All Episodes

The Final Episode

Crazy Rich Asians: Part 4 - What Writers Can Learn

Crazy Rich Asians: Part 3 - Genre Conventions and Story Theme

Crazy Rich Asians: Part 2 - 5 Commandments of Storytelling

Crazy Rich Asians: Part 1 - Is this a RomCom?

John Wick Analysis: Part 4 - What Writers Can Learn and Obligatory Moments

John Wick Analysis: Part 3 - Genre Conventions and Five Commandments

John Wick Analysis: Part 2 - Acts and Structure

John Wick Analysis: Part 1 - Genre and Controlling Idea

Line Edits: Putting the Final Touches on Eye Witness

Final Edits of a Short Story: Beat Construction and 624 Analysis

Does Tim Actually Get It Right? How to Nail the Narrative Device

How to Connect with Characters: Finding the Motivation and Shadow in Yourself

Writing or Just Pretending? When there is Zero Flow and Everything is $h*t

Conflict and Emotional Connection: Every Beat, Trope, and Scene Must Have These

Who's the Most Guilty Person in Your Story? Hero, Victim, and Villain - Part 2

Hero, Victim and Perpetrator: The Must-Have Relationships in Your Story

The Impact of a Story Theme: An Interview with Scott Mann and Randle Surles about the book Operation Pineapple Express

Truth in Fiction: How to Write and Develop Believable Characters

Narrative Device: This Affects Every Single Word You Write

Telling the Truth About Writing: Is this Podcast Worth Doing?

Writing Emotional Pain: How to Care About Your Protagonist

Getting the Protagonist Right: When and How to Switch the Main Character

Two Factor Problems: The Must-Have for Writing Captivating Stories

624 Break Down: The Surprising Mistake in Tim's First Draft

First Draft Feedback: 3 Editors Give Honest Writing Analysis - Part 2

First Draft Feedback: 3 Editors Give Honest Writing Analysis - Part 1

How to Plan a Short Story Based on a Masterwork

Story Tropes: Building Blocks of Scenes

Beat Breakdown: Analyzing Writing Line-by-Line - Part 3

Beat Breakdown: Analyzing Writing Line-by-Line - Part 2

Beat Breakdown: Analyzing Writing Line-by-Line - Part 1

624 Review + Trope and Beat Introduction

Five Commandments of Storytelling - Part 3

Five Commandments of Storytelling - Part 2

Five Commandments of Storytelling - Part 1

What is happening in your story? (Part 2)

What is happening in your story? (Part 1)

Point of View: It's WAY more than 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

Narrative Device: 3 Questions to Nail the Point of View for Your Story

The "What If" for Your Story

The Genre Five Leaf Clover: The In-depth Process for Understanding Genre in Your Story

Two Sides to Every Story

The History of the Story Grid Universe

The Artist's Wants, Needs, and Desires

Backstory and an Avatar's Wants, Needs, and Desires

Crafting Story with Wants, Needs, and Desires

What are Objects of Desire?

How does a writer use Expository Beats to generate words?

How does a writer use Passive Beats to generate words?

How Does a Writer Use Active Beats to Generate Words?

What is an Editor Brain vs Writer Brain?

How does the Story Grid Trinity apply at the Macro vs Micro levels?

Does On-the-Surface mean External Genre?

What is happening with The Bell Jar?

How does the Story Grid Trinity apply to Global Internal Genres?

Can Story Grid improve on Masterworks?

What defines a Masterwork?

How to Write Dialogue (for Introverts)

Story Grid Trinity for Nonfiction

Quadrant 4 of the Heroic Journey 2.0

Story Grid Trinity - Beyond the Surface

Story Grid Trinity - Above the Surface

Story Grid Trinity - On the Surface

Story Grid Trinity

Quadrant 3 of the Hero's Journey 2.0

Worldbuilding in Hero's Journey 2.0

First Two Steps in the Hero's Journey 2.0

Introducing Heroic Journey 2.0

Finishing the First Draft

Interview with Author Michael McClellan - Part 3

Interview with Author Michael McClellan - Part 2

Interview with Author Michael McClellan - Part 1

Chapter 24 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 23 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 22 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 21 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 20 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 19 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 18 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 17 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 16 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 15 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 14 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 13 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 12 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 11 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 10 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 9 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 8 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 7 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 6 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 5 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 4 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 3 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 2 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Chapter 1 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Intro - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masterwork Analysis

Multiple Storylines in One Book

Scene 1, Book 2

Phere and COVID-19

Systems and Chaos in Your Novel

Planning Book 2 in a Trilogy

Which book should I write?

Planning the Hero, Victim, and Villain

Introducing: Story Grid Showrunners Podcast

How to Start a New Novel

How to Analyze a Scene

What is a Contender Guide?

Story Grid Guild

Story Grid Publishing

What is wrong with publishing?

Making Big Idea Nonfiction Work

The Must-Haves of Big Idea Nonfiction

Breaking Down the Big Idea

Mastering Nonfiction

Lifting Off For Planet Performance

Live in the Process, Not for the Result

Talent, Inspiration and Blue Collar Work

Anne's First Scenes

Completing the Micro Analysis

Editor View vs Writer View

Micro Beats and Hidden Story Meanings

Brokeback Mountain: Defining the Characters

Brokeback Mountain: The Foolscap

Launching the Masterwork Experiment

2nd Guessing Your Writing

How to Write a Great Scene

Why Can't I Finish My Book?

