Hello and welcome to the Story Grid podcast.

This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better writer.

My name is Tim Graal and I am the host of the show and I am a very struggling writer trying to figure out how to tell a story that works.

Joining me in a minute is Sean Coyne.

He is the creator of Story Grid, the author of the book story grid,

and an editor with 25 plus years experience helping authors write books that can sell and that work.

So last week, we went through the first draft of my book, and Sean pointed out to me many,

many things that were wrong and I basically spent

the last week being in a sort of depression trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do next.

So this week, we actually get to work on how to fix this first draft and turn it into a workable

second draft. So it's really a strong episode about how you can

take your first draft, the questions you should be asking, and how to find your theme and your

genre, and how this gets you to a point where you can actually work on your second draft.

So I feel a lot better going through

this episode and I think it's going to be really helpful for you as you finish up your first drafts

and knowing what you should do with this giant thing you just created. So let's jump in and get

started. So Sean, the last week has probably been the worst week of this entire process for me.

Like, I have been so just tied up through this entire week because I was like, well,

he didn't even tell me I'm allowed to write.

He just told me to go, like, read some stuff.

You know, so I went and...

So I've had several issues.

...