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

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

that works. Joining me shortly as Sean Coyne. He is a creator of StoryGrid, the author of the

book Story Grid and an editor with over 25 years experience. This is the

146 episode of the podcast and I've been waiting approximately 146 episodes for Sean to say to me

what he said in this episode. I turned in the draft of the final 18,000 or so words of

the second draft and send it to him. And in this episode, he gives me his feedback. So I won't

say anything more. Let's just jump in and get started. So, Sean, last week, I promised to send you the finished second draft of the book.

You know, I don't know why. I feel like sometimes I see how painful I can make it on myself

because like last week my dad was in town. The kids were off school. I had to go speak at a conference.

And I also had to finish this book. So I promised to send it to you over the weekend. And I think I

sent it to you at like 9 p.m. on Sunday night. Yes. So I sent you. I finished it.

Since you was over 18,000 words.

You hadn't seen any of it because I decided just to finish it.

See if I could finish it on my own without you looking at it, you know, every sequence or every scene.

And I am pretty happy with how it came together.

I feel like, I don't know, I just feel like I hit all the points

I was trying to hit.

You had me make that plan a few weeks ago,

like make a plan and the plan worked.

I stuck to the plan and finished the book.

I tried not to draw things out that didn't need to be drawn out.

...