Gentleman Jack Ep5

The 5 Commandments of Gentleman Jack: Episode 5

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.

Inciting Incident:

Mr. Ainsworth is coming to woo Walker, threatening the relationship between the women

Progressive Complications:

Walker has nightmares about Lister and hers relationship causing them harm by society

Crisis:

Does Walker continue her relationship with Lister or listen to the voices

Climax:

Walker decides to leave Lister because she is worried they will be killed

Resolution:

Lister is crushed and returns to her house and is beat by a man hired by the Rawson brothers

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:

• Getting the Value Shift Right by Tim Grahl
• Value Shift 101 by Valerie Francis

Love Story Value Shift:

-/– hopeful to hopeless

Lister is heartbroken after Walker breaks up with her

Society Value Shift:

+/- Secure to threatened

Lister is beaten and told to stay away from Walker, presumably because of her coal business

Obligatory scenes and Conventions are expectations the reader or watcher have when they watch specific genres.

Obligatory Scenes and Conventions for a Love Story

• Lovers Break Up

Obligatory Scenes and Conventions for a Status Story

• Protagonist’s initial strategy to outmaneuver Antagonist fails – Lister changes her negotiations with the coal brothers

More Story Analysis

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!