Free Workshop for Writers
The 4 Steps to Writing a Publishable Novel
Why successful people struggle to write great fiction and the exact process to writing something publishable.
This isn’t the advice you’ve seen on YouTube or heard from famous writers. It’s built on 35 years in publishing and 30 years of research into how people actually get good at hard things.
Pick a session and save your seat
- The complete process
- 100% free
- About 60 minutes
What we’ll do
- 01The real reason your draft isn't workingIt's not talent, and it's not that you started too late, but it's definitely not what you think.
- 02Why hours at the keyboard don't compoundThe 10,000-hour rule is a misquote, and the researcher behind it spent the rest of his life saying so. What actually turns time into skill is something else entirely.
- 03Why learning more about writing keeps you stuckThe quiet trap that costs serious writers decades, and what actually builds the skill instead.
- 04The blind spot hiding in your own pagesThe one thing you will never catch alone, no matter how many times you reread.
Who it’s for
- You've wanted to write a book for as long as you can remember... you just made the responsible choices first and put off your dream of being a writer.
- You finally have the time and the means, so you sat down and started and the writing wasn't as good as you expected, and you couldn't figure out why.
- You've already read the craft books and taken a course or two, and you're still not where you want to be.
- You're excellent at what you do for a living, but have been humbled by how hard writing is.
- You're done waiting and you don't have another twenty years to figure this out by trial and error.
14.9
years — the average time writers in our survey of 506 had been working on their writing.
86%
of the books Shawn acquired and edited were profitable. Industry average ~35%.
100,000+
writers on the Story Grid email list.
Your host
Tim Grahl
Bestselling author of Running Down a Dream and Your First 1000 Copies
For 15+ years I’ve worked with writers, and alongside my partner Shawn Coyne — who’s been editing and publishing books for over 30 years — we’ve evaluated thousands of real scenes, sentence by sentence. That work turns vague writing advice into something you can actually do.
Across his career, 86% of the books Shawn acquired and edited were profitable. The industry average is about 35%. That gap isn’t taste. It’s method.
In this workshop, I’ll walk you through all four steps.
What writers are saying
“After forty years of trying again and again, I finally got published thanks to the Story Grid methodology.”
“I can totally see the difference week to week. The personalized practice and feedback create real momentum.”
“I've done the conferences, the books, the workshops. Nothing has improved my writing like Story Grid.”
Frequently asked questions
Pick the session time that works for you when you register above. We run them throughout the week, so choose the one where you can actually be at your desk.
About 60 minutes, start to finish.
Yes — register and we'll email it to you afterward. Come to the session if you can, though. It's easier to actually sit with it than to promise yourself you'll watch it later.
No — it's teaching, start to finish. At the end there's an optional next step if you want help.