Editing Tools: What is the Story Grid Method?
This methodology was developed by Shawn Coyne, a 25-year veteran of the publishing industry, and published in his book The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know in 2015. This book has a (key) spot on my bookshelf as an editor as it provides a useful framework for analyzing story structure, genre conventions and obligatory scenes, and the theme of your novel. In short, if you want to write better stories, implementing the story grid methodology within your story can help you understand how the different parts of your manuscript work together and provide a useful tool for self-editing.
There is a lot of advice out there about how to write a book. However, the Story Grid is the most clear-cut, easy to understand, and useful tool that I’ve found for analyzing whether or not a story works. This removes any uncertainty about your plot's effectiveness in creating an interesting and unified story for your readers. At its heart, the Story Grid merges the math and the poetry of writing. It is both creative and analytical and that’s why I think it works so well. I will do my best today to explain to you why this editing method has helped many authors write stories that work and why I use this method when working with my clients. Of note, this will be the surface level of The Story Grid. If you want to do a deeper dive, I recommend picking up the book.
The Story Grid is a tool. With all writing advice, you have to take bits and pieces of what is out there and make it work for you. There's a lot more detail in The Story Grid than you will find in this blog post. However, I will give you what I feel are the most impactful pieces of advice to help you use the Story Grid to analyze your manuscript and improve your overall story.
What are Genre Conventions & Obligatory Scenes?
I could write a whole blog post on Genre conventions (an probably will at some point). To understand this part of the Story Grid, we have to knock out some definitions. First, when we are talking about genre for the Story Grid, we are not talking about commercial genre (aka where a reader would find your book in a bookstore). Commercial genres are things like fantasy, science fiction, contemporary romance or historical fiction. Instead, the Story Grid references content genres or the type of story you are telling. There are nine external content genres and three internal content genres. They are:
External Content Genres:
Action
War
Horror
Crime
Thriller
Western/Eastern
Love
Performance
Society
Internal Content Genres:
Status
Morality
Worldview
You know that old saying that there are only three types of stories out there? Content genres fall under this umbrella. They provide "types" of stories similar to the Save the Cat! genres if you are familiar with that hit writing craft book. While the external content genre frames the plot of your novel, the internal genre defines your protagonist's arc of change throughout the story. Since these are not commercial genres, you might have a science fiction crime novel or an action romance story. One combination that has been extremely popular in the stories I edit is the romantasy commercial genre coupled with an action external content genre. Some writers, typically those of the discovery or pantser variety, will find content genres to be formulaic. If this is you, I don't recommend implementing these elements until after you completed the first draft of your story.
Both external and internal genres have a set of genre conventions and obligatory scenes. Genre conventions are story elements that are required to make a story feel satisfying to the reader. Obligatory scenes are similar. These are the moments in your story that your reader is expecting on either a conscious or subconscious level. When genre conventions and obligatory scenes are not found in a manuscript, readers walk away feeling unsatisfied though they might be able to communicate why. For more information about the genre conventions and obligatory scenes as well as definitions of each content genre, consider checking out Savannah Gilbo's Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast.
What are the Units of Story?
Well-crafted books utilize building blocks of narrative or units of story. I like to think about this like biology. Like, humans are made of organs, organs of cells, cells of elements, and elements of atoms. Stories are made up of component parts as well. However, instead of elements and atoms, these are scenes and beats.
Your novel exists on multiple layers. The Story Grid hierarchy goes like this: The global story is made up of Four Acts, Four Acts are made up of sequences, sequences are made up of scenes, scenes are made up of beats.
The story hierarchy is simply a categorization of the units of story from biggest to smallest. This is useful information to you as the writer because if something isn’t working, it will compound at the higher levels. Sometimes something is working at the scene level that is causing problems at the act level. A clear understanding of each story element's role is crucial for crafting a compelling narrative. When you are writing your first draft, the most important thing you can do is put words on the page. This can help you if you are stuck somewhere in your novel.
