TL, DR: The Archive provides you a focused yet flexible structure in which to create scholarship in any genre, discipline, or context.

To be a scholar is to live the struggle of creating new knowledge. This process requires distilling sprawling source materials and ever-proliferating rough drafts into cohesive units of meaning that can be sent out the door and published. It requires crafting prose that connects with target audiences, and working within genre constraints that can feel stifling or obscure. It requires trusting your own perceptions and reasoning, while remaining open to the possibility that you are wrong. Meanwhile, amidst all of these difficulties, a scholar who wishes to go the distance must also find ways to maintain motivation and a sense of purpose long-term.

This knot of interrelated challenges can be alleviated by the Story-Argument* resources in the Story-Argument Archive. The Story-Argument resources are designed to help you (1) understand structures of meaning (Story-Argument) at a higher level of abstraction than genres and disciplines, as well as how those structures of meaning translate into particular contexts, so you can (2) discern discrete steps by which you can gradually, day by day, live the process of creating work that usefully conveys to others what your research means and why it matters.

When we can view the constraints of academic genres and disciplines, and indeed the constraints of life itself, through the lens of Story-Argument, these constraints become generative writing prompts that guide us to create our most vital, original work.

Story and Argument are the basis for our structures of meaning in ScholarShape because these two ancient modes of meaning-making are deeply, perennially human. When fused together into Story-Argument, they become our most powerful device not only for navigating our work, but for feeling that it is even worth it to try. Long before and long after the present incarnation of the scholarly enterprise centered on the modern research university — and soon, perhaps, on growing networks of in(ter)dependent scholars — Story-Argument is how humans process information into knowledge.

In short, the Story-Argument Archive’s contents help you put structure around the inherent uncertainty and messiness of the scholarly process so that you can navigate knowledge creation purposefully even when you don’t know where you’re going—which, for many of us, is most of the time.

TL, DR: The Story-Argument Archive contains many tools to help you create your scholarship with the support of the Story-Argument model. Use and reuse the tools however and whenever you like, across multiple projects.

The Archive contains many Story-Argument design resources, in a variety of formats, that Margy Thomas, Ph.D., has been creating since 2013. New resources will continue to be added in the years to come. As of 2024, the contents include the following:

• An account of the Story-Argument model’s emergence over ScholarShape’s first decade (2013-2023)

• The first public experiments in what would become the Story-Argument model: the prompt sequences Deep Why; You Are Here; and AcWriMo 2k18 (created 2017-2018)

• The first in-depth articulation of the Story-Argument model across genres and contexts: the Build Your Story-Argument (BYSA) modules, 17+ hours of illustrated videos with transcripts (created 2019 - 2020)

• Tools for applying the Story-Argument model in developing and revising work in any genre: the Story-Argument Sequence and the DIY Developmental Edit (created 2020)

• The Book Proposal Map, guiding you through using the Story-Argument model to plan and pitch a book project (created 2021)

• The Scholar’s Cosmos Meditations, an audio resource leading you on a symbolic journey through an allegory of Story-Argument design to strengthen your intuitive understanding of the process (created 2021)

• A Help Desk where you can reach Margy anytime with your questions and feedback.

• In the works: Resources helping you integrate intuition-based or spiritual bodies of knowledge and practice into your Story-Argument design.

And much, much more to be added in the years to come!

Important Note: The Story-Argument Archive resources are not meant to be completed or mastered, per se, but rather to be explored, pondered, practiced, experimented on, skipped over, revisited, and grappled with, as needed. You may use some of the resources over and over, and others not at all. Within the bounds of the Terms of Service, you are free to use the Archive in whatever ways best support the cultivation of your own Story-Argument.

TL, DR: A literature Ph.D.-turned-developmental editor has been working to create and refine the materials since 2013, via multidisciplinary research and practice.

Margy Thomas has been working to create the Archive contents since 2013, when she established ScholarShape upon completion of her Ph.D. in literature. But she often feels like she discovered ScholarShape, rather than inventing it.

ScholarShape centers on the Story-Argument model, a conceptual framework that Margy pieced together little by little through many years as a developmental editor and writing consultant for scholars across disciplines. As importantly, Story-Argument emerged through study of a wide range of other fascinations: pedagogy; art and design; religion; theories of rhetoric, narrative, and genre; history of science; early childhood development; digital communication; entrepreneurship; mysticism; and more.

Undergirding all of Margy’s work are spiritual and intuitive practices grounded in ancient wisdom traditions that, Margy believes, have much to offer the scholarly enterprise in the 21st century and beyond.

Based on the East Coast of the U.S., Margy hopes to continue developing (or discovering) new Archives contents for years to come.

TL, DR: Lifetime access to all current and future Archive contents is U.S. $600 when purchased standalone, or you can purchase a service package that includes lifetime access for free.

If you purchase Archive access standalone, the fee is U.S. $600 for lifetime digital access. Service packages include complimentary lifetime access. As the Archive continues to expand with new resources in the coming years, the value of your investment grows.

As an Archive Member, you have lifetime digital access to all Archive contents, past, present, and future.

To join as a Member, review and accept the Terms of Service.Then, you can make your payment using any of the options below. As soon as payment is processed, you’ll receive an email inviting you to create your unique login and access the Archive from your device.

Payment Details:

If you are purchasing the Story-Argument Archive membership as a standalone resource, and not as part of (or along with) a service package, you may pay for the membership via check or bank transfer, or you can set up ScholarShape as a vendor to receive funds from your institution via check or bank transfer. Contact us here to arrange payment.

If you are receiving the membership as part of a service package, you also have the option of paying online via debit / credit card. Payments in currencies other than USD will be automatically converted. If you choose this option, you’ll be emailed a payment link as part of your intake process when booking the service package.

Refunds: After you’ve purchased a standalone Story-Argument Archive membership, you have 14 days (from the date payment is received and access granted) to request a refund, no questions asked. Refunds are given via the same payment method that was used to make the purchase. Once the refund period has passed, refunds are not available. Please note that refunds are not available on service packages

Questions? Feel free to submit them here!

Contact us here with any questions. Before doing so, you might check whether the answers you need are in one of these places:

• For questions about Archive membership, how to access the Archive, and what uses are permitted for the Archive contents: read the Q&A above, and check out the Terms of Service

• For questions about purchasing multiple memberships for your group or organization: Bulk Orders

• For working one-on-one with Margy: Story-Argument Support Services