Story Master Toolkit
Free guide for novelists & screenwriters

The Writing System That Actually Gets You to The End

The 4-step planning roadmap I've used with 200 + writers across novel, screenplay, and stage formats. Download free.

Only 1–3% of people who want to write a novel ever finish one. The gap between starting and finishing is almost never about talent. It's almost always about system.

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200+ Writers coached worldwide
20 Years in development & coaching
35 Ghostwritten novels
3 Formats: novel, screenplay, stage
What's inside the guide

The 4-step system that changes everything

Most writing advice tells you what to do. This guide shows you what to do first — and in what order. That's the part nobody talks about.

Step 1

The worldbuilding document

The rules of your story's world, written down before you draft. Contemporary or fantasy — it doesn't matter. Without this, you lose the thread every time.

Step 2

The logline

One sentence that forces you to name the protagonist, the conflict, and the stakes. If you can't write it in a sentence, the story isn't ready to draft.

Step 3

The beat sheet

The structural skeleton of your story before you write a word of prose. The development executive's primary tool — applied to your work.

Step 4

The chapter outline

Scene by scene, before you draft. Once this is solid, you don't deviate. This is the step that turns planning into a finished manuscript.

Who this is for

This guide is for you if…

What writers say
“After one session, I felt a door had opened — and that real growth was actually within reach.”
— Angela J., Story Master student
About your guide
Shawn Whitney — writing coach and development executive

Shawn Whitney

I spent years as a creative development executive in film and television — the person who reads stories that don't work yet and figures out exactly why. Not what the writer intended. What's actually on the page.

I've written 13 novels under my own name, ghostwritten 35 more, and have three feature film credits. I founded a musical theatre company whose productions have been performed in front of more than 80,000 people.

I've coached writers at two universities in Toronto and worked with students across four continents. The same system gap shows up every time — regardless of format, genre, or experience level. And it's fixable.

Story Master is built around one question: what does it actually take to get from a story idea to a finished draft? Everything in this guide — and in the Toolkit course — comes directly from that question.

Creative development executive 13 published novels 35 ghostwritten novels 3 feature film credits 200+ writers coached University instructor, Toronto 80,000+ theatre audiences
Ready to get started?

Get the guide. Build the system. Finish the story.

Free. No catch. Just the planning roadmap — and, over the next ten days, everything else I know about why writers don't finish and how to fix that.

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