The Bitter Withy

_________________________

John Fraim

Again, thanks Heather for introducing me to this book.

Screenwriters who come to this book might find it un-familiar based on all the various structure steps proposed. But the difference here is the creator of this system is not a screenwriter but rather a respected book editor. 

If I were to categorize the Coyne grid ideas in terms of screenwriting, I’d say it is based on the traditional three act structure with repeating sequences of five steps in each of the three acts. In other words, each of the three acts of the story repeats 1.Inciting Incident 2.Complication 3.Crisis 4. Climax and 5. Resolution. This is different from the steps of the  story proposed by screenwriters. One leading screenwriter and guru has proposed 22 different steps.

Of course, there might be much synchronicity with the Coyne book editor perspective and a leading screenwriting guru like John Truby. In effect, they might be saying the same thing using different different words to say it. As is the case in so many things these days.

Yet, although the 5-step sequence continues to repeat in all the acts within a story, there is the major requirement of the Story Grid method that there is both a different Internal Change and External Change in the Hero/Heroine from the those in the previous act. The resolution that ended that sequence, no longer applicable except in the last act.

* * *

In other words, in the second act, the Hero/Heroine of the story must have an Internal and External change. This is not as easy as some might think. In effect, Coyne, the book editor is asking us to re-phrase a key sequence of life in three different appearances: Act I, II and III. The first internal and external change of the main character. The, the second internal and external change of the main character. And finally, the third and last internal and external change of the main character.

Almost like a chant sang in different ways to us. Three times. The sequence of five repeats itself three times. The key sequence of the drama, of a story for past book editor Shawn Coyne. Somewhat, an incantation in three various modes? 

Shawn Coyne / Black Irish Books

Much more to ponder about this new idea for telling stories. There’s little like it in screenwriting books. And thank goodness for a system outside the “marked territory” of the Hollywood screenwriting gurus. It’s a book that could teach both book authors and screenwriters. Anyone who creates dramatic content on any media today, should take note of this powerful new perspective on story creation. 

* * *

Yet I have to sit down for a serious reading of this book. It’s so different from all the others I’ve been reading for years. Has Coyne given us a new formula in his Story Grid methodology? I think the only ones whose opinions are relevant are those who have applied his method with success. Great success in fact would be better.

As always, be interesting to hear from authors/screenwriters who have applied this method with success. The author has a long list of impressive American authors he has been an editor for. Has been an editor at the Big Five publishing houses, as an independent publisher, as a literary agent both at a major Hollywood talent agency and head of Genre Managment Inc. and as a best-selling ghost writer and co-writer.

Be great to hear from some of his clients. Those who have used the method with great success.

* * *

Meanwhile, I’m getting back to his book. Thanks again to Heather for recommending it.

And thanks to Shawn Coyne for writing it and Black Irish Entertainment LLC for publishing. Definitely a feisty book. The book like an Irishman one might find in a pub arguing some point. This is somewhat the philosophy of Black Irish Entertainment. As they note on their website:

“When you think of the Irish, what usually comes to mind is the fair-haired, blue- or green-eyed physical type (think Denis Leary or Meg Ryan). But there’s another brand of Irishman (George Clooney comes to mind), dark-haired, dark-eyed, perhaps a tad unstable, even dangerous. Legend has it that this DNA entered the Irish bloodstream around 1588 via the shipwrecked mariners of the Spanish Armada. Black Irishmen are famous for being pugnacious and confrontational. Great bar-room brawlers. Boxing champs of the early 20th Century (Jim Fitzsimmons, Gene Tunney) were often black Irish. Hence our boxing glove logo. (We originally had a shot glass on a bar with a tear tracking down one side, but we decided that was a tad melodramatic.)”

The ideas of Black Irish are bold. Yet the dramatic paradigm we are asked to use by Coyne is also bold. There is little doubt it is based on repetition of the five sequence pattern over and over in different incantations in the various three acts of the story. The idea of repitition and drone is close to the Irish culture and I wonder how much Coyne interjects his Irish sense of story into Story Grid.

Coyne has been a leading American editor for many years. Yet the structure revealed in Story Grid strikes me as so different from the structure of many successful novels. I might be wrong and need to re-evaluate some books in light of the theory. Of course, always good to hear from true believers in the system.

If this type of incantation in the Story Grid method can be proven, perhaps we should all be glad for this interjection of Irish ideas and structure into American culture. Again.

Story Grid Site

Buy Story Grid on Amazon

_________________________________________

__________________________________________

John is author of a number of books including Spirit Catcher, a biography on John Coltrane (GreatHouse Publishing, West Liberty) and Battle of Symbols: Globaly Dynamics of Advertising, Entertainment and Media (Daimon Verlag, Zurich). His soon to be published book is Hollywood Safari: A Dangerous Trip Through the Current World of Sceenwriting Theory. It offers the greatest comparative review of leading screenwriting theories yet published. John grew up in LA and has a BA from UCLA and a JD from Loyola Law School.