Shawn Coyne

WHAT IS THE STORY GRID? The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult.) The Story Grid is a tool with many applications: 1. It will tell a writer if a Story "works" or "doesn't work." 2. It pinpoints story problems but does not emotionally abuse the writer, revealing exactly where a Story (not the person creating the Story...the Story) has failed. 3. It will tell the writer the specific work necessary to fix that Story's problems. 4. It is a tool to re-envision and resuscitate a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper stuck in an attic drawer. 5. It is a tool that can inspire an original creation. Shawn Coyne is a twenty-five year book-publishing veteran. He's acquired, edited, published or represented works from James Bamford, John Brenkus, James Lee Burke, Barbara Bush, Dick Butkus, Harlan Coben, Nellie Connally, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Ben Crenshaw, Catherine Crier, Brett Favre, David Feherty, John Feinstein, Tyler Florence, Jim Gant, Col. David H. Hackworth, Jamie Harrison, Mo Hayder, William Hjortsberg, Stephen Graham Jones, Jon Krakauer, David Leadbetter, Alan Lomax, David Mamet, Troon McAllister, Robert McKee, Matthew Modine, Bill Murray, Joe Namath, John J. Nance, Jack Olsen, Scott Patterson, Steven Pressfield, Matthew Quirk, Anita Raghavan, Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, Jerry Rice, Giora Romm, Tim Rosaforte, William Safire, Dava Sobel, Michael Thomas, Nick Tosches, Ann Scott Tyson, Minette Walters, Betty White, Randy Wayne White, Steven White, and Don Winslow among many others. During his years as an editor at the Big Five publishing houses, as an independent publisher, as a literary agent both at a major Hollywood talent agency and as head of Genre Management Inc., and as a bestselling co-writer and ghostwriter, Coyne created a methodology called The Story Grid to teach the editing craft.

What are the first principles in writing a story that works?At Story Grid, it's easy to get distracted by the tools, spreadsheets, commandments, macro lense, micro lense, and on and on. However, all of this eventually comes back to five first principles.In Story Grid 101 , Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience working with writers to build their stories into five Stories are made up of distinct parts, or units.Stories are about change.The change that happens in stories concerns Universal Human Values, the things that most people would say are necessary to survive and thrive in the world-or alternatively, the things that keep us from surviving and thriving.Each unit of story has a Story Event, a one-sentence distillation of what's happening and what value is changing.Within each story unit we find a pattern of change we call the Five Commandments of Storytelling.Also inside of Story Grid 101, Shawn also introduces you to the fundamental The Foolscap and Editor's Six Core QuestionsThe SpreadsheetThe InfographicThe Four Core FrameworkStory's BoundariesStory Grid 101 is for anyone new to Story Grid who needs a primer on how we approach our craft.

Action Stories speak to ancient human desires. Readers want to experience heart-stopping fear and excitement and learn lessons of survival.How can you write a story that satisfies those desires?In Action The Primal Genre, Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne takes you on a journey deep into the meaning of the genre. Coyne boils down insights gained through more than 25 years as an editor and writer to teach you Action Story’s fundamental constraints and patterns. He explores subgenres and setting, and proposes a new way of understanding the traditional cast of characters to reveal their power as agents of light and darkness.In keeping with Story Grid Publishing’s goal of helping all writers level up their craft, Coyne provides a practical twenty-point game plan, showing how action stories move forward from beginning to end.Action stories are part of our DNA, fundamental to our humanity. Let’s learn to write them together.

What’s at the core of every great story that leads readers to rush breathlessly to the end and then share it with all their friends?At Story Grid, we believe great stories are built of four essential Core Needs, Core Life Values, Core Emotions, and Core Events . Whether you’re writing an action adventure, a mystery, or a love story, these are the elements that spark the emotional connection and catharsis readers are looking for.Assembled into a Four Core Framework, the right need, life value, emotion, and event become the blueprint for a story that will satisfy readers and bring them back for more.In The Four Core Framework , Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience in publishing into a compact guide for writers who want their novels, screenplays, and nonfiction to resonate and captivate. He dissects twelve kinds of stories and explains how to create the the ideal framework for each, In The Four Core Framework , you’ll learn to keep readers turning the pages and rushing to recommend your stories.Join Shawn to get down to the core of it all .

Put the Work Above All Else, and Trust the Process. We believe that we find meaning in the pursuit of creations that last longer than we do. It is not ridiculous. Dedicating our work to seizing opportunities and overcoming obstacles as we stretch ourselves to reach for seemingly unreachable creations, is transformational. We believe this pursuit is the most valuable and honorable way to spend our time here. Even if…especially if…we never reach our lofty creative goals. The Story Grid Universe is where you come to do this.

How Do You Write a Love Story?THE STORY GRID WILL TEACH YOUThe Story Grid is a writing tool that...Tells you if your Story “works” or “doesn’t work.”Pinpoints Story problems without abusing you, the writer. The Story Grid asserts that you are not the problem. The problem is the problem.Reveals—in very specific terms—what you must do to fix your Story’s problems.Guides you in re-envisioning and resuscitating a seemingly irredeemable pile of paper you’ve stuck in an attic drawer.Helps to inspire an original creation.Why Is Pride and Prejudice the Consummate Love Story?THE STORY GRID WILL SHOW YOUYou’ve read Jane Austen’s classic Love Story and you aspire to write one yourself.What do you do now?In a magical world, Jane Austen would sit down with you and explain how she wrote a novel that sells approximately 400,000 copies a year...more than two centuries after it was published!In the real world, The Story Grid Edition Pride and Prejudice is the next best thing. By transforming the reading experience into writing inspiration, it breaks down how Jane Austen abided by the five commandments of storytelling in each and every scene of her novel. And it shows you how she delivered the obligatory scenes and conventions of the Love Story genre.The Story Grid Edition Pride and Prejudice details the craft behind the dazzling storytelling and shows you how to tell your own best Love Story.

