Story Grid

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How to Write Scenes: Structure, Examples, and Definitions

Story Grid

What is a Scene? Scenes are the building blocks of our stories. These STORY UNITS dramatize definable VALUE SHIFTS for the AVATARS (or characters) and their CONTEXT (or setting). The value shifts that occur in each working scene of the story incrementally build the global arcs of change. Many writers define scenes by chapter breaks… Read more »

Foolscap Global Story Grid

Story Grid

An editor handed a pile of manuscript pages must answer a whole bunch of questions before he can even begin to diagnose the effectiveness of the Storytelling. While he’ll know after one read whether the book “works,” in order to take the book to the next level, he’ll have to figure out exactly how it… Read more »

Content Genre: Objects of Desire and Values in Story

Story Grid

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 »

Masterworks: How and Why to Study the Greatest Writers in History

Story Grid

As writers, we should always be reading. We hear this advice constantly from the pros. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” — Stephen King “For a man to write well, there are required three necessaries: to read the best… Read more »

Genre Conventions: Must-Have Elements of Story

Story Grid

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 »

Worldbuilding in Story: How to Create a Compelling Alternate World

Story Grid

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 »

Character Development: Writing Believable Avatars that Change

Story Grid

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 »

Western and Eastern Genre: Stories of Subjugation and Freedom

Story Grid

What is the Western/Eastern Genre? An external story in the Western/Eastern genres focuses on the conflict between the individual and society. It turns on the subjugation / freedom spectrum while generating feelings of intrigue in the reader. The underlying question in every Western/Eastern story asks: Is the autonomous, self-reliant individual in society dangerous to law… Read more »

Genres of Writing: Definition, Examples, and 12 Types

Story Grid

What is the definition of Genre? Genre is a label that tells audience members what to expect from our stories. It is a clear framework to catalog all stories and helps writers give audience members what they are hoping for—and more. The genres of writing choices are the most important ones we need to make…. Read more »

Obligatory Moments in Story and Genre

Story Grid

What are Obligatory Moments? Obligatory Moments are the key events in every story that change the human value and pay off reader expectations in a story. The value shifts are the most pronounced in these moments of the story and readers tend to recognize and appreciate these moments more than other moments of the story…. Read more »

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Story Grid

How to Write Scenes: Structure, Examples, and Definitions

Story Grid

Foolscap Global Story Grid

Story Grid

Content Genre: Objects of Desire and Values in Story

Story Grid

Masterworks: How and Why to Study the Greatest Writers in History

Story Grid

Genre Conventions: Must-Have Elements of Story

Story Grid

Worldbuilding in Story: How to Create a Compelling Alternate World

Story Grid

Character Development: Writing Believable Avatars that Change

Story Grid

Western and Eastern Genre: Stories of Subjugation and Freedom

Story Grid

Genres of Writing: Definition, Examples, and 12 Types

Story Grid

Obligatory Moments in Story and Genre

Story Grid

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