Episode #254
Anchor your personal narrative to a single before-and-after moment to clarify meaning and direction.
A well-told story follows a clear structure—inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax, resolution—and the hero’s journey is about expanding worldview by confronting unexpected events and moral responsibility.
Prioritize process over outcomes; consistent, blue-collar discipline in storytelling builds wisdom, community, and self-understanding.
The first thing that I think you should do is to say to yourself, if I could find one moment in my life, and maybe this is a failure moment, it could be a success moment. It doesn't really matter. But the way you look at it is say, what's the before and what's the after? And that thing will become sort of the North Star of your story.
I think that stories are the technology that passes along wisdom.
What we say at StoryGrid, it's the process. It's always the process, not the results.
The value of your story.
Shawn Coyne is an editor, publisher, literary agent, and writer. He’s the co-founder of Black Irish Books, along with Steven Pressfield. He’s the author of “The Story Grid” which is a blueprint for how to write a compelling story. We talk about the value of telling your story, both for your own personal benefit and for the benefit of the world. He shares the powerful insights that you gain from the process of writing and other storytelling formats. Whether you’re looking to write a book or not, the insights gained here will help you communicate better with your audience- be it your children, your friend, your boss, or your community.
