What is the Content Genre? Each of the twelve Content Genres sets the tone for what the audience will experience during the story. Content genres can be external, focusing on change from forces of antagonism outside the protagonist, or internal, focusing on change within the protagonist. A story’s Content Genre is one of the five… Read more »

Before we look at a Masterwork, let’s start by defining a story “that works.” A story that works is one that abides by reader expectations for the genre, the CONVENTIONS and OBLIGATORY MOMENTS. These are stories that sell.  Masterwork Definition Masterworks are stories that abide by reader expectations for the GENRE, but they go further…. Read more »

What are Genre Conventions? Genre conventions are specific requirements for the story’s ALTERNATE WORLD, AVATARS, and catalysts that create conflict and enable solutions. Without specific genre conventions, the reader will be confused, unsettled, or bored and quit reading. Genre Conventions set up genre audience expectations and create the potential for specific change in the OBLIGATORY… Read more »

What is Worldbuilding? Worldbuilding is how we create an Alternate World for our story where the AVATARS interact and the story events unfold. It is the whole system setting for the story, which includes all the objects and AVATARS inside it and the relationships between them. In Story Grid, we use the term Alternate World… Read more »

What are Characters? Characters are what most people call the simulated people who populate stories. They may be realistic contemporary humans, historical figures, aliens from a fictional world, or anthropomorphized animals, but they stand in as models of humans who act like humans do. What is Character Development? In the Story Grid Universe, we call… Read more »