Leslie Watts – författare

What''s at the core of every great story that leads readers to rush breathlessly to the end and then share it with all their friends? 

At Story Grid, we believe great stories are built of four essential elements: Core Needs, Core Life Values, Core Emotions, and Core Events. Whether you''re writing an action adventure, a mystery, or a love story, these are the elements that spark the emotional connection and catharsis readers are looking for. 

Assembled into a Four Core Framework, the right need, life value, emotion, and event become the blueprint for a story that will satisfy readers and bring them back for more. 

In The Four Core Framework, Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience in publishing into a compact guide for writers who want their novels, screenplays, and nonfiction to resonate and captivate. He dissects twelve kinds of stories and explains how to create the the ideal framework for each, including: 

In The Four Core Framework, you''ll learn to keep readers turning the pages and rushing to recommend your stories. Join Shawn to get down to the core of it all.

What are the first principles in writing a story that works?

At Story Grid, it''s easy to get distracted by the tools, spreadsheets, commandments, macro lense, micro lense, and on and on. However, all of this eventually comes back to five first principles.

In Story Grid 101, Story Grid founder Shawn Coyne distills 30 years of experience working with writers to build their stories into five principles:

Also inside of Story Grid 101, Shawn also introduces you to the fundamental tools:

Story Grid 101 is for anyone new to Story Grid who needs a primer on how we approach our craft.

As writers, we all struggle to transform the messy raw materials in our minds into stories that will reach readers'' hearts. When it works, it feels like magic.

But what really makes that magic happen?

A few essential components, which Story Grid calls conventions and obligatory moments, can span the distance between writers and readers. It''s those conventions and moments that fulfill readers'' expectations in every story-from gripping action tales to tender romances.

In Conventions and Obligatory Moments, veteran Story Grid editors Kimberly Kessler and Leslie Watts provide the first comprehensive Story Grid guide to these essential elements of the writer''s craft. Kessler and Watts illustrate each concept with examples from classic masterworks, including Treasure Island, Murder on the Orient Express, and Pride and Prejudice. And they situate conventions and obligatory moments within the larger world of the Story Grid methodology, including the Four Core Framework and the Five Commandments of Storytelling. They teach writers precisely how each genre''s conventions set up critical changes, and how obligatory moments pay off those changes to meet readers'' expectations.

Ready to make your own magic?

"If I could give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, it would be to read this book." - Hugh Howey, New York Times best selling author of Wool

Imagine if you had a direct connection with thousands of readers who loved reading your books. And imagine if those readers eagerly awaited the launch of your next book. How would that direct relationship with your readers change your writing career?

How would you feel knowing that every time you started a new book project, you already had people excited to buy it and ready to recommend it to others?

In Your First 1000 Copies, seasoned book marketing expert Tim Grahl walks you through how successful authors are using the online marketing tools to build their platform, connect with readers and sell more books.

Tim has worked with over 100 different authors from top best sellers such as Hugh Howey, Daniel Pink, Barbara Corcoran Charles Duhigg, Chip and Dan Heath, Ramit Sethi and Pamela Slim to authors just get started on their first writing project. He has worked with authors across all fiction and non-fiction genres. Along with his client work, he has studied many other successful authors to learn what works and what doesn''t.

The result is Your First 1000 Copies where he walks you through the Connection System, a plan that every author can immediately start using. The plan looks like this:

This is a system that any author can immediately put in place to start building their platform. Whether you''re a seasoned author looking to step into the new publishing landscape, or you''re a brand new author, Your First 1000 Copies will give you the tools to connect with readers and sell more books.

How does a book written in 1818 by a teenage author remain a classic and a bestseller, still permeating our culture and haunting readers 200 years later? 

In this Masterwork Guide to Mary Shelley''s Frankenstein, Story Grid editor and novelist Maya Rushing Walker leads us deep into the heart of the story, demonstrating how Shelley blends essential elements of the horror and morality genres to spectacular and chilling effect.

The Guide opens with an analysis of the context in which Mary Shelley wrote and explores themes of loneliness and fear in her work. Walker then dives into a scene-by-scene analysis, drawing lessons from the way Shelley crafts each turning point, crisis, and resolution.

This is a Guide by a writer for writers. Walker takes care to highlight passages that evoke emotion and build character as well as those that propel the horror plot forward. As she explains: "Mary Shelley will teach you a lot about what it means to play with fire . . . which is a good thing for anyone who wants to write stories that have the enduring impact of Frankenstein."

Finding the right point of view is one of the most important-and least understood-challenges writers face.

