What We Do
Most stories are created in isolation—but they don’t have to be. At The Story Guide, we offer creative support at every stage of the storytelling process. Whether you're shaping a film, writing a novel, refining a screenplay, or exploring AI-driven narratives, our network of industry specialists help you reveal the strongest version of your story.
How It Works
Creating a story can be an exciting and fulfilling journey. But that creative momentum can stall when you hit a part of the process you don’t know: bringing a screenplay to life, finding the right publisher, understanding your audience or navigating market trends. That’s where we come in—to help you stay inspired while guiding you through the hard parts.
Who We Are
We are a network of filmmakers, novelists, distribution experts, and story specialists with decades of experience across development, production, post, and publishing. We’ve worked on everything from indie films to studio-backed features, bestselling novels to experimental AI storytelling—bringing real-world insight to every project we touch.
Your Story is Worth Protecting.
Each stage of the storytelling process deserves support and guidance. We are an ally alongside your storytelling journey—championing your story and its potential, nothing more.
Our Happy Clients
Services
A summary of services offered. If you don't see what you need listed below, please reach out here. If we can't help you, we will find someone in our network who can.
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Script Evaluation: Provide detailed feedback on story structure, pacing, character arcs, and theme.
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Development Support: Help writers and producers shape stories from idea to shooting script.
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Pitch Assistance: Craft and refine loglines, treatments, and pitch decks.
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Continuity Review: Ensure consistency of plot, character behavior, and world-building across drafts.
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Quality Control: Assessing production value, color grade and continuity using industry standard monitoring and audio.
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Distribution Guidance: Assess target audience, target distributors, create and connect with distribution experts in your genre.
Film
(YouTube, TikTok, corporate, branded content)
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Narrative Structuring: Shape compelling arcs for short-form and long-form videos.
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Brand Storytelling: Align brand values with emotionally resonant stories.
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Audience Engagement Strategy: Craft stories optimized for platform retention and algorithm appeal.
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Script Polishing: Improve clarity, tone, and pacing in dialogue and voiceovers.
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Storyboarding Input: Contribute to visual structure that complements the story.
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Creator Connect: Connect with some of your favorite content creators through our industry colleagues.
Video
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Script Doctoring: Revising or rewriting a script to improve its structure, dialogue, pacing, character development, or overall effectiveness.
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Beat Sheet Development: Map story arcs using industry-standard paradigms (e.g., Save the Cat, Hero’s Journey).
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Genre Convention Guidance: Ensure script meets audience and studio expectations.
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Dialogue Refinement: Enhance authenticity, tone, and character voice.
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Reader’s Notes: Provide studio-style coverage and marketability analysis.
Screenplay
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Structural Editing: Evaluate and advise on plot structure, pacing, and narrative cohesion.
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Character & World-Building: Deepen psychological realism and setting believability.
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Theme and Symbolism Consulting: Refine narrative subtext and layers.
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Publishing & Distribution Guidance: Connect with publishers and distributors that work best for your genre and target audience.
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Adaptability Advice: Suggest ways the story could be converted to other formats (film, games, etc.).
Novel
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Compression Analysis: Help focus the narrative within limited word counts.
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Impact Maximization: Boost emotional or conceptual payoff.
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Voice and Tone Feedback: Refine the prose to better suit genre and target publication.
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Submission Strategy: Advise on literary markets and presentation.
Short Story
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Dramaturgical Support: Offer insights into stage dynamics, dialogue, and pacing.
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Character and Theme Development: Deepen motivations and conflicts for live performance.
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Workshop Feedback: Attend readings or workshops and provide targeted feedback.
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Adaptation Help: Convert stories between stage and screen, or vice versa.
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Talent Assistance: Help working with actors and backstage talent from inspirational productions.
Theatre
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Emotional Hook Design: Create a narrative that captures attention and delivers emotional payoff in under a minute.
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Brand Messaging Integration: Weave the brand’s key message seamlessly into the story.
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Story Efficiency: Maximize clarity and impact in extremely short runtimes.
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Concept Ideation: Develop high-concept story ideas aligned with product goals.
Commercials
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Prompt Engineering: Design prompts that create coherent and compelling AI-generated narratives.
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Story Mapping: Guide the AI to follow a traditional or experimental story arc.
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Multimodal Integration: Help align narrative prompts with visual, audio, and performance outputs.
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Consistency Management: Ensure continuity across segments or episodes of generated content.
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Character and World Logic Definition: Input logical rules and narrative constraints for richer AI storytelling.
AI-Generated
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IP Development: Help create story universes that can expand across media (transmedia storytelling).
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Story Branding: Shape the narrative identity of a creator, brand, or franchise.
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Creative Mediation: Serve as a bridge between writers, producers, directors, and marketing teams.
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Audience Testing Interpretation: Translate audience feedback into narrative revisions.
Cross-Industry
Michael is the connective tissue of The Story Guide's network. His never-ending curiosity to discover the true nature of things led him across multiple industries with one shared focus—story. Before expanding into literature and plays, Michael worked for 15 years in high level positions throughout the film industry for major studios, and directed and nationally distributed an original feature film in 2018, The King of Crimes.
Through his work in entertainment, Michael worked intimately with storytellers from a variety of other industries. Novelists adapting their work for the screen, museums creating virtual reality experiences, theatres innovating on cinematic plays, and many more. Michael understands what major studios and IP holders are looking for—and when an artist should set that aside to stay true to their own creative vision.
Now, Michael's sole focus is guiding storytellers. Providing them with insight from lived experience, realistic and grounded goals, and a vast support network of vetted professionals across the literary, visual and emerging industries. IMDb
If you're a storyteller—emerging or experienced—we'd love to hear from you.
Meet Michael.
Tell us your story.
