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Story Grid

If you’re like me, right now your head is swimming. You’ve just spent three or four weeks using a microscope to lay out the elements of a novel, all of its scenes and continuity details, turning points, values etc. Moving from minutiae to the view from thirty thousand feet is a very difficult transition. No… Read more »

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Tracking Continuity

Story Grid

The last six columns in The Story Grid Spreadsheet concern story continuity. These are important to track so that you keep all of the setting, time, and character entrances and exits in sync. On the screen, continuity glitches can take the viewer right out of the experience. We’ve all seen movies where a character is… Read more »

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Tracking the Scene

Story Grid

The next three columns on The Story Grid Spreadsheet pinpoint the mechanics of each scene. Essentially, the VALUE SHIFT, POLARITY SHIFT and TURNING POINT columns will tell you how each scene has moved the Story forward. You’ll identify what value is at stake at the beginning of the scene and the value by the end… Read more »

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Tracking the Global Story

Story Grid

Once you have a first draft, you’ll need to inspect each of the units of your Story and make sure you’ve used the right materials. Just like a building, you’ll want to make sure that your Story will stand up to the test of time. This is what The Story Grid is all about. It’s… Read more »

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The Editorial Microscope

Story Grid

Now that we’ve reviewed the five fundamentals of Story form (Inciting Incident, Progressive Complications, Crisis, Climax and Resolution) and the six units of Story (Beat, Scene, Sequence, Act, Subplot and Global Story), let’s take a step back to the very beginning of why this website exists in the first place. What does an editor do… Read more »

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The Units of Story: The Global Story

Story Grid

As per our Foolscap Global Story Grid, Global Story has the same five elements as each of its component parts—an inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax and resolution. Ideally, you “the editor” should be able to pinpoint exactly what beats, scenes, sequences, acts, and subplots in your story combine to satisfy these requirements. For example,… Read more »

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The Units of Story: The Subplot

Story Grid

Subplot is the next level up from Act in the long form story. Subplots are the added attractions for a Story and are best used to amplify the theme/controlling idea more aggressively or to counterbalance the global story with irony. A quick example would be the love story in The Sound of Music between Liesl… Read more »

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The Units of Story: The Act

Story Grid

There is a song by the 1980s new wave band The Godfathers that I always remember when someone asks me how best to describe an Act. It is simply titled, Birth, School, Work, Death. The Act is a major life stage in a story. The Act could be a self-sustaining story in and of itself…. Read more »

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The Units of Story: The Sequence

Story Grid

Sequences give the reader a sense of “critical moments in life.” That is, they, like all the other units of story, have beginnings, middles and ends. To look at it another way, sequences are large set pieces in the global story journey.  Steven Pressfield has been writing about his method of dealing with sequences on… Read more »

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The Units of Story: The Scene

Story Grid

The scene is the basic building block of a Story. While the beat is the actor’s medium, and as such can be “saved” by a skilled actor, even Meryl Streep can’t save a poorly written scene. There is just no hiding for a writer when it comes to a scene. It either works or it… Read more »

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