Mentoring Authors One Scene at a Time – Thriller/Military/Non-Fiction/SF/Fantasy
These are the 5 Commandments of Storytelling as outlined by Shawn Coyne in his book The Story Grid: What good Editors Know. These commandments can be found in all stories that really work.
There is a conversation about gay men that were hanged a few weeks ago and how many people know about Lister and Walker’s relationship.
Walker confides with Lister that Mr. Ainsworth forced himself on her when he was still married to his wife and is pressuring her to marry him
Does Walker accept proposal or not
Walker decides to tell Lister and not marry Mr. Ainsworth
Lister promises to take care of the situation
A note on Value shifts. Scenes need to turn in order for a story to work, if it doesn’t turn in value then nothing is really happening. See the following two articles on value shift in scenes and stories at www.storygrid.com:
++/+ love to doubt
Walker tells Lister that she is considering marrying Mr. Ainsworth, breaks Lister’s heart
++/+ more and more successful
The brothers are trying to wait out Lister and continue to steal her coal
Obligatory scenes and Conventions are expectations the reader or watcher have when they watch specific genres.
The lovers should reunite in the next couple episodes.
As we are halfway through the season, probably in episode 6-7 there should be a large proof of love from either Lister or Walker
The Core event of a status story is that the protagonist chooses to do what’s necessary to attain status or reject the world that they strived to join – this should also make itself known in chapters 6-7. Also, an All is Lost Moment for Lister should be upcoming and a Point of No Return/ Truth Will Come Out moment
There is another love story in the background between Lister’s maid and her worker that may or not follow some of the conventions of a love story, since it is a subplot. I will continue to track this and analyze the complete love story if it rises.
If you want to see more applications of the Story Grid methodology, below are links to my analysis of various novels and television shows in blog posts and podcasts:
Story Grid Showrunners Podcast – Parul, Melanie, and I analyze hit TV series using the Story Grid methodology.
My blog posts analyzing other Television series – my person take using the Story grid 5 Commandments to look at my favorite TV series – Jack Ryan, Batgirl, For All Mankind, Hanna, and more.
Novel analysis – I analyze some of my favorite books using the Story Grid 5 Commandments and 6 core questions – First Blood, Old Man’s War, Waylander, and more to come!