Our Past, Present, and Future

Hello and welcome to the Story Grid podcast. This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better writer. I'm your host, Tim Grall, and I am a struggling writer trying to figure out how to tell a story that works. Now, normally, this is where I would tell you that Sean Coyne is going to join me shortly and that he is the creator of Storygrid and the author of the book Storygrid and an editor with over 25 years experience. But in this episode, I'm doing something a little bit different. So Sean and I were on a really big project this last week that I'll allude to here on this episode and we'll be telling you more in the future. So we didn't get to record an actual episode and I asked if I could just kind of take over this episode myself and talk a little bit about Story Grid, this podcast, how we got here, where we're at and where we're going.

This is episode 96. We are just three weeks out from the two year anniversary of our very first episode. And as I've been thinking back on this, I've had, I've talked to a lot of listeners recently about how the podcast got started. People have asked me what it's meant to me, and so I thought I would just do an episode where I talk through some of this. So this episode won't be as long as normal and you're just going to hear from me and you're not going to learn a lot about stories. So if that bores you, now's the time to skip over to a different podcast. But I just want to start at the beginning, when this thing actually got started. So I've talked about it a little bit on different episodes, but if you haven't listened to all 95 previous episodes, you may have missed it. But so I do book marketing for a living. I did it as a consultant for a long time, still do it a little bit as a consultant. And then I also teach online how authors can put their books out into the world, find their audience and sell books. And about, I don't know, nine months. A year before I first talked to Sean, he actually purchased one of my online courses so that he could learn how to put up the website and do the initial marketing for the book Storygrid. Along the way he had a question and so he emailed me the question. And it was pretty cool because I got to realize who he was and that he worked with Black Irish Publishing. And I just, just kind of, you know, put a little Note in the back of my mind that I knew this guy, Sean Coyne, that was a successful editor, worked with Steve Pressfield, that kind of stuff. And then I bought a copy of his book when it came out and just, you know, set it up on the shelf and didn't actually read it until, you know, nine months later or so. I can't remember the exact timing. I decided I was really going to do this fiction writing thing. I, you know, written a little bit, but it was. I knew it was all bad. I'd won NaNoWriMo one year, so I'd written a 50,000 word manuscript in a single month. But I really wanted to go. After learning to write fiction and how I do things is I. Before I really jump into something, I try to learn as much as I possibly can about the process, try to see if I can overcome normal early mistakes and move a little quicker. So I started reading through story by Robert McKee and Save the Cat and a couple other books, and I pulled out Story Grid and the copy I'd purchased and started reading it and realized like, oh, this is it. This is what I've been looking for. This book's amazing. I filled mine up with notes and read it cover to cover and was studying it and decided, I'm going to reach out to Sean and just get some advice from him on what I should do next. And so I actually.

Wrote out, I think it was like four questions because whenever I reach out to somebody of note, I try to take as little of their time as possible. And so I thought, okay, I'm going to email him if he agrees to get on the phone, I'm going to take 20 minutes of his time at most and then just let him go. So I wrote down four questions that I thought we could get through in 20 minutes. He agreed to jump on the phone with me. So we got on the phone, I asked him my first question and he never actually answered it. He just kind of started going down this path about story theory and how to tell a good story and the five Commandments and, you know, genre and all this kind of stuff. As I'm sure if you've been listening to the podcast, it's a complete surprise that he would go off on a tangent on those things. But so we talked. Had been talking for like 45, 50 minutes, and I kind of felt bad. I'm like, man, you know, I got this guy on the phone and I need to do what I can to help him. And what I do is help authors, you know, with their Platform and marketing. So I just asked him, I said, well, what are you doing with storygrid.com and what are you doing to promote the book? Is there any way I can help there? So he started telling me about it and how he's writing these articles, but he was kind of getting tired of writing so many of these long form articles for his website and he was trying to think about what he wanted to do next. And so I just pitched him on this idea of like, what if we did this podcast where I ask you all my idiot beginner questions and you just answer my questions and I'll do everything. I'll, I'll take care of the recording, I'll take care of the editing, I'll take care of the hosting. Like, literally all you're going to have to do is show up and answer my questions for an hour on Skype. So we decided to record 10 episodes, commit to 10 episodes. And if it, you know, if we got to episode eight or nine and it wasn't very fun, or we didn't feel like working, it was working, or, you know, like he hated me, we would just call it and 10 episodes and that would be it. And so we recorded a bunch of, I think five or six episodes before we launched the first one on October 14, 2018, 2015.

And we hit 10 episodes and decided to just keep going. And so we just kept recording and kept, you know, meeting every week to talk about story. That's when I started submitting scenes to him. My awful, awful scenes. I was just talking to somebody about the very first scene I sent him, which is in the archives. You can go and still download it.

Where I like tried to write this scene with all these people on a boat and it was just a disaster. In fact, his notes to me on the scene were longer, way more words than my actual scene.

And so at first it was just this kind of exciting, overwhelming thing to try to step into story. Because, you know, I realize now if I, for any big project that I take on, if I ever actually knew how long it would take, I would never start it. I thought we would do this for a few months, I'd get it and I would just be rolling. And here we are two years later, and I'm on the second draft of the first novel, which I know is not abnormal, but I always think I can do it faster. So at first it was just trying to understand, you know, genre and trying to understand obligatory scenes and trying to understand the rise and falls of scenes and value shifts and all this Crazy stuff. It was just really overwhelming. And it was this constant, like, I would learn it and think that I had it, and then I would go and try to do it and I wouldn't actually have it. And so it just round and round we went for two years now. And so it grew into, you know, our listenership grew really fast. More and more of you came in and kept, you know, subscribed and kept listening, kept listening, kept listening. And our email list, the StoryGrid email list kept growing and growing and growing. And about a year ago we were like, okay, what, what are we going to do next? We keep, you know, getting people that are emailing us that are wanting us to do more. I mean, he started this so that he could just keep putting content out, and I started it to learn fiction. Neither of us really had aspirations beyond that. And so we're like, well, you know, if people want more, like, what should we do? Like, how would we do it? And, you know, what does Sean want out of this and what do I want out of this? And so that's when last year we announced that we were going to do the very first Story Grid seminar where we were going to invite 35 people to New York City, do an in person seminar where he would teach kind of the basics of Story Grid along with the love story. And so we were really nervous. We didn't know. We kept thinking, like, is anybody actually going to want to pay for this and travel all the way to New York City just to hear Sean talk for a couple days? And so we put out this application and just put it at the end of two episodes. So at the end of two episodes, two different episodes, I said, you know, we're doing this thing in February. If you, if you're interested, go to this website. And we had so many applications, we could have actually filled the seminar at least twice over, probably three times over, with the amount of applications we got without really even promoting it. So we filled up the seminar. Then come February, I get to New York a couple days before the event and there's this huge snowstorm which like shuts down the airports and people are having trouble getting in. You know, one couple people didn't even make it in until we had started the first night of the event. But everybody made it in. And we just spent these two amazing days learning together and talking about storygrid. And for me, it was really neat to just see everybody in one place that all cared about this same thing. You know, each week we do these recordings and we put them out, and we can see the numbers, like, how many people are downloading and listening and commenting and all that kind of stuff. But to actually be in a room with those people was just totally different. And so it was just this surprise to us that anyone really cared about this. And so then we recorded that seminar, and we, you know, released it online so that, you know, people that. That wanted to take this further that couldn't come to the seminar, they could actually access that. And then that basically gets us here.

And I was talking with a guy last week, and he asked me how StoryGrid has changed my life. And it was funny because I had to pause and think about it, because in a way, I'm the same.

You know, I still have my work that I do still have, the business I run. All of that's the same. I spend my time a little bit different where, you know, once a week, I gotta have this call with Sean where we record it for the podcast. And of course, I'm writing in between, but, you know, my life looks pretty much the same, but yet it's completely changed and is different than it was before. Because one thing is that getting to be a part of a community of writers like this is just really, really neat. It feels overwhelming. So many of you are much better writers than I am or ever will be, and so getting to speak for you on a weekly basis is really meaningful.

It's also. It's also the most recognized thing I've ever done. So I was just recently at a Tribe conference, which is Jeff Goins conference, so it's for writers. And.

Like, so many people came up to talk to me about the StoryGrid podcast. Not the thing I actually do, which is, you know, book marketing and that kind of stuff, but this thing I do for fun called Storygrid. And people were just talking about how. How it's. How it's meaningful to them, how they've listened every episode and all that kind of stuff. And that's just really cool for me to have that kind of impact out into the world. And then for me personally, it's impacted, of course, my writing. I've become a much better writer. I feel like we're actually moving towards me being able to one day, hopefully, I don't know, finish a.

Put it out in the World.

But it's also impacted me personally. I feel like.

I see the world in terms of story now. And on a personal note, I feel like I trust my own story in a way that I've never trusted it before. And little things like, when I'm struggling.

I can trust that the mentor will show up when I need the mentor. And when bumps or tests come along the way, those are just progressive complications. And even when it gets really bad, I know I have to hit my own all is lost moment before anything can actually change. And, you know, these stories.

Stories are this kind of cyclical thing. I feel like we tell stories that tell the truth about our lives, we. Which then create more stories which tell the truth about our lives.

And so I've just learned, as I've learned story, I feel like I understand myself in a way that I never understood myself before.

So that has been an impact to me. And then the other thing is just getting to work with Sean.

You know, I'm 36. Most of the projects I've done, I've worked either alone or with other people about my age, with my experience level, which is basically not all that much. And so getting to work with Sean, who has been doing something, you know, he's been working in Publishing for 30 years, and.

That'S a lot of experience. And so the experience he brings to the table of storytelling and editing and publishing is just really cool. And getting to partner with him on this is just really meaningful to me. You know, it was funny. Again, we started out with just this podcast. This is all we agreed to do was, like, show up and talk once a week. And then as it started growing into other things, we're like. He's like, well, do you. You want to do this together? And I'm like, yeah, yeah. And then the next thing, well, you want to do this together? I'm like, yeah. And finally I was like, look, Sean.

Whatever you want me to be a part of, the answer is yes. Like, getting to work with you and the type of people that you get to work is just way beyond what I feel like I deserve or any of that stuff. So anything you invite me into is a yes, because I trust you and I trust your experience.

So that's been kind of the journey to get us here is just started as this kind of thing where Sean and I were going to record these 10 episodes and maybe be done. And it's. It's grown into almost 100 episodes. And then it was a live seminar and an online seminar and then some other projects behind the scenes. And so the question is, what's next for Story Grid? You know, it started as just this book that Sean felt like he needed to put out into the world. And both of us have just been surprised with the impact it's had on the world and the way people really, that you have supported it and been a part of it. And so what's happening in the future? If this has been the first two years, what did the next two years look like for Story Grid? So I'm going to tell you a little bit about the planning that we've been doing. Some really cool things that we're working on. Many of them are just in the beginning stages, and so don't hold us to anything I'm saying, because it may completely change. But this is kind of the vision we have. When we sat down and talked about this, we realized our ultimate goal is to help you become a better storyteller.

We want to continue to teach you story structure, story theory, everything around story, so that you can become a better storyteller. Because we feel like the more storytellers there are in the world, the better this world will be. And so everything that we're doing now, moving forward is linked to that. How do we help you become a better storyteller so that you can do what you want to do? Whether it's write fiction, write nonfiction, you know, whether you're writing screenplays, whether you're writing speeches, it doesn't matter if you're a better storyteller, it's going to help you. So the first thing that we've done is we have just finished the editor certification program, and we now have a handful of just talented, amazing, excited writers and editors that are now trained in how to do story grid editing. And so for a week, Sean just downloaded into them how he does editing, how he applies the storygrid principles. Because the number one request we get from people is, you know, Tim, that's really great that you get to ask Sean all of your questions and have him give you feedback on your scenes. But he's not available for me to hire. So how do I get that kind of help? And so that's what we want to provide is a group of editors that you can work with to help you on your manuscript and your stories and your short stories and help you become a better writer and apply storygrid to your own work. So that's the first thing we did, is we wanted to provide that ecosystem where you can get the help that you need on your stories in the story grid method. The other thing we're going to keep doing is more seminars. So we'll be announcing that in the next couple months. We'll be announcing both how you can interact with our editors and the next seminar in the next couple months. The other thing we're doing is creating a lot more resources. So right now we have the Story Grid book, we have a few free downloads@storygrid.com and we have the Story Grid edition of Pride and Prejudice. We haven't even talked about that much on the podcast, but it's a really. I'm going to stop and do a commercial for that because that's what I'm here for. So if you've ever. So every scene should, you know, have the five commandments of inciting, incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax and resolution. And what Sean did is he went through the entire book, Pride and Prejudice, and for each scene he outlined the why the scene works and how it hits those five commandments. And if you want to learn scene by scene, how to write an amazing book, this is a great resource. It's on Amazon.com, it's at BlackIrish Publishing, it's the just search Story Grid edition, Pride and Prejudice and it'll pop up. Well, we want to do more of these guides for different genres and different books. We're going to create more tools and resources for you and make those available. And then we have some really long term plans of what we're going to do with my book once it's done and what we're going to do with other books that really hit the Story Grid principles and that work according to Story Grid. And so we've got a lot of exciting things. We're going to keep doing the podcast. We have no plans to change this in any way other than to just keep going.

But we have big plans for how we're going to invite you to come in further with us and give you more and more tools and resources to help you become a better writer. Because of course, this isn't just about me becoming a better writer, it's about you becoming a better writer too. So that's coming in the next year. Some of it will be in the next couple months. Others will continue to roll out new stuff over the next couple years. Always, you know, I say this in every episode, but I want to remind you here that if you want to stay up to date and not miss anything, make sure you're on the email list that you go to storygrid.com sign up for the email list. That's where we're going to do most of our, you know, announcements of new things is through the email list. So this last thing I want to do before I end this kind of short episode is give you a chance to Tell us what Story Grid has meant to you.

Every time I talk to people that listen to the show, they just. They just talk about how their writing's gotten better, how they've been able to finish a manuscript for the first time, just how they've understood Story better. And so I want to hear from you, and I want to especially share these with Sean, because Sean's the same way where, you know, each week he just gets on Skype and has a call with me and then goes on with his life. And I don't think either of us really understand the impact that this show has had on you. So if you've ever wanted to thank Sean for doing the show and putting out all of this content.

Then now's the time. So go to storygrid.com tell t e l l so again, that's storygrid.com tell and upload an MP3 or MP4 of you telling us about what you love about StoryGrid. So here's how I would like you to do it. So tell us maybe one thing that you've learned that has totally changed your writing. Share one outcome for your writing. Maybe you got your first publishing contract, maybe you finished your first manuscript, maybe you won a writing contest, Whatever it is, what's one outcome of listening to the show for you? And then just tell us how and. Or tell us how StoryGrid has impacted you personally and what Sean's work has meant to you. Around StoryGrid, try to keep it short, like one to three minutes, because what I'm hoping is that we can put these together as its own episode. So that's why I want you to upload an MP3 or an MP4, an audio file, so I can actually use it for that.

So if you don't know how to do that, if you have QuickTime on your computer, you can use that or just Google, you know, how do I record my voice on my computer? I'm sure you can find something. And then once you have. Once you've recorded it and you have that MP3 or that MP4, whatever audio file, you can go to storygrid.com tel to upload and send that into us. So I can't wait to hear what you have to say. Of course, we probably won't use all of them, but we're going to listen to all of them and we'll pick a few and maybe string them together as an episode here in a couple weeks. So, anyway, don't know if this is a useful episode or not, but I figured, you know, Sean's out, so I can just take over the podcast this week.

And I hope that you're excited about the future of StoryGrid, and I hope that you hang on with us and continue to learn with us and walk with us as we continue to help you become a better storyteller. And so, as always, thank you for listening to this podcast. And if you want anything related to Story Grid, all of that is@storygrid.com I'm also going to stop here and say, you know, I say this every week at the end of the episode, but I'm sure you tend to kind of glaze over it. But the best way that you can help spread the word about the podcast is if you go into itunes, into Apple podcasts and leave a review and rating of the show. It's really useful. Again, we read them all. If you haven't done that yet, go ahead and do that for us. If you want to reach out to us, you can do that on Twitter torygrid. And then once again, if you want to share your audio story about what StoryGrid has meant to you, you can go to storygrid.com tel t e l L and that link will be in the show notes for this episode. So thanks for subscribing and being a part of our work here at StoryGrid, and we will see you next week.