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    The Four Core Fiction
    The Four Core Fiction
    The Four Core Fiction
    Ebook67 pages43 minutes

    The Four Core Fiction

    By Shawn Coyne

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    About this ebook

    What's at the core of every great story that leads readers to rush breathlessly to the end and then share it with all their friends? 

    At Story Grid, we believe great stories are built of four essential elements: Core Needs, Core Life Values, Core Emotions, and Core Events. Whether you're writing an ac

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStory Grid Publishing LLC
    Release dateMay 13, 2020
    ISBN9781645010173
    The Four Core Fiction
    Author

    Shawn Coyne

    SHAWN COYNE created, developed, and expanded the story analysis and problem- solving methodology The Story Grid throughout his quarter-century-plus book publishing career. A seasoned story editor, book publisher and ghostwriter, Coyne has also co-authored The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, The Cowboys, the '70s and the Fight For America's Soul with Chad Millman and Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Out-Think Fear with Mark McLaughlin, M.D. With his friend and editorial client Steven Pressfield, Coyne runs Black Irish Entertainment LLC, publisher of the cult classic book The War of Art. With his friend and editorial client Tim Grahl, Coyne oversees the Story Grid Universe, LLC, which includes Story Grid University and Story Grid Publishing.

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      Book preview

      The Four Core Fiction - Shawn Coyne

      1

      CONTENT GENRES IN THE STORY GRID UNIVERSE

      We see Story as a metaphysical phenomenon as expansive and explosive as our physical universe. Like the universe, Story is organized into patterns with specific structures and functions. Instead of constellations and galaxies, stories are organized into units called content genres. We can trace some of those content genres back to the very emergence of human cognition and creativity.

      About two hundred thousand years ago, as our Homo sapiens ancestors’ cognitive powers evolved, stories became integral to our survival. Naturally, the first stories concerned fundamental human needs: where to find food, how to build shelter, how to identify a mate, how to defend territory. We know about these early narratives because they are the stuff of our first cave paintings, sculptures, and other symbolic representations. 

      We think human communication gradually evolved from the simplest practical stories about physical survival into the primal content genre, Action Story. The War, Horror, and Crime genres probably followed as nomadic tribes learned to adapt to threats from others and supernatural forces they perceived working against them. Our ever-present Core Needs for physical survival and safety define these genres.

      As human civilization grew more complex, so did our stories. We moved from small hunter-gatherer bands to larger, sedentary cultures cultivating the land and building cities. New story structures evolved to hold knowledge about how individuals fit into a group and how people conform to or rebel against others. The need to find meaningful ways to spend time on Earth and to chronicle how we relate to others produced more new story genres.

      The bottom line is that content genres are categories, based on human needs, that divide the massive Story universe into twelve manageable constellations that we can observe and study. They are Action, War, Horror, Crime, Thriller, Western, Love, Performance, Society, Status, Morality and Worldview. For more information on all of the content genres, we recommend a deep dive into www.storygrid.com and a review of our genre-themed titles from Story Grid Publishing.

      2

      UNIFYING THREADS IN THE STORY GRID UNIVERSE

      What if we want to view all kinds of stories through a unifying theory that shows us the boundaries of Story? What if we want a lens that helps us understand what Story is and does in our

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