Point of view extends far beyond the choice of first, second, or third person. POV determines all that a reader knows about the world inside a story. Is the murder told from the criminal''s, the detective''s, or the victim''s vantage point? An awful lot rides on that decision.

In short, a story''s point of view guides the characters, message, and events that matter.

In Point of View: Why Narrative Perspective Can Make or Break Your Story, Story Grid Publishing Editor-in-Chief Leslie Watts provides examples from dozens of masterworks to help writers understand telling and showing points of view and narrative devices. Does a telling narrator live inside or outside the story? Is the focus of a showing POV external or internal? Every choice has an impact.

Watts offers a revolutionary approach to point of view, demonstrating how deep study of narrative perspective can empower and uplift storytellers themselves. When writers truly master point of view they can share the messages they want to share and bring their stories to life. 

Dorothy Gale''s trip from Kansas to the Emerald City-in print, on screen, and on stage-has enchanted audiences around the world for more than a century. But what is her magical adventure really about? And can studying such classic tales help today''s writers improve their craft?

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: A Story Grid Masterworks Analysis Guide, Shawn Coyne answers these questions and more. In Oz, Coyne finds a pitch-perfect illustration of the Heroic Journey 2.0, his revolutionary take on Joseph Campbell''s monomyth. Coyne exposes the essential ingredients that define the book''s life-or-death Action Story, coming-of-age Worldview Story, and transcendent Heroic Journey.

Writers who take up the challenge and put the Heroic Journey 2.0 to work will craft stories that resonate across time and cultures and provide the emotional catharsis their readers crave.

By the end of Baum''s book, Dorothy has survived a worldview-shattering moment and committed to go on, creating new meaning in her life. Your journey as a storyteller begins with the same commitment to make meaning in the world, and this Guide will set you on the right path.

Undertaking any big project, but especially a book is a daunting proposition. The way to make it less scary is to have a map for the journey, and ideally, some experienced fellow travelers to ride shotgun—friends who know the road well and can help you make it to your destination. That’s what we are aiming to provide.

We’re two editors with over twenty years of experience between us, writing and editing many types of nonfiction. In the pages that follow, we distill some of the lessons we’ve learned in the trenches applying Shawn Coyne’s Story Grid methodology to the work of our clients, all of whom are leveling up their skills as nonfiction writers.

We’ve chosen to use several masterworks—with the most considerable emphasis on The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan—as the maps to guide us throughout What’s the Big Idea?

Although Baldwin and Pollan write on different topics and in different styles over half a century apart, both men had an enormous cultural impact. They extended that influence to a broad popular audience with these works. We could have chosen many other titles, and we’ll include examples from some others where it’s helpful.

After reading this short, macro-principles primer, you may want to take a microscopic dive into Big Idea nonfiction by looking at The Story Grid Masterwork Guide to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, which provides a scene-by-scene analysis of another exemplary title. We hope you’ll be inspired to find your own favorite masterworks to learn from and apply Story Grid Methodology yourself. We’ll provide some tips on how to do that too.

With Baldwin and Pollan as our touchstones, we’ve organized this book around a series of questions and answers that will explain how and why Big Idea books work.

Is it possible to write a nonfiction book that changes minds or even changes the world?

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell sold 1.7 million copies in its first year of release, and today remains a perennial bestseller.

What made it go viral? 

What made it stick? 

On the 20th anniversary of The Tipping Point’s publication, two Story Grid editors decided to dissect Gladwell’s masterwork to find out what made it a cultural touchstone.

Leslie Watts and Shelley Sperry analyze the macro structure of the book and each individual scene to understand how Gladwell uses scientific evidence, charming anecdotes, and compelling characters to bring complex ideas to life. The breakdown of each scene reveals the essential questions Gladwell asks and answers and . . . . 

This Story Grid Masterwork Guide is a unique tool—a deep dive into the mind of a master storyteller designed to give you the tools and confidence to set off on an intellectual adventure and write a book that will transform your readers and stay on bookstore shelves for years to come.  

Bilbo Baggins, an altogether respectable hobbit, had never done anything unexpected-to say nothing of heroic-until he met a wizard in a blue pointed hat. After that meeting, Bilbo embarked upon an adventure, recorded in the pages of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, that captured the imagination of readers around the world.

With unparalleled skill, Tolkien forged scenes of physical courage, revelatory self-transformation, and spiritual transcendence that do more than entertain-they help us make sense of the world.

