentiates between fantasy and realism, between the epistolary and the literary novel. There are different types of plots, like the miniplot and the archplot all in one place. Why is all this necessary? Well, Shawn wasn't creating these categories. They already exist. Some of us need to know what they are so we can make good decisions.

The Foolscap Global Story Grid and The Story Grid Spreadsheet are two musts for planning the writing or editing when you are done. The Foolscap is the outline of the story on one page. The Spreadsheet tracks all the scenes in the global story. The book allows you to look over Coyne’s shoulder as he uses this twin system to analyze The Silence of the Lambs. He may have this analysis for a fee on his website. But if you are a writer with little disposable income, don’t despair. Use a magnifying glass and study that spreadsheet.

The Story Grid Spreadsheet Versus The Foolscap

We get introduced to how Coyne prioritizes the steps in his own editing process. He does the Story Grid Spreadsheet before moving on to the Foolscap which outlines the external genre, the external value at stake, the internal genre, the internal value at stake, the obligatory scenes and conventions, the point of view, the objects of desire, the controlling idea and so on. This prioritization allows the author to summarize each scene before naming the story genre. However, it also allows the writer flexibility. For example, after outlining 52 scenes, the writer may decide to change genre or the value at stake. In my case, I could have started to do a fantasy war novel and ended up with scenes for a fantasy action adventure. I didn’t know this when I wrote that first story.

The Story Grid system mandates observing the classic five commandments of storytelling: inciting incident, rising action or complication, crisis, climax, and resolution. But something new I learnt was that story beats and scenes should obey those same commandments. The benefits far outweigh any negatives, especially when you tune into the podcast and watch Coyne apply those rules as he helps his co-host, Tim Grahl, write his first novel.

Know the Rules of Story Before You Innovate

Unlike Tim, I didn’t have Coyne looking at my work. Still, when I analyzed my dragon story with the Foolscap, I was able to see that I hadn’t obeyed all the story conventions. I had three of the five commandments with a big deus ex machina resolution. I had solved the crisis in a dream experience and I did not provide the audience with the conventions and obligatory scenes for this fantasy genre. I had also been told in a writing group that the book needed to be longer -- a genre convention. I told the group I wouldn’t be writing any more words. Honestly, it was bravado. The truth is, I had run out of ideas. When I created the Spreadsheet for my story, I noticed that the middle had far fewer developed scenes than I needed. Coyne's estimate of roughly 50 to 60 scenes for a contemporary commercial novel gave me a useful measuring stick, not a rule that every author must obey. Maybe in another lifetime I will be a discovery writer, but for now, I’m doing Story Grid. I need a plan and I am sure there are other writers out there like me.

Tips On Story At The Micro Level

To be fair, Story Grid the book does not spend a lot of pages on how to write a great sentence, beat, or scene. However, a visit to the Story Grid website and the extremely generous Story Grid Podcast will reveal an expanded system and beat level writing classes. In my view, if you don’t have the macro level down, if you are not a “discovery writer” with story form already visible in your mind's eye, then get Story Grid: What Good Editors Know. It will change your writing life. It’s going to save you money. You don’t have to do an expensive MFA in Writing. If you have to, arm yourself with Story Grid while you shop for the best programs. The system is going to save you time. You don’t have to retrace your steps and analyze all the masterworks. You will be using that very precious time to write a successful first draft.  

Source

Coyne, Shawn. (2015, April). The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know. Black Irish Entertainment. New York