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 writer trying to figure out how to tell a story that works.

Joining me shortly as Sean Coyne. He is the creator of Story Grid, the author of the book Story Grid and an editor with over 25 years experience.

In this episode, we go over the first set of scenes that I have written for the middle build of my story. And we start

talking through as well how they fit into the sequences and how to transition between sequences.

It's this whole thing that's super intricate. And I think we'll be really helpful as you

think about how to transition from the beginning hook of your story into the middle build and how you can

show this new world without just all being exposition and kind of boring. So we dive pretty deep into this,

go over my scenes. So I think it'll be really helpful for you. So let's jump in and get started. So we dive pretty deep into this, go over my scenes, so I think it'll be really helpful

for you. So let's jump in and get started. So Sean, I was hoping to get two sequences done,

but I got like one and then like a scene and the next one done because I'm still just kind of,

I feel like I'm churning more than I'm writing. The first sequence ended up being five scenes, which I sent you and I'll post in the show

notes as well.

So I had gone through and tried to do the like value shift and polarity shift, but I wanted

to get kind of your take because this is the first six scenes of the middle build since we threw away the other

ones I had tried. So what's your take on them with your quick read-through of them?

My take is that you've made enormous strides. Just all that work that we did that didn't seem

like any work and seemed like it was just a pain, I think really paid off because the

specificity of the storytelling here is very clear, you know, and I have to confess, I want to

know what happens next. And that is, you know, the mark of hitting a good, you know, a good stretch

of writing. And also, what you were able to do was

you established a whole bunch of different new, fresh characters in only, probably it's

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