5 Commandments and Pheres

The Atomic Theory of Storytelling

The Math of Storytelling

What is a Phere?

The Editor's 6 Core Questions - Part 2

The Editor's 6 Core Questions - Part 1

How Important is Genre?

Creating a 2nd Edition

How to Refine a Manuscript

Hero Archetypes and Grounding Reality

Hero's Journey Archetypes - Part 2

Hero's Journey Archetypes - Part 1

Why Story Grid Is Different

A New Tool to Fight Resistance

Categorizing Scenes

How to Spreadsheet Your Novel

The Job of an Editor

Shawn's First Read of Tim's 2nd Draft

Why all the suffering?

World Building 101

Creating Believable Characters

Crafting a Great Ending

How to Finish Your Book

Is it time for Tim to quit?

How to Write a Great Villain

Shawn's Dark Night of the Soul

When is the book done?

Writing an Action Sequence

Game Theory in Story

Chaos vs Order

The Aftermath

Special Guest: Steven Pressfield

Running Down a Dream

Getting the Value Shifts Right

Fixing the Most Important Scene

Deep Dive Into Tim's 15 Scenes (Part 2)

Deep Dive Into Tim's 15 Scenes (Part 1)

Special Guest: Courtney Harrell

15 Most Important Scenes

Restarting an Old Project

What Does Shawn Think? - Part 2

What does Shawn think?

Book is Done! Now What?

Q&A: Miniplot, Editors, and Genre

Put the Darkness on Paper

Interview: Ryan Holiday

Tell Your Story

Truth vs truth

Finding My Why

The Middle of the Middle

Building Your Novel's World

Slogging the Middle Build

Die Hard and Tim's Middle Build

Editor Roundtable: Alien

Die Hard

The Story Grid Spreadsheet

Editor's 6 Core Questions - Part 2

Editor's 6 Core Questions - Part 1

The 5 Commandments of Storytelling (Revisited)

Myths of Publishing

I'm Freaking Out

Rework or Keep Writing?

What Shawn has learned

The 100th

NaNoWriMo and Story Grid

Go Back to the Genre

What Does the Villain Want?

Our Past, Present, and Future

Q&A - Part 3

Q&A - Part 2

Q&A - Part 1

Helping Others Become Better Writers

Specificity for Non-Fiction Storytelling

The Craft of Non-fiction

Non-fiction Conventions and Obligatory Scenes

Editing Non-Fiction

Planning the 2nd Draft

Creating a Story Grid - Part 2

Creating a Story Grid - Part 1

The Hero's Journey - Moments

The Hero's Journey - Archetypes

Part 2 - The Foolscap Story Grid

The Foolscap Story Grid

Micro to Macro: Editing Your First Draft

Spreadsheeting the First Draft

First Draft is Done. Now what?

The End?

Putting Off the Inevitable

The Race to the Finish

Just Skip to the End

Nailing the End of Your Book

Fear of Your Doing Your Best

Beginning the Ending Payoff

Finishing the Middle Build

Character Trumps Plotting

The Big Middle Build Moments

Correctly Progressively Complicating Your Scenes

How to finish your 1st draft

Dialing in the Sequence

Back to the 5 Commandments of Storytelling

Starting Your Middle Build

How Genre Affects Your Story

Scenes and Sequences for your Middle Build

How long will this take?

LIVE with Shawn and Tim

What is the Setting for your Novel?

World Building in Your Novel

Planning Your Middle Build

Finishing the Beginning Hook

Moving from Scenes to Sequences

How to Write a Great Love Story

The Most Important Genre

Getting the Rewrites Right

Listener Questions and More Rewrites

How to Rewrite Scenes

Still... Critiquing Tim's Beginning Hook

Critiquing Tim's Beginning Hook

Story Grid and Non-fiction

The Great Hedonometer

Turning Pro as a Writer

There are only 6 stories

What Good Editors Know

Calibrating Your Scenes

Villains and Inciting Incidents

Pub 101: How to Work With Your Publisher

Pub 101: Finding an Agent and Selling Your Book

Pub 101: Trade vs Indie Publishing and Backstory

Special Guest: Steven Pressfield - Part 2

Special Guest: Steven Pressfield - Part 1

Writing Your 2nd Draft

Getting Your Big Scenes Right

What do your characters want? (plus, Tim gets frustrated)

Finding a Marketable Genre

Getting Unstuck

The 2 big questions to ask your first draft

First draft is done. Now what?

Can you learn to write better (without trying)?

How to Write Faster

Do you have to be depressed to be a good writer?

When to get feedback from other writers

What if my writing sucks?

What is the Theme of your Story?

How to plot and outline your story

Creating great writing habits

How to Story Grid a Book

Can I just rip off Harry Potter?

Shawn rips apart Tim's scene (again)

Where do great story ideas come from?

Better Non-fiction with Story Grid

How to write a great beginning hook

Units of Story (beats, scenes, acts, etc)

The 5 Commandments of Storytelling

The Martian and A Christmas Carol

The 8 stages of grief/writing

Point of View and Narrative Device

The Mathematics of Storytelling

6 questions (good) editors ask

Shawn rips apart Tim's scene

How not to waste 100k words

How does Stephen King write?

Diving deep into genre

What is literary vs commercial fiction?

And that's what life is all about