The Story Grid Examined

The Silent Internet

Curious about The Story Grid developed by Shawn Coyne? I was a few years back when I discovered it. (For the record, I can't recall how or when I stumbled onto it.) I did what any savvy, red-blooded person would do: I googled it.

There were thousands of entries in the search results— about 98% of them "official" content from The Story Grid itself. That's right. There was very little "3rd party" content, a paucity of opinion, I-Tried-It-And-This-Is-What-Happened, Ten Things I Love About Story Grid, 42 Problems With The Story Grid— you know the type of stuff I'm talking about.

I was pretty surprised. This is the internet. You're telling me that it's undecided about a topic? That almost no one has a take, hot or even luke warm?

I thought that most unlikely.

I've come to believe my search experience more accurately reflects The Story Grid's own content swamping individual, unaffiliated content, either by happen stance or design. I also believe, for whatever reason, the value of The Story Grid posts isn't all that much. If the value was there (in terms of clicks, likes, followers, etc.), so too would be the content.

So why I am writing about The Story Grid?

Mainly because it's worth it. The fundamental concepts are interesting, well worth a writer's time to understand and evaluate (in line with classics like On Writing, Story, and many others).

They are also hard to discern these days, mostly because the people behind The Story Grid have gradually organized themselves into a training and education company. You shouldn't have to fend off a sales pitch just to learn something of a methodology.

What follows is a (very) short series of one man's unvarnished take on what The Story Grid is and what makes it tick.

In the spirit of full disclosure I'll say that I'm not affliated with The Story Grid or the company behind it in any way. I've spent nothing on my Story Grid journey beyond shelling out a few bucks for the book (which I picked up used). I've also invested many hours listening to the podcast.

I'll also gladly admit to being quite pro Story Grid. I admire Shawn Coyne and Tim Grahl (and others) for their efforts, and appreciate the extensive amount of content made available for free. I write more effectively for having studied the stuff. I've also worked with it enough to have opinions of my own about the concepts, how they are put forth, and adjacent topics.

So here goes.

The Series

The series begins with a brief recounting of how The Story Grid came to exist.

If you're still curious, welcome, you're in the right place.