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A review by rosinawrites7
The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne
Did not finish book. Stopped at 66%.
I did find this book helpful in understanding genre, but my God, the man’s tone is so sexist and condescending at times. He frequently refers to hypothetical authors, characters, writers etc. as ‘he’ (occasionally uses ‘she’ and ‘he or she’). I struggle to believe that someone who has worked in publishing for 20 to 30 years does not know that the personal pronoun “they” exists.
I would also argue he could have shortened the sections I read a great deal to get to the point. (In fairness, I find this is often the case with books on writing - too many analogies explaining the method when maximum 2 would do and not enough examples of the method being put to use).
Ultimately, I found this process over complicated plotting for me and actually made it feel even harder and demotivated me from writing. I fully appreciate this method does wonders for other people, just not for me. Now reading ‘Save The Cat’ and I find that a more reasonable level of complexity for plotting - just enough to guide and not overwhelm.
I would also argue he could have shortened the sections I read a great deal to get to the point. (In fairness, I find this is often the case with books on writing - too many analogies explaining the method when maximum 2 would do and not enough examples of the method being put to use).
Ultimately, I found this process over complicated plotting for me and actually made it feel even harder and demotivated me from writing. I fully appreciate this method does wonders for other people, just not for me. Now reading ‘Save The Cat’ and I find that a more reasonable level of complexity for plotting - just enough to guide and not overwhelm.