Writing so good
readers can't help but
keep turning pages.
This is what you want.
And soon, you'll be able to do it.
Get 1-on-1 Support from a Story Grid Editor Mentor
Next Cohort Begins January 7, 2024
9 HIDDEN PROBLEMS IN YOUR WRITING
Do these show up for you?
🔄
1. Your scenes have no direction.
The writing starts, you feel good about the scene, and then you realize—it's hard to tell exactly when this happens—everything has gone off track.
You keep going, hoping you'll be able to write yourself out of the hole, but eventually the writing peters out and you stop.
On a reread, there is a lot going on. Characters are doing stuff. Plenty of exposition. Lots of description. But it doesn't go anywhere and even you get lost... and you wrote it!
If a reader can't figure out what's going on in your story, they will stop reading.
🥱
2. Your scenes are boring.
It’s hard to get all the details and story bits into your writing without making it boring. You know there needs to be some kind of action happening, but how do you do this without car chases and explosions? What if it’s two people getting coffee or a person traveling alone?
You force yourself to finish the scene, but even you get bored when you read back through it.
And if it’s boring to you, imagine how the reader is going to feel!
😱
3. Your scenes don't evoke emotion.
Your writing comes out flat and dull like a Wikipedia entry describing something interesting instead of pulling you into the narrative.
As you struggle to put the words down, you’re not sure which verbs, adjectives and adverbs to put down in order to connect your writing to your reader at an emotional level.
You know each word you choose is important, but how do you make those choices?
🤷♀️
4. Too many details in your scenes.
You get lost in the excitement of creating your world and characters, so you keep putting more and more. Before long, you have thousands of words of exposition but nothing has happened yet.
Somewhere in that mess you try to get your story elements in, but you worry that you’ve buried them in an avalanche of description. When you go back to edit though, you know you need to cut, but you’re not sure what to cut or why.
👨👩👧👦
5. Too many characters in your scenes.
As you develop your story, you keep adding characters without a clear direction on their purpose and how they will add value to the narrative.
On a reread, you start to fear that all of your characters are running together and remain uninteresting and unbelievable.
🙄
6. Your world is not believable.
You struggle to choose the right details to describe your story’s world to make it feel real and vibrant. So you keep adding more and more, unsure of when you’ve put enough.
The world feels so real to you, but you’re never quite sure if it’s landing on the page in the right way.
🗑️
7. Your scenes are full of exposition dumps.
As you write, you struggle with weaving the exposition, dialogue, and action together.
You worry you’re not giving your readers enough information, so you opt to open a scene or stop mid-action and dump all of the information on the reader at once.
But then you worry that you’re back to making your writing boring again.
📣
8. Your scenes do not have a clear voice.
You don’t feel locked into who you’re telling the story to and why, so the voice shifts as you write. Sometimes you use flowery prose and then switch into Hemingwayesque direct, simple language.
You feel the inconsistency in the word choice, but struggle to lock in on anything that feels coherent throughout the writing.
🎥
9. Your "camera" movement is confusing.
As you write, you bounce from a god-like view of the context to an up-close description of action to dialogue to a different character's vantage point. It feels right in the moment, but when you read through later, you feel like you’re getting jerked around, unsure of where to focus.
If the movement is too jarring, your story will get lost in the chaos.
😢
Bonus: Your scene is a BLANK PAGE.
You would love to have these problems in your writing, as that would mean you were actually writing.
Instead, when you try to write, you end up staring at the endless blinking of the cursor unsure of where to start and what to write.
If you never write anything then you never have to deal with a reader who doesn't like your writing.
What happens if you can’t write exciting, compelling scenes?
Maybe you love the macro storytelling stuff. Diving deep into the genre and story structure and conventions and obligatory moments… so much fun!
And, obviously, this stuff is important. It’s a huge part of what we do here at Story Grid.
But…
If you can’t write scenes that excite the reader to turn the page and keep reading, none of it matters!
This means...
- Readers won’t stick with your story long enough to experience your story’s climax or speech in praise of the villain.
- Readers won't make it through 3 scenes before they give up on your entire book.
- You’ll never write a book that people love so much they’ll tell other people about it.
- Readers will never get to hear your voice and your message. They'll miss out on the joy of experiencing your story.
THE STORY GRID GUILD
Writer Mentorship Program
Learn to write scenes that are so good
readers can't help but keep turning pages.
New cohort begins January 7, 2024.
HERE'S HOW IT WORKS
Study
A pattern scene sourced from a master writer.
Practice
Creating iterations of your scene and writing as you improve your craft.
Feedback
Get clear, actionable feedback from your editor on how to improve.
Study a Master Writer
By focusing on one masterwork scene, it allows us to pick up on the patterns and learn from a story that has stood the test of time.
Weeks 1 - 7:
Scene Analysis and Planning
Discover the Story Grid 624 Analysis Toolkit that allows you to gain high resolution understanding for the story.
During this process you will learn to use tools including:
- The 5-leaf Genre Clover to get crystal clear on how to meet reader expectations.
