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 is Sean Coyne. He's an editor with over 25 years experience. He is the creator of StoryGrid and the author of the book StoryGrid.

And he is walking me through and mentoring me and coaching me on how to write my first novel.

In this episode, we approach two different questions that I think are really important for all writers.

The first is, what does it take to become a professional writer? Is it when you've written three books? Is it when you get

your first publishing deal? What does it really take to become a pro? The second one is how do you

face rejection? This question came in from a listener and we felt like it was important to spend some time

answering the question, and Sean and I both give our takes on how to overcome rejection.

So this is a really important episode.

I think it's going to mean a lot to you, so we're going to jump in and get started.

So, Sean, I've been thinking a lot about

this idea of like what it takes to become a writer. But more of more like, how do I know when

I'm finally like doing it right or I'm doing the things I need to do or like when we were

discussing it the other

day we were calling it turning pro. Right. So, you know, in your mind, like, what does it take

to go from like amateur writer to professional writer? You know, that's a really important

question to answer because there's so many people talk about being a pro

writer and what exactly that means.

And a lot of people just don't understand the practical steps that you need to take to turn

pro.

And, you know, the thing that we were talking about last week really kind of gave me a clue

...