Shawn Coyne Quotes & Sayings

Two-thousand-word scenes/chapters are potato chip length. That is, if you are about to go to bed and you're reading a terrific novel and the scenes/chapters come in around two-thousand-word bites, you'll tell yourself that you'll read just one more chapter. But if the narrative is really moving after you finish one of these bites, you won't be able to help yourself reading another. If the Story is extremely well told, you'll just keep eating the potato chip scenes all through the night. — Shawn Coyne

What we do or don't do when we face conflict is the engine of Storytelling. — Shawn Coyne

A great editor sees the Story globally and microscopically at the same time. He has x-ray vision. He looks down from thirty thousand feet. A great editor can break down a narrative into themes, concepts, acts, sequences, scenes, lines, beats. A great editor has studied narrative from Homer to Shakespeare to Quentin Tarantino. He can tell you what needs fixing, and he can tell you how to fix it. — Shawn Coyne

Stories change people. — Shawn Coyne

What The Story Grid offers is a way for you, the writer, to evaluate whether or not your Story is working at the level of a publishable professional. If it is, The Story Grid will make it even better. If it isn't, The Story Grid will show you where and why it isn't working - and how to fix what's broken. — Shawn Coyne

If you've ever seen the movie Spinal Tap, I think you know where we should try and reach by the end of our crime Story. — Shawn Coyne

if your Story doesn't change your lead character irrevocably from beginning to end, no one will deeply care about it. It may entertain them, but it will have little effect on them. It will be forgotten. — Shawn Coyne

Change, no matter how small, requires loss. And the prospect of loss is far more powerful than potential gain. It's difficult to imagine what a change will do to us. This is why we need stories so desperately. — Shawn Coyne

Have you ever taken a good look at a public garbage can in Paris, a paving stone in Rio de Janeiro, or a doorway in Dublin? Trust me -- the man or woman responsible for making those utilitarian objects was creating art. — Shawn Coyne

People like to stop reading when they've finished a chapter, not in the middle of a chapter. This is probably the last thing they'll tell you at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, but it's a reality — Shawn Coyne