- The Proposition of Possibility (POP) generates and governs the problem space for a story.
- The Narrative Device which sets out the Author, Single Audience Member, and Problem for the story.
- Point of View options for presenting the story to the reader.
- The Five Commandments that track the value shift in a story.
- The Event Synthesis Analysis which evaluates the trinity planes of perception in the story.
- Identifying Tropes and Beats in the story.
Weeks 8 - 14:
Writing Engaging Action
Build your toolkit for writing action by adding energy to your writing that generates excitement and anxiety in the reader.
During this process you will learn:
- The different types of Action Beats and when to use them in your writing.
- How valence in your language plays a huge role in generating engaging action.
- The critical role misattunement in your line-by-line writing plays in keeping the reader turning pages.
- Internal and External sources of energy that drive action in the story.
Weeks 15 - 19:
Character Development
Understand how to develop characters that readers will empathize with and connect to.
During this training you will learn:
- How to effectively reveal your character's true nature through action instead of exposition.
- The 3 categories of Breakdown Beats that force the characters to change in your story.
- How misattuning the Beat writing reveals the truth about the characters.
- How writing Freeze, Flight, and Fight play into character development.
- The 7 ways a character can react to misattunement in their environment.
Weeks 20 - 24:
Writing Captivating Exposition
Exposition is necessary in your writing, but hard to do well without boring the reader.
During this training you will learn:
- Frameworks for building exposition in a way that engages your readers in a coherent experience.
- Techniques to avoid info-dumps while making sure you include enough description to keep your reader from getting confused.
- The 3 functions of exposition and how to balance them in your writing.
- How to connect the exposition in your scenes to the global concepts at play in your story to make sure that the entire story works together as a whole.
Meet Your Instructors
These are the people guiding you through the training. Shawn Coyne is providing the basis for all of the theory and content and answering your questions monthly. Danielle Kiowski and Leslie Watts are providing the weekly instruction and assignments.
Shawn Coyne
Founder and Creator of Story Grid
Shawn Coyne is a writer, editor, and publishing professional with over 30 years of experience. He has published more than 300 books with many dozens of bestsellers across all genres and generated over $150,000,000 of revenue.
He started his editing career in 1991 as an editorial assistant and was promoted to senior editor in less than five years. Four years later, he became a publisher. Throughout his twenty year career in traditional publishing, he held positions at Dell Publishing, St. Martin's Press, and Doubleday Publishing.
From 2001 through 2007, Coyne founded and served as Publisher and Managing Partner for Rugged Land Books. In its six years of operation, Rugged Land published thirty-six hardcover titles and fourteen trade paperback titles. One third of all original titles published at Rugged Land were placed on the major bestseller lists.
After shuttering Rugged Land in 2007, Coyne became a literary agent representing many bestselling authors including Robert McKee, Steven Pressfield, David Feherty, Scott Patterson, Anita Raghaven, and many others.
In 2011, Coyne co-founded Black Irish Books where he has published over twenty-five titles including bestsellers such as The War of Art and Turning Pro.
In 2015, he wrote and published The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know and, later that year, launched the Story Grid Podcast. Since then, Story Grid has grown into a community of 40,000+ writers dedicated to leveling up their craft.
Shawn continues to study and write on Narrative Theory, develop the Story Grid methodology, and teach aspiring and professional writers.
A small sampling of works he acquired, edited, published and/or represented include 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.
Danielle Kiowski
Chief Academic Officer, Story Grid Universe
Danielle works with writers to help them tell the stories that they need to tell.
In 2019, she came to Story Grid to level up her own craft, and discovered a passion for teaching others and helping them to tell their stories. She strives to guide her students and clients to unlock a new understanding of how stories work and how they can apply that insight to their own writing and in their own lives. Writing is hard work. She coaches her writers through the transformative work that they must face to tell a story that matters while maintaining focus on the joy of creating art and protecting the passion for storytelling that drives them to the page.
As the Chief Academic Officer at Story Grid, Danielle crafts the Guild experience to help members reach their writing goals. Along the way, she teaches plenty of theory, but always brings it back to the page — where the writing happens!
Leslie Watts
Editor-in-Chief, Story Grid Publishing
Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts oversees acquisition and editing of Story Grid Publishing’s fiction and nonfiction titles. A member of the first class of Story Grid certified editors, Leslie is also a podcaster, instructor, mentor, and proud story nerd. She has written craft-focused books, including Point of View, Conventions and Obligatory Moments (with Kimberly Kessler), What’s the Big Idea? (with Shelley Sperry), and Story Grid masterwork analysis guides to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (with Shelley Sperry).
Leslie has been writing and editing for as long as she can remember—from her sixth-grade magazine about cats to drafting opinions for an appellate court judge. After a detour as a lawyer, she returned to her true calling as an author and editor. She believes in sharing specific, supportive guidance with writers to help them become better storytellers. Leslie lives on the coast of Maine with her husband and two children.
