YouTube
In the last episode of The Story Grid Podcast, before we got into the nitty gritty scene work from Tim’s work in progress, we discussed two questions from one of our listeners, Peter Michael. Broadly, the questions concern why some books reach blockbuster bestselling success even though the line by line language is not of… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>The Story Grid Podcast
For podcasts and transcripts
Building Better Scenes
Here is the second in depth episode with Tim Grahl’s eleven scene Beginning Hook work in progress. The key idea here is that once you start to get a feel for the progression of a particular part of your story…it may be time to deliberately build better scenes for that sequence before you move forward…. Read more »
Read the Transcript >>Story Grid Spreadsheeting Your Scenes
Tim has finished the first eleven scenes that will comprise the structural foundation of his entire novel, his book’s Beginning Hook. And now he’s ready to test them against the Story Grid Spreadsheet. What he discovers is that what he suspected might be problematic…is problematic. And that what is working could use a tweak or… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>Narrative Nonfiction Storytelling
Next week, Tim Grahl and I get back to his novel. He’s written the first eleven scenes. The bottom line is that these scenes (while problematic and in need of intense work) are a major leap forward for him. He’s getting a real feel for his narrative fastball and is finding his own particular voice…. Read more »
Read the Transcript >>Narrative Machines
This week’s podcast was a real Story Nerd extravaganza. Andy Reagan, a PhD candidate at The University of Vermont’s Computational Story Lab, was our guest. A few weeks ago, I spoke about how the CSL had done some deep data mining into about 2000 English language novels from project Gutenberg. What they found confirmed Kurt… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>How Pros Face Rejection
In this week’s episode, Tim and I talk about professional mindsets and then we transition into how a pro faces rejection. I’m not sure I have the best advice about rejection, but I do think that the more you face, the less power it has over you. That is, the more you challenge yourself and… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>Grahl’s Mojo, Vonnegut’s Master’s Thesis, and the Hedonometer
In this episode, Tim nails the second scene of his novel. I gotta tell you that I was unprepared for the work he created all by himself. I found it unique and compelling, unlike any of his previous scenes we’ve worked through. My gut is that he’s begun to get the feel of his narrative… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>One Simple Question
What happens next? This is the one question you must use as your North Star. Have you created a scene that will elicit this question in your reader? If you consistently bring the reader to this delicious state of not knowing, but desperate to find out… then you are creating the one thing that will… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>This Far, No Further
When should your hero get out her gun in your thriller? What about that first kiss for your love story? In the global inciting incident? In the middle build? Ending payoff? When? How do you push your storytelling to the most delicious place and stop, leaving readers wanting more…so much so that they just have… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>Three Sentences
Tim and I were on hiatus for a few weeks. In that time away from the project, we exchanged a few emails. Actually the majority of the emails were from me as I thrashed about how to best direct him on the new course for his novel. And as these things go, oftentimes a friend… Read more »
Read the Transcript >>