My name is Scott Mitchell. I practice law in Houston, Texas I have been taking Story Grid courses for several years, and they have revolutionized my approach to writing both fiction and nonfiction. Three particular aspects of the course material have proved to be especially helpful. First, the Story Grid methodology is not taught as a rule book or formula guide for writing stories. Instead, the courses go into great depth as to why certain writing strategies work. That gives you the freedom as a writer to use those strategies in your own applications. Second, a lot of the material is based on the founder’s deep research into the realms of psychology and cognition, and the philosophy of how we humans process story-telling. You will find these insights brought together this way nowhere else. Third, if you choose to take one of the workshop courses, the interaction with your colleagues brings fresh perspective to your writing, based on the same Story Grid principles, so the workshop group can use the same points of reference. The best thing about Story Grid is that you can apply these lessons to your own creative projects. I would describe Story Grid as a disciplined, analytical approach to understand how stories in general work. When you begin to grasp this material, you can use that analysis to make your own stories work.

I was introduced to Story Grid in 2019 at a writers conference. I read the Shawn's book which gave me great guidance on how to write precise, clear, poignant prose., scenes and better story structure. I have since written 3 screen plays, two NaNoWriMo novels, an anthology of short stories, and two, 8 episode TV series. I'm in a rewrite of the anthology and aime to publish by years end. You guys are great giving professionals . Robert Fraser Devin, Reno, NV

Cathryn

I’m working on my debut fantasy trilogy, and Story Grid has not only helped me, it’s revolutionised my writing! Every time I listen to one of Shawn’s talks I am blown away, and deciding to study the Masterwork Scene Analysis Course was the best decision I ever made. There are so many layers to stories, and Story Grid are the experts on every single one.

Tom Lewis

My name is Tom, writing under my given name (Thomas Harvard Lewis). I have a courtship love story trilogy and two stories in a detective mystery series (so far), nearly ready to publish. Story Grid helped me with structure, which I eventually realized is critically important. I could write good scenes, but I really had no understanding of how to stitch them together effectively. All I had were a stack of scenes. The concepts of story and scene elements, values at stake per genre, and conventions and obligatory moments are to me the most valuable concepts in Story Grid, but what was most relevant to me was Story Grid helped me learn how to structure what I had. I would recommend Story Grid highly to others, based on those terrific basic concepts alone. I also like the publishing ideas, and I hope you start taking submissions again, soon, Tim. I promise to not disappoint.

Miriam Verbeek

My name is Miriam and I write novels – contemporary fantasy, crime and literary (coming of age). Each week, I get together with a group of writers and we discuss each other's work by turn. Story Grid has helped us a lot in how we progress in these discussions because it's given us a framework and a language to interrogate the work, point out its goods and bads and ways to improve the story. For myself, Story Grid has been fantastic in explaining 'why' a story element works and 'where' the element works. Story Grid is complex to get your head around but invaluable once you push through the complexity of the terminology and concepts. It delves into the minutiae of a story and the overview.

My name is Fábio de Salles, I am physicist who ended up working with Business Intelligence. Right now I am writing content for two courses, one on Data Driven Culture and the other on a Data Warehouse project problem-solving. Story Grid has blown my mind away and it has literally changed my life - I was one before SG and other after. Story Grid has helped me understand why some stories worked and some not and that every text (and derivative works like classes, presentations and movies) can get better when SG is applied. That, in turn, helped me in writing my courses. Not only that but as it gives a structure it has taken me out of writer block and dead-ends several times. In fact, SG became so important to me I have distilled a SG adaptation to classes writing. Story Grid is the blueprint of a text, any text, as long as you want it to work as an story. Like, it is the graduation course on how to write, the most basic and essential thing to become a successful writer. You have to, no, you MUST learn it.

Paul Lundgren

After my immersion into the world of Story Grid, I found hope that I will soon call myself a writer. I have bookshelves full of advice on writing, and Story Grid is the first book I've read that explains the craft in a way I can understand. To complement the book the podcast drove it home for me. I am grateful I by chance stumbled upon the Story Grid Universe and sincerely look forward to further honing my craft using their services.

I'm a nonfiction author writing memoir and prescriptive books about mental health, movement, and meditation. You might not think of this as storytelling, but fiction techniques taught by Story Grid help me shape true stories into lessons people enjoy.