Too Much Wine

Story Grid Challenge

Some of you might have realized I'm studying the emotional craft of fiction. That's because after devouring Robert McKee's Story and then Story Grid  by Shawn Coyne, I came to understand there's always 2 stories in a story. The outer one and the inner one. I want my books to hit people in the gut and bless them. So I gotta get mine right. Basically though, Story Grid is the heart of my work. I have a lot to do because my entire story is insane. 

Wheel of Time insane. Yeah.

But to understand any of my babble, first we hit basics. I posted a challenge on my feed and am going to answer it myself. It took me a WHILE to answer these questions so don't feel bad if you don't Get It right away. Remain in your questions* and keep working at it. It's good for you, like spinach.  

So here's the challenge. For your WIP answer these questions. 

What's the genre?

 What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for that genre?

 What's the Point of View? 

What are the objects of desire? 

What's the controlling idea/theme? 

What is the Beginning Hook, the Middle Build, and Ending Payoff?

Here are my answers. 

Story Grid means something different by genre than we usually think of. They're not asking, is this a mystery, thriller or sci-fi. Oh no. It can't be that simple. But if it is that simple now, for you, thats ok. Just know there's more. The following is from this article:

https://storygrid.com/genrefiveleafclover/

So in Story Grid, heres what genre means.

A Genre is a label that tells the reader/audience what to expect. Genres simply manage audience expectations. It's really that simple. 

We expect to know how long the story will last.We expect to know how far we'll need to suspend our disbelief.We expect to know the style, the particular experience of the story.We expect to know how the story will be structured.We expect to know what the general content of the story will be.

or

TIME GENRES

Short Form—these are short films, short stories, or individual scenes in a play.

Medium Form—these are episodic television shows or documentaries, novellas, multi thousand-word journalism, one act plays.

Long Form—these are feature length films/documentaries, novels, or three acts or more plays.

REALITY GENRES

Factualism—stories that refer to facts of history or biography. They refer to part of the historical record implying "This Story Did Happen," like the movie Argo or 12 Years a Slave or Serpico.

Realism—stories that could happen in real life, but are imagined, Law and Order, the crime novels of Ian Rankin etc.

Absurdism—stories that are not remotely real, like Eugene Ionesco's play The Bald Soprano or Looney Tunes

Fantasy—stories of wonder and imagination that require a comprehensive suspension of disbelief, the type of which is delineated by three subgenres.