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The Story Grid 101: The Five First Principles of the Story Grid Methodology
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 Questions
The Spreadsheet
The Infographic
The Four Core Framework
Story's Boundaries
Story Grid 101 is for anyone new to Story Grid who needs a primer on how we approach our craft.
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 Questions
The Spreadsheet
The Infographic
The Four Core Framework
Story's Boundaries
Story Grid 101 is for anyone new to Story Grid who needs a primer on how we approach our craft.
68 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 9, 2020
22 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 1, 2021
Good overview of the storygrid method and basics of storytelling. Worth a read but you'll need to read more if you want to employ this method in your story writing.
February 1, 2022
Get all the Story Grid Beats. Read all the Story Grid Beats.
If you want to level up your craft as a writer, this is the way to go.
Also, these then become a great source of reference when you are stuck with your writing (or doing your weekly Story Grid Guild worksheet).
I'd recommend bookmarking the pages that have concepts, or tools that you'd likely revisit to make it easier to consult these books.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5
Some of My Highlights:
"Story Grid is inspired by classical approaches to philosophy, science, and art, including Aristotle's concept of archai, or 'first principles.' First principles are where knowledge starts."
"A beat is defined by an identifiable change in behavior."
"The next unit of story is the scene. This micro unit is the key to every story that works."
"Sequences are about critical moments that we sum up in phrases such as 'catching the killer,' 'practicing for the big performance,' or 'courting the princess.'"
"We need to move back and forth so we can see our stories in all their complexity - and tackle the problems one at a time."
If you want to level up your craft as a writer, this is the way to go.
Also, these then become a great source of reference when you are stuck with your writing (or doing your weekly Story Grid Guild worksheet).
I'd recommend bookmarking the pages that have concepts, or tools that you'd likely revisit to make it easier to consult these books.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5
Some of My Highlights:
"Story Grid is inspired by classical approaches to philosophy, science, and art, including Aristotle's concept of archai, or 'first principles.' First principles are where knowledge starts."
"A beat is defined by an identifiable change in behavior."
"The next unit of story is the scene. This micro unit is the key to every story that works."
"Sequences are about critical moments that we sum up in phrases such as 'catching the killer,' 'practicing for the big performance,' or 'courting the princess.'"
"We need to move back and forth so we can see our stories in all their complexity - and tackle the problems one at a time."
Read
July 21, 2024In principle, this one sounded like exactly the sort of thing that would be right up my alley. I like structure. I like analysis. I like things that are repeatable. In fact, it was Becca Syme herself who told me about the Story Grid and suggested I might like it. And yet…
And yet. I feel like this one was too nitty-gritty and technical even for me. I found it took a lot of the soul out of writing. A lot of times, it felt like Coyne was needlessly complicating things that didn’t have to be complicated. And I simply couldn’t get past the massive wave of jargon for things that didn’t need to be jargon-ified. (“Character” is a perfectly good word! Why the heck would you use the word “avatar” when you mean “character”?! “Avatar” has its own meaning, damnit, and that meaning is not the same as “character”!)
I consumed mostly free information for this one – there’s a lot of information on the Story Grid on the website, and Story Grid 101 was a reader magnet – so I’m not out any money. Which is good, because I’d probably regret any money I spent on it.
And yet. I feel like this one was too nitty-gritty and technical even for me. I found it took a lot of the soul out of writing. A lot of times, it felt like Coyne was needlessly complicating things that didn’t have to be complicated. And I simply couldn’t get past the massive wave of jargon for things that didn’t need to be jargon-ified. (“Character” is a perfectly good word! Why the heck would you use the word “avatar” when you mean “character”?! “Avatar” has its own meaning, damnit, and that meaning is not the same as “character”!)
I consumed mostly free information for this one – there’s a lot of information on the Story Grid on the website, and Story Grid 101 was a reader magnet – so I’m not out any money. Which is good, because I’d probably regret any money I spent on it.
March 2, 2024
Who knew?
Who knew that there was this much information? But such great tools to help you write a story period
The story grid 101 defines and breaks down the events for a story. Seen by saying all the way from the beginning, the middle and the end period by applying this knowledge to your story, you will Have achieved a great story.
Who knew that there was this much information? But such great tools to help you write a story period
The story grid 101 defines and breaks down the events for a story. Seen by saying all the way from the beginning, the middle and the end period by applying this knowledge to your story, you will Have achieved a great story.
November 29, 2025
helpful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews