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 Grawl and I'm a struggling writer trying to figure out how to tell a story

that works. Joining me shortly is 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 continue down the theme of what we were talking about last week

with trying to find the theme of the nonfiction book I've been working on.

And so last week, I kind of hit an all-lose-loss moment,

and this is a result of that. I went back

and rewrote the introduction based on what we talked about last week and sent it to Sean. And so

this episode is Sean giving his feedback and answering some more questions about where I go from

here. So I think it's definitely a helpful episode if you're struggling with

the theme of your book and what you're trying to say. So let's jump in and get started.

So Sean, you know, it's funny. You know, we always record these things and then later I come back

and record the intro and outro. And this is our 116th episode. You know, I've sent you really shitty

writing that we spend an hour tearing apart. We've thrown out entire manuscripts on this show.

Last week was the first time I almost like cut out a part of the show because I was like super embarrassed that

I like broke down on the show and I like talked to Candace about it and she said I had to leave

it in and that was what I always promised that like all the dirty stuff stays in but that was

in two and a half years or whatever,

that was the first time I almost was like,

okay,

I can't put that out in the world.

...