In addition to compounding, the scale of change experienced at the scene level is of a smaller magnitude than the transformative shift that occurs within your protagonist at the act level. Some moments in your story should have life-altering impacts on your characters. However, long term change in their lives takes place after several decisions in succession that happen scene by scene. By viewing your story through this lens, you'll be able to identify when a scene or beat isn't serving the greater purpose of your story.
What are the Five Commandments of Storytelling?
The Story Grid teaches that each unit of story should include the Five Commandments of Storytelling. I will define these in a little bit, I wanted to note here that I have incorporated a little bit of my own interpretation in order to explain the importance of the these elements. The Five Commandments are useful as it tells the editor or writer what is working and what is not in order to identify what must be done to make the story work.
Every scene, act or global story starts with your protagonist or point of view character. As they step foot on to the page, they must have a goal. This can be as simple as getting breakfast or as complicated as taking over the world. While your protagonist is pursuing their goal, the run into the first of the five commandments.
1. Inciting Incident – An external force disrupts your character’s goal. This can either be a coincidence or intentional. This external force causes your protagonist to form a new goal.
With the introduction of this new information, your protagonist is forced to evaluate their initial goal. Should they continue to pursue it? How does this new information impact their plans? Even if their initial goal has not changed, they might attempt to pursue this goal in a new way.
2. Complications/Turning Point – As your character attempts to achieve their goal, things get more complicated. It becomes apparent that they cannot achieve their object of desire without making a decision. They reach a final moment where they must decide between two equally weighted options.
3. Crisis Question – The choice your character must make. This can either be a Best Bad Choice (character wants neither, but must choose one) or Irreconcilable Good Choice (character wants both, but must choose one). This must truly be a choice. It doesn’t work if your character clearly wants to choose one option over the other.
4. Climax – The choice your character makes. This can either be an action or a reveal. When your character makes a choice, it tells us who they are as a person and what they value
5. Resolution – This is the result of your character’s choice. Some choices have positive outcomes and some have negative. Vary this throughout your novel to create an interesting dynamic.
The scale of each of the Five Commandments depends on which unit of story you are writing. A choice at the act level is going to have much larger stakes than a choice at the scene level. The magnitude of the commandment increases with the unit of story.
What are the Four Acts?
The Story grid breaks down your entire manuscript into three, but truly four acts. The first of these is the Beginning Hook, which is the first 25% of your novel. Here, the writers goal is to bring the reader into the story through a combination of intrigue and grounding. The middle of a manuscript, from about 25% to 75%, is sometimes referred to as one act, but for the purposes of implementation, you might consider this to be two separate arcs of change rather than one. These are the Middle Build or Middle Breakdown depending on whether or not the act has a positive or negative trend line. Finally, the Ending Payoff rounds out the novel by satisfying the readers expectations with a finale that is both surprising and inevitable.
Analyzing its five commandments enhances every act. This type of story analysis ensures that every piece of your manuscript is moving in the same direction. In particular, I like to work backwards when it comes to breaking down a story using this method. If I know that a story ends with a specific arc of change in the Ending Payoff, then the Middle and Beginning Payoff must mirror this transformation by providing mini-arcs of change that most the protagonist closer to this climatic moment on both the external and internal level. This fulfills the promises made to the reader and makes the manuscript feel cohesive.
Analyze your story using Story Grid:
This is truly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Story Grid. Many writers find it useful to implement parts of this method in conjunction with their regular writing process. As an editor, I've found these tools to be useful as I aim to provide helpful editorial comments. I swear by this method. If this blog post sold you on learning how to use the Story Grid to analyze your plot points, then you should definitely check out Shawn Coyne's book or head over to Story Grid to learn more. They offer everything from scene writing classes to certified story grid editors to help you utilize their tools.
Whether you are writing a new story or editing your manuscript, this method can help you take a look at the words on paper and test them for the ability to create a cohesive and imaginative story.
That’s all for now! For more writing tips and tricks, feel free to reach out to me or learn more on my Instagram below:
