Hello and welcome to the Story Grid podcast. This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better writer.

I'm your host Tim Graal and I am a struggling author trying to figure out how to tell a story that works.

Joining me soon as Sean Coyne, he's an editor with 25 plus years experience. He is the creator of Story Grid and the author of the book Story Grid,

and he is helping me get through all of the common hurdles and mistakes that new writers make.

In this episode, we talk about several different things, but we eventually get to a question that I feel is very important,

and the question is, do you have to be

depressed to be a good writer? This seems to be a pretty wide-ranging, deeply held belief among

writers and I think it's an important subject to discuss. So Sean and I talk about it and we don't

necessarily fall on the same side of the issue.

So I think it's an important discussion to start and I hope you enjoy it.

Before we jump in the show, I want to remind you that my friend Joe Bunting runs this great site called the Right Practice.

T-H-E-W-R-I-T-E-E-Practpractic practice.com if you want to become a better writer get some

writing props be a part of a community where everybody's working to become a better writer

this is the place for you so check out the right practice he's just a friend of the show and

I want to share it with you because I think it'll help you out. So thanks for listening.

We're going to jump in and get started. So, Sean, I got to say, and I'm sure our listeners,

they are listening to the Story Grid podcast. So there's only so much praise I can heap on

story grid without people rolling their eyes. But I will say... Oh, bring it on. Bring it on.

Okay.

Writing this book with all the work I did ahead of time has just become so much easier to sit down and write.

The other day, I made the decision of buying a puppy for my wife for her birthday.

But what that meant is I was caring for

...