In this Story Grid Masterworks Analysis Guide, Shawn Coyne examines Bilbo''s transformation and Tolkien''s craft through a powerful new lens, the Heroic Journey 2.0, revealing how stories help us survive, thrive, and find meaning individually and as a species. Using this lens, writers will learn to create the emotional catharsis readers crave and tell stories that cross barriers of time and culture.

Bilbo''s unexpected journey beautifully illustrates the human imperative to keep going, to break and remake our worldviews in a search for truth. But in the end, readers and writers may agree with Coyne that, "There is no final truth, only the creative act of meaning-making in the here and now."

To write a story that captivates readers and stands the test of time, you need a daily practice and professional tools. In this guide, fantasy author and editor Danielle Kiowski rolls out an elegant blueprint for building your practice using Story Grid tools.

Like all writers, you struggle to defeat Resistance and devote proper time and attention to craft. You want to get words on the page, and above all, you want your stories to work. Kiowski demonstrates how the Story Grid Rule of 530 can help you establish simple, transformative habits to reach those goals.

What''s the Rule of 530? Write 500 words a day and study masterworks of story craft for 30 minutes per day. 

A daily writing and story analysis practice will level up your skills by blending four types of knowledge to help you understand what makes a story great and how to infuse that knowledge into your own stories. You''ll learn concepts based on Story Grid''s methodology, put those concepts into practice, test your understanding, and finally-through group study-you''ll develop new, shared insights.

Beautiful stories don''t happen overnight. 

Focus on the process. Use the Rule of 530. And find joy in becoming a lifelong storyteller.

Like many beginning writers, Tim Grahl struggled to learn his craft-and even to find the right words to describe his questions and challenges. After reading a library of how-to books, Tim found what he needed in the unique Story Grid approach.

With the help of editor, friend, and Story Grid creator Shawn Coyne, Tim discovered a new vocabulary-what he now calls The Writers'' Common Language. Learning this language can help us all think and talk about our stories with more clarity and specificity.

In this book, Tim shares moments from his own journey as a storyteller and how the strategies and tools of Story Grid transformed the way he reads, writes, and edits his own work. "Once you can apply these tools to your own story," he says, "you will be amazed at the progress you can make."

With a shared understanding of terms such as "genre," "point of view," "value shift," and "theme," writers and editors can talk more productively and meaningfully to level up every project.

When we speak in this writers'' common language, we can create community, learn from each other, and-most important-bring more great stories into the world.

Open Treasure Island, and you expect to find a thrilling adventure tale of pirates, shipwrecks, and lost booty. But if you join Story Grid writer and editor Leslie Watts in analyzing Robert Louis Stevenson''s classic novel, you''ll also discover timeless lessons about the craft of storytelling.

First published in 1883, Treasure Island offers readers irresistible life-or-death stakes and a compelling coming-of-age arc for young hero Jim Hawkins. And, of course, Stevenson introduces the cunning Long John Silver, one of literature''s most unforgettable shapeshifting antagonists, complete with wooden leg and parrot.

Watts turns the novel itself into a treasure map, following "landmarks of change" to discover how the author fulfills readers'' expectations on multiple levels as the characters adapt to an imperfect, often terrifying world. "The way Jim outwits Silver and the other pirates is a useful lesson for life and writing," says Watts.

If you''re a writer who is serious about your craft, there''s no better way to learn to capture, entertain, and enlighten readers than by exploring a masterwork. In this Guide, Leslie Watts shares her map, so climb aboard and let''s set sail.

Your story is important. It''s your opportunity to captivate readers and deliver a message that will change their lives forever. But somehow, it''s just not working. You''ve written multiple drafts and tried lots of "tips and tricks." But time and again, readers aren''t connecting with your characters and the ideas you want to share.

You want readers to care deeply about your story. You want to capture their hearts and change their minds.

Whether you''re writing a mystery, romance, epic fantasy, or coming-of-age memoir, Story Grid Certified Editor Danielle Kiowski has what you need: a proven approach to construct a story arc that connects readers with your characters to deliver the message at the heart of your story. This approach is called The Five Commandments of Storytelling. 

And just what are the Five Commandments? 

Each commandment works with the others to create an arc that reveals character and elicits empathy. Through that connection, readers will find themselves transformed by the power of your story long after they''ve turned the final page.

Kiowski doesn''t simply define the Five Commandments, she shows you precisely how they work in classic novels-including Pride and Prejudice, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Silence of the Lambs-and in the beloved film, It''s a Wonderful Life.

"To tell your story well, you need to know what makes a story work," says Kiowski. The Five Commandments of Storytelling is your guide to what makes a great story work.

Isn''t it time to take your story to the next level and change some lives?