Story Grid

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Story Crisis: Triggering Change in the Protagonist

Story Grid

What is the Story Crisis? The Crisis of a UNIT OF STORY is a binary, this-or-that, choice that arises out of the TURNING POINT. We reach the Crisis when all of the protagonist’s attempts to go back to the way things were before the INCITING INCIDENT have failed. The Crisis is what forces the protagonist… Read more »

Turning Point Progressive Complication: Connecting the Reader to the Protagonist

Story Grid

What is a Progressive Complication? Progressive complications follow the INCITING INCIDENT, which has knocked the protagonist’s life out of balance. The protagonist begins taking a habitual series of steps to restore the balance that existed before the inciting incident. Each of these steps fails — or is complicated — which forces the protagonist to move… Read more »

Inciting Incident: Definition and 6 Examples for How to Start Your Story

Story Grid

What is the Inciting Incident Definition? The inciting incident is a ball of chaos that spins into the story and knocks the protagonist’s life out of balance. It puts the events of the story into motion and introduces the reader to the global conflict in a compelling way. It is the first of the FIVE… Read more »

Story Theme: Definition and Examples for a Controlling Idea

Story Grid

What is the Story Theme definition? The story theme is the takeaway message the ARTIST wants the SINGLE AUDIENCE MEMBER to discover from reading the story. It is the deeply held truth we are embedding into our story. It is the change the AUTHOR is trying to evoke in the reader. The story theme is… Read more »

The Five Commandments of Storytelling

Story Grid

What are the Five Commandments of Storytelling? Every effective story has five structural components that work together to communicate a CONTROLLING IDEA in a way that bypasses readers’ critical minds to touch their hearts and change their worldviews. These components are the Five Commandments of Storytelling. When most writers and editors talk about Story structure,… Read more »

Book Tropes: The Building Blocks of Scenes

Story Grid

What is a Trope? Tropes are a toolbox of common components to build a certain kind of story. You can put these building blocks together to create a story that meets the reader expectations for your particular GENRE. Most lists of tropes are a grab bag of story types and/or their components and aspects. They… Read more »

Point of View: Definition and Examples for the Narrative Path

Story Grid

What is Point of View? When writers talk about Point of View, they usually refer to the technical choices writers make to deliver a story to the reader. This includes the person (usually first or third) and the tense (usually past or present). In the Story Grid Universe, we see Point of View as one… Read more »

How to Learn Writing

Story Grid

There are only two methods (that work) to learn an extremely complicated skill such as writing. Here they are: Conscious Learning Unconscious Learning If you want to become a true expert at writing (without it taking 20 years), you must master both. What do these look like in real life though? What is Conscious Learning? What is Unconscious… Read more »

Chapter 6: The 5 Commandments

Story Grid

The following is an excerpt from the Story Grid Publishing title The Writers’ Common Language: A Shared Vocabulary to Tell Better Stories. If I learned one bit of knowledge from Shawn that I use more than any other, it is this. If our value doesn’t shift, we are breaking one (or more) of the Five… Read more »

Crafting Your Story Spine Using Literal and Essential Wants & Needs

Story Grid

I have a story I’ve been noodling on for quite a few years. I’ve toyed with whether it should be a novel or a screenplay—probably both. Hopefully both. Here’s the premise: five friends in their 30s smoke recently legalized marijuana at their monthly book club meeting, hoping to find direction for the next chapter of… Read more »

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Story Grid

Story Crisis: Triggering Change in the Protagonist

Story Grid

Turning Point Progressive Complication: Connecting the Reader to the Protagonist

Story Grid

Inciting Incident: Definition and 6 Examples for How to Start Your Story

Story Grid

Story Theme: Definition and Examples for a Controlling Idea

Story Grid

The Five Commandments of Storytelling

Story Grid

Book Tropes: The Building Blocks of Scenes

Story Grid

Point of View: Definition and Examples for the Narrative Path

Story Grid

How to Learn Writing

Story Grid

Chapter 6: The 5 Commandments

Story Grid

Crafting Your Story Spine Using Literal and Essential Wants & Needs

Story Grid

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