The Story Grid

We are vehemently faithful to our own view of the world, our Story. We want to know what new Story we’re stepping into before we exit the old one. We don’t want an exit if we don’t know exactly where it is going to take us, even – or perhaps especially – in an emergency. This is so, I hasten to add, whether we are patients or psychoanalysts.2

Turning points can either happen through action (a bomb blows up) or revelation. (“I’m you’re father, Luke.”)

Story Value:

What your characters say they are is not who they are… What they do is the key.

When you edit your work, put each of your scenes under a microscope and see where you’ve turned your scenes and by what method you’ve done so. If they turn on action, action, action, action and you infrequently use revelation, guess what? The reader/audience will get frustrated. Your book or screenplay will seem “overly plotted, making it hard to s

Every scene must turn a Story value or it is not a scene. It must start someplace (happy) and end somewhere else (sad) or there is no movement, no change and the Story stops dead in its tracks.

Polarity Shift:

What happens between the beginning and the end is a progressive escalation of crises and climaxes in Rick’s life that make him change his worldview. This is what’s known as the internal arc of the character and is determined by your choice of Internal Genre.

Sequence events can be summed up with phrases like “GETTING THE JOB” or “WINNING THE RACE” or “COURTING THE PRINCESS” or “FIRST KISS” or “BUYING THE HOUSE.”