Dorothy Gale’s trip from Kansas to the Emerald City—in print, on screen, and on stage—has enchanted audiences around the world for more than a century. But what is her magical adventure really about? And can studying such classic tales help today’s writers improve their craft?In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank A Story Grid Masterworks Analysis Guide, Shawn Coyne answers these questions and more. In Oz, Coyne finds a pitch-perfect illustration of the Heroic Journey 2.0, his revolutionary take on Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. Coyne exposes the essential ingredients that define the book’s life-or-death Action Story, coming-of-age Worldview Story, and transcendent Heroic Journey.Writers who take up the challenge and put the Heroic Journey 2.0 to work will craft stories that resonate across time and cultures and provide the emotional catharsis their readers crave.By the end of Baum’s book, Dorothy has survived a worldview-shattering moment and committed to go on, creating new meaning in her life. Your journey as a storyteller begins with the same commitment to make meaning in the world, and this Guide will set you on the right path.

What’s at the core of every great story that leads readers to rush breathlessly to the end and then share it with all their friends?At Story Grid, we believe great stories are built of four essential Core Needs, Core Life Values, Core Emotions, and Core Events . Whether you’re writing an action adventure, a mystery, or a love story, these are the elements that spark the emotional connection and catharsis readers are looking for.Assembled into a Four Core Framework, the right need, life value, emotion, and event become the blueprint for a story that will satisfy readers and bring them back for more.In The Four Core Framework , Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience in publishing into a compact guide for writers who want their novels, screenplays, and nonfiction to resonate and captivate. He dissects twelve kinds of stories and explains how to create the the ideal framework for each, In The Four Core Framework , you’ll learn to keep readers turning the pages and rushing to recommend your stories.Join Shawn to get down to the core of it all .

Dorothy Gale’s trip from Kansas to the Emerald City—in print, on screen, and on stage—has enchanted audiences around the world for more than a century. But what is her magical adventure really about? And can studying such classic tales help today’s writers improve their craft?In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank A Story Grid Masterworks Analysis Guide , Shawn Coyne answers these questions and more. In Oz, Coyne finds a pitch-perfect illustration of the Heroic Journey 2.0, his revolutionary take on Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. Coyne exposes the essential ingredients that define the book’s life-or-death Action Story, coming-of-age Worldview Story, and transcendent Heroic Journey.Writers who take up the challenge and put the Heroic Journey 2.0 to work will craft stories that resonate across time and cultures and provide the emotional catharsis their readers crave.By the end of Baum’s book, Dorothy has survived a worldview-shattering moment and committed to go on, creating new meaning in her life. Your journey as a storyteller begins with the same commitment to make meaning in the world, and this Guide will set you on the right path.

What if you could look inside a novel and see exactly how it works, like a doctor analyzing an x-ray or MRI scan?In The Story Grid Contenders Analysis Guide to The Threshing Tim Grahl and Shawn Coyne look deep into the heart of Grahl's dystopian action novel set in a grim future where people compete in a virtual world to survive in the real one.What essential actions lie beneath the moves the characters make?How does each scene propel the story forward?Coyne opens the Guide by analyzing the structure of the Action Story, the first and most primal fiction genre. Why have humans shared heroic tales that pivot on life-or-death choices ever since we began gathering around campfires? Why do Action stories persist at the top of bestseller lists? Because they speak to our desire to experience heart-stopping fear and excitement and learn hard lessons vicariously. Coyne's analysis provides the framework you need to satisfy those desires in readers.Then Grahl takes you into his process of crafting a story that works by dissecting the structure of each scene, from inciting incident to crisis to resolution. You'll see the critical choices he made to deepen his characters' dilemmas and surprise readers again and again.There is simply no better way to learn the craft of storytelling than to study a novel scene by scene.This Story Grid Contenders Analysis Guide is a valuable tool for any writer or editor interested in the art and science of storytelling. By showing you the inner workings of this contemporary action story at the macro and micro levels, Coyne and Grahl give you the tools to analyze your own work, diagnose and solve problems, and level up your craft.

Bilbo Baggins, an altogether respectable hobbit, had never done anything unexpected—to say nothing of heroic—until he met a wizard in a blue pointed hat. After that meeting, Bilbo embarked upon an adventure, recorded in the pages of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, that captured the imagination of readers around the world.With unparalleled skill, Tolkien forged scenes of physical courage, revelatory self-transformation, and spiritual transcendence that do more than entertain—they help us make sense of the world.In this Writer's Study Guide, Shawn Coyne examines Bilbo’s transformation and Tolkien’s craft through a powerful new lens, the Heroic Journey 2.0, revealing how stories help us survive, thrive, and find meaning individually and as a species. Using this lens, writers will learn to create the emotional catharsis readers crave and tell stories that cross barriers of time and culture.Bilbo’s unexpected journey beautifully illustrates the human imperative to keep going, to break and remake our worldviews in a search for truth. But in the end, readers and writers may agree with Coyne that, “There is no final truth, only the creative act of meaning-making in the here and now.”