JOIN THE GUILD FOR WRITERS:
Writer Mentorship Program
1-ON-1 WRITER MENTORSHIP
One of the best ways to speed up any learning practice is to shorten the feedback loop of your practice.
The time between doing the practice and getting specific, expert feedback on your practice should be as short as possible.
This is what you get when you join the 1-on-1 Writer Mentorship inside of the Guild.
Each week, your Editor Mentor gives you feedback on the week’s assignment along with follow-up, custom assignments to go deeper on your skills.
Along with this, you will have 1-on-1 coaching calls along with weekly group coaching calls and a personalized writing plan.
Here's what our 1-on-1 Writer Mentorship students
have to say about their experience...
Do you think a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing is the best way to develop your line-by-line writing?
The average cost of an MFA program is $13,800 a year at public universities and $36,300 at private universities.
Additionally, it won’t provide anywhere near the rigor and level of useful writing training found in the Story Grid Guild's Masterclass in Scene Writing.
Watch the videos below to hear from Guild students who also have their MFA in Creative Writing.
Apply Now
A New Cohort Begins January 7, 2024
6 Months of 1-on-1 Writer Mentorship
- Weekly Instruction
Every Sunday you will receive access to new writing instruction covering the week’s topic. This will include examples, how-tos, and next steps for your personal writing practice. - Weekly Worksheet
Every Sunday with the release of the instruction, you will get access to the week's writing worksheet. This will take less than an hour a week, but will include highly potent and practical exercises to help you level up your writing. - Personalized Writing Plan
Your Editor Mentor will interview you about your goals with writing and lay out a personalized plan for your writing over the next year. - Weekly Assignment Review
Every week, your Editor Mentor will review your writing assignment and give direct, actionable feedback. - Customized Assignments
During the assignment review, your Editor Mentor will provide custom follow-up assignments to help you take your writing further. - 1-on-1 Coaching Calls
Every two weeks, you will meet with your Editor Mentor 1-on-1 to discuss your progress, ask questions, and receive feedback. - Weekly Live Group Coaching
Every week, join your fellow Writer Mentorship writers in a group coaching with Chief Academic Officer Danielle Kiowski and Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts.
$4960
or $940/month
FAQs
Do I get 1-on-1 feedback on all of the assignments?
✅ YES! Your Editor Mentor will review and provide feedback on every writing assignment, so you will know what you did right, what you did wrong, and what you need to work on next in order to improve. This feedback is provided in video and writing so you can come back and refer to it as many times as necessary.
Will my Editor Mentor be assigned to me?
✅ YES! We will pick the right Editor Mentor based on your application and place in the program.
If at any time you have questions or need to give feedback on your Editor Mentor, you can reach out to us directly.
Will I actually improve as a writer?
✅ YES! First of all, we have been running this program for over two years, and every single student that has gone through the Writer Mentorship program has shown huge progress in their writing.
Also, you will quickly be able to see the improvement in your writing as you progress through the training.
Will I be able to collaborate with other students?
✅ YES! You will have access to a Slack channel where you can meet and interact with the other Writer Mentorship students in your cohort so you can improve together.
What happens if I miss the live sessions? Can I still access them?
✅ YES! All calls will be recorded and posted to the training dashboard. They'll be available for the duration of your membership so you can listen to them at your convenience. You'll also have an opportunity to send questions in advance so you won't be left out of the Q&As if you can't make it live.
I write nonfiction. Is this still a good fit for me?
✅ YES! The Writer Mentorship program is focused on leveling up your line-by-line writing as well as your overall understanding of narrative theory. This will improve your skills across all writing whether it's fiction, nonfiction, marketing or even your daily emails.
The methodology in the training has been applied across all genres and, even though we use a scene from a masterwork of fiction as the study tool for the semester, you will be surprised how much it applies across everything you write.
I still have more questions. Can I get them answered?
✅ YES! Simply email us at [email protected] and our CEO will respond ASAP.
Join Now
We have two options to join the Masterwork Scene Writing Class
A New Cohort Begins January 7, 2024
6 Months of 1-on-1 Writer Mentorship
- Weekly Instruction
Every Sunday you will receive access to new writing instruction covering the week’s topic. This will include examples, how-tos, and next steps for your personal writing practice. - Weekly Worksheet
Every Sunday with the release of the instruction, you will get access to the week's writing worksheet. This will take less than an hour a week, but will include highly potent and practical exercises to help you level up your writing. - Personalized Writing Plan
Your Editor Mentor will interview you about your goals with writing and lay out a personalized plan for your writing over the next year. - Weekly Assignment Review
Every week, your Editor Mentor will review your writing assignment and give direct, actionable feedback. - Customized Assignments
During the assignment review, your Editor Mentor will provide custom follow-up assignments to help you take your writing further. - 1-on-1 Coaching Calls
Every two weeks, you will meet with your Editor Mentor 1-on-1 to discuss your progress, ask questions, and receive feedback. - Weekly Live Group Coaching
Every week, join your fellow Writer Mentorship writers in a group coaching with Chief Academic Officer Danielle Kiowski and Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts.