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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
Amazing. This is a writing book you need to have on your shelves, right next to "On Writing". I've seen this book do the rounds of writer friends who have praised it and - arrogantly, naively - dismissed it for a while. But I'm incredibly glad I picked it up. Coyne breaks down fundamental concepts in easy to understand ways and builds them up using The Silence of the Lambs as an example work to show you how it all ties together. I haven't shown my kindle highlights on this one because I've basically highlighted the whole book. I'm going to get a paperback copy that I can dog-ear and put sticky tabs in. I want some of the posters in my writing space.
It's inspiring and great. I had a half-formed story lurking when I started reading it and I've started setting it out as a result of reading this book. I'm enthused about the concepts I've read about here.
It might not be the writing book for everyone, but it's a really great overview of the fundamentals and I found it incredibly valuable.
It's inspiring and great. I had a half-formed story lurking when I started reading it and I've started setting it out as a result of reading this book. I'm enthused about the concepts I've read about here.
It might not be the writing book for everyone, but it's a really great overview of the fundamentals and I found it incredibly valuable.
Craft book recommended to me by one of my writing group friends. Overall, I've gotten a lot of good advice from this book, especially when combined with resources on the website and the podcast. Coyne's advice is particularly useful for creating strong scenes and sequences that build effectively. I do wish this spent less time on the nitty gritty of one particular book (Silence of the Lambs) as well as more time outside the thriller genre. Still, I learned a lot and would recommend to aspiring authors who want to edit their own works with more structure/attention.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Story Grid is a writing craft book that outlines the author’s method for getting a book published. He talks about making your book “work” for readers, though he heavily focuses on making your book publishable. It also has a focus on outlining (he calls it a Foolscap, which is simply a one page outline broken up into three or four sections for the different acts). I love outlining, but I know not everyone does.
His method is to ask yourself 5 different questions:
What is your genre?
What key scenes does that genre need?
What is your POV?
What are the objects of desire?
What is the controlling idea/theme?
You format your book with these questions and then you use them in a detailed scene-by-scene chart as you edit your book.
The first half of his book then goes into depth on the questions. The second half of the book shows you how to chart the ideas he’s talked about through the book and gives an example (Silence of the Lambs) of how a book would look charted that way.
There was some good information in the book. Particularly his genre breakdown seems useful and fairly unique. When I say genre here, it’s because that’s the term he uses. While he talks about what traditional genres are known as (fantasy, thriller, etc.) he also puts other categorizations under the term. For example, he categorizes different themes your book could have and calls them genres as well.
I think his book would be useful to own a physical copy of as a reference simply for that.
I will say his book is simply a starting point, as he only breaks down a couple genres (such as action and thriller) in detail and the rest he either gives a cursory glance or completely ignores. As someone who isn’t going to write a thriller or action, this was less than helpful.
He was obviously most familiar with genres like thrillers and action books. The examples he used mostly came from them, using examples I’ve heard of but am not familiar with. He also used a lot of movie examples. One reason I love Save the Cat Writes a Novel is because she uses a wide range of examples from different genres and they are all examples from novels.
As a book to read, I found it hard to get through and understand and not as helpful as other craft books I’ve read.
His tone was a little pompous. It felt to me like he was saying if you don’t do it his way, you’re doing it wrong. I think it’s great when you believe in your writing process, but I also think it’s important to remember that everyone has a different process.
“If you’re a writer and you tell me you have no interest in bringing the audience to catharsis, you’re lying.” I think he’s probably right in most cases, but he can’t know that for sure and calling your reader a liar is probably not the best strategy.
“Whether you know it or not, your desire to write comes from the urge to not just be “creative,” it’s a need (one every human being on earth has) to help others.” I’m so glad he knows me better than I know myself. In my case, I actually agree with him. I personally want to write both to help people and to be creative. My issue comes with the way he says it and his attitude around it.
The other problem with this tone is that what he is recommending isn’t that unique. Everything he talks about in his book, I had already learned in other places and oten I liked the way it was explained more in other places (that doesn’t mean it was better there, but that it worked better for me personally).
He says disparaging things like, “This is probably the last thing they’ll tell you at the Iowa Writers Workshop, but it’s a reality worth considering.”
His focus on publishing made it feel more like a business book than a writing craft book at times. He even compares writing to Apple and Steve Jobs. If you are looking for how to make your book better as a creative endeavor, this isn’t the book for you. If you are frustrated that you aren’t getting published, you are his target audience.
I felt it was hard to follow or grasp the concept at times. This might be because I simply need to study it further. There were two things that I felt would have helped me.
First, I wish that he had provided more concrete examples at times. Sometimes he had plenty of examples, but other times, he was explaining a concept and I didn’t know what he meant in practical terms. Often, his most specific examples were with things commonly understood, like what an inciting incident is.
Second, I felt he over complicated things at times. There were even concepts that I understood before coming in, but the way he explained it wasn’t easy for me to follow. It could be learning style/preference. It could also be how wordy his book was. When explaining what a scene is (which I think pretty much all readers understand), he spent five pages on it. If he really wanted to include a definition, it could have been done in one paragraph. He also repeated himself often.
He does rehash a lot of well-known writing advice, but he does credit where he learned the information and presents it to make sure the reader understands the information in order to use his chart.
The chart itself, which he spends the end of the book explaining, wasn’t as useful to me. While I can see why it would be useful, I don’t think I personally will use it. I already have a system for editing that currently works for me (though I’ve never published a book, so maybe I’ll try it sometime).
Overall, I think the book has some good and useful ideas and I can see how his method could be useful to people. I only wish it had been edited more to make it concise and easier to understand. It will also be most useful to people who love the thriller/action genres.
Some ideas/quotes I found really helpful:
“Identifying the problems in a Story is almost as difficult as the writing of the Story itself (maybe even more difficult).”
“I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read where the scene just never shifts. They never turn. And when the scene doesn’t turn, it’s not a scene.”
“If you want to get stronger, you don’t think about the proper way to lift weights. You learn the proper way and then you actually lift weights.”
“Just because a book becomes a best seller doesn’t make it something to emulate.”
“In their desire to be unique and powerful, creative people become their own worst enemies.”
“At its most basic, a scene starts one place and ends another.”
“Change, no matter how small, requires loss. And the prospect of loss is far more powerful than potential gain.”
“A Genre is a label that tells the reader/audience what to expect. Genres simply manage audience expectations.”
“As every Story must progressively complicate, a crime Story needs to begin in one place, get more and more difficult to solve, and then end in a surprising but inevitable final solution or conundrum.”
His method is to ask yourself 5 different questions:
What is your genre?
What key scenes does that genre need?
What is your POV?
What are the objects of desire?
What is the controlling idea/theme?
You format your book with these questions and then you use them in a detailed scene-by-scene chart as you edit your book.
The first half of his book then goes into depth on the questions. The second half of the book shows you how to chart the ideas he’s talked about through the book and gives an example (Silence of the Lambs) of how a book would look charted that way.
There was some good information in the book. Particularly his genre breakdown seems useful and fairly unique. When I say genre here, it’s because that’s the term he uses. While he talks about what traditional genres are known as (fantasy, thriller, etc.) he also puts other categorizations under the term. For example, he categorizes different themes your book could have and calls them genres as well.
I think his book would be useful to own a physical copy of as a reference simply for that.
I will say his book is simply a starting point, as he only breaks down a couple genres (such as action and thriller) in detail and the rest he either gives a cursory glance or completely ignores. As someone who isn’t going to write a thriller or action, this was less than helpful.
He was obviously most familiar with genres like thrillers and action books. The examples he used mostly came from them, using examples I’ve heard of but am not familiar with. He also used a lot of movie examples. One reason I love Save the Cat Writes a Novel is because she uses a wide range of examples from different genres and they are all examples from novels.
As a book to read, I found it hard to get through and understand and not as helpful as other craft books I’ve read.
His tone was a little pompous. It felt to me like he was saying if you don’t do it his way, you’re doing it wrong. I think it’s great when you believe in your writing process, but I also think it’s important to remember that everyone has a different process.
“If you’re a writer and you tell me you have no interest in bringing the audience to catharsis, you’re lying.” I think he’s probably right in most cases, but he can’t know that for sure and calling your reader a liar is probably not the best strategy.
“Whether you know it or not, your desire to write comes from the urge to not just be “creative,” it’s a need (one every human being on earth has) to help others.” I’m so glad he knows me better than I know myself. In my case, I actually agree with him. I personally want to write both to help people and to be creative. My issue comes with the way he says it and his attitude around it.
The other problem with this tone is that what he is recommending isn’t that unique. Everything he talks about in his book, I had already learned in other places and oten I liked the way it was explained more in other places (that doesn’t mean it was better there, but that it worked better for me personally).
He says disparaging things like, “This is probably the last thing they’ll tell you at the Iowa Writers Workshop, but it’s a reality worth considering.”
His focus on publishing made it feel more like a business book than a writing craft book at times. He even compares writing to Apple and Steve Jobs. If you are looking for how to make your book better as a creative endeavor, this isn’t the book for you. If you are frustrated that you aren’t getting published, you are his target audience.
I felt it was hard to follow or grasp the concept at times. This might be because I simply need to study it further. There were two things that I felt would have helped me.
First, I wish that he had provided more concrete examples at times. Sometimes he had plenty of examples, but other times, he was explaining a concept and I didn’t know what he meant in practical terms. Often, his most specific examples were with things commonly understood, like what an inciting incident is.
Second, I felt he over complicated things at times. There were even concepts that I understood before coming in, but the way he explained it wasn’t easy for me to follow. It could be learning style/preference. It could also be how wordy his book was. When explaining what a scene is (which I think pretty much all readers understand), he spent five pages on it. If he really wanted to include a definition, it could have been done in one paragraph. He also repeated himself often.
He does rehash a lot of well-known writing advice, but he does credit where he learned the information and presents it to make sure the reader understands the information in order to use his chart.
The chart itself, which he spends the end of the book explaining, wasn’t as useful to me. While I can see why it would be useful, I don’t think I personally will use it. I already have a system for editing that currently works for me (though I’ve never published a book, so maybe I’ll try it sometime).
Overall, I think the book has some good and useful ideas and I can see how his method could be useful to people. I only wish it had been edited more to make it concise and easier to understand. It will also be most useful to people who love the thriller/action genres.
Some ideas/quotes I found really helpful:
“Identifying the problems in a Story is almost as difficult as the writing of the Story itself (maybe even more difficult).”
“I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read where the scene just never shifts. They never turn. And when the scene doesn’t turn, it’s not a scene.”
“If you want to get stronger, you don’t think about the proper way to lift weights. You learn the proper way and then you actually lift weights.”
“Just because a book becomes a best seller doesn’t make it something to emulate.”
“In their desire to be unique and powerful, creative people become their own worst enemies.”
“At its most basic, a scene starts one place and ends another.”
“Change, no matter how small, requires loss. And the prospect of loss is far more powerful than potential gain.”
“A Genre is a label that tells the reader/audience what to expect. Genres simply manage audience expectations.”
“As every Story must progressively complicate, a crime Story needs to begin in one place, get more and more difficult to solve, and then end in a surprising but inevitable final solution or conundrum.”
informative
slow-paced
So satisfying to finally finish this book after having to put it down for several months because of school. This book is a great story bible for anyone who wants to improve in their story structure understanding and skills. Some of the terminology might take a little time to get accustomed to, but it's very worth it for any story-writer imo.
It goes into the scale between literary, action, and anti-plot stories and helps me see a little better where my own stories stand on the scale. It explains the conventions and expectations/needs of different genres, and this helps one understand what scenes need to be in whatever story is being written.
I'll most likely be rereading this book when I'm ready to edit and rewrite my series.
It goes into the scale between literary, action, and anti-plot stories and helps me see a little better where my own stories stand on the scale. It explains the conventions and expectations/needs of different genres, and this helps one understand what scenes need to be in whatever story is being written.
I'll most likely be rereading this book when I'm ready to edit and rewrite my series.
Great writing help for plotters. Also some good stuff in there for Pantsers too.
I've read a bunch of these writing books now. I think they're useful to read while plotting a story because they give you ideas for expanding your plot. And this book was helpful in some ways. For instance, I found the emphasis on having a change in "value" at every level of a story (scene, sequence, act, subplot) useful. Also the alternation of "action" and "revelation" turning points for each scene was a good guideline.
I'm not sure that the whole "grid" thing was useful to me, however. It just seemed like overkill - you spend a lot of time plotting out this graph of the "value" at each scene of your external and internal genres...and for what? Coyne doesn't really talk about what the graph should look like apart from really broad points (like a thriller should have a fake ending) that should be visible without having to plot a graph, or how to fix it if it looks wrong. So I found less value in that.
I think I'll look a bit more at his website to see other story grids besides the one he has in the book for *Silence of the Lambs*, because maybe I'm missing something. But I think overall it was worthwhile for me to read this book, just for the ideas I got for my own story.
I'm not sure that the whole "grid" thing was useful to me, however. It just seemed like overkill - you spend a lot of time plotting out this graph of the "value" at each scene of your external and internal genres...and for what? Coyne doesn't really talk about what the graph should look like apart from really broad points (like a thriller should have a fake ending) that should be visible without having to plot a graph, or how to fix it if it looks wrong. So I found less value in that.
I think I'll look a bit more at his website to see other story grids besides the one he has in the book for *Silence of the Lambs*, because maybe I'm missing something. But I think overall it was worthwhile for me to read this book, just for the ideas I got for my own story.
Packed with information for both the writer and editor. He provides a helpful formula to see if the story works and gives ways to fix it when it doesn't. My biggest complaint is the lack of diverse genre specifics. He delves deeply into the thriller genre. This makes sense as he built his thesis on Silence of the Lambs, but it would have been beneficial to provide even a brief breakdown of a second, different genre. Still, very helpful for those looking to publish.
I started this book thinking it was about writing. It is, but it focuses on story structure, and it's even more of a revision and editing book than a writing book. Coyne's system is fairly complicated, which is going to be exactly what some people love to work with, and which will send other writers screaming and running for the door. He explains his system thoroughly, using The Silence of the Lambs to illustrate the process from start to finish. My main criticism of the book is that I would've liked it if it had been clearer what parts of this system will help you plan your novel out before you start writing vs. which parts you'd use when revising your first draft. Coyne went back and forth between these, which was a mite confusing (but nothing that quality time with a highlighter and some sticky notes can't fix!). And Coyne is a stickler for genre conventions: if you find the idea of writing in a genre is suffocating your creativity, you'll probably be arguing with him all the way through this book. If a well-structured system of organizing and editing your novel appeals to you, then you may love this book. But be warned that it's not a Writing 101 book, and if you want writing help beyond story structure, you'll need to look elsewhere.