Before an author writes a word, or thinks of scenes or characters, an idea sparks the imagination and a story is born. Or is it?
When inspiration strikes, many writers think they have a story, when
in fact they have something else. Untethered by the foundation of a real
story, they risk becoming lost in the story woods, writing down blind
alleys and backing themselves into literary corners. How can you know if
an idea that excites you one day will have legs over the long course of
developing a book or series of books?
The only way to know for sure is to master the skill of story premise
development. A story’s premise is more than a quick synopsis, or a
simple thesis statement defining the theme or argument of a story. It is
your canary in the storytelling coal mine and your lifeline as a
writer.
A story premise, along with its tool, the premise line, is a
container that holds the essence of your story’s right, true and natural
structure. When properly conceived, it expresses your whole story in
one or two neat sentences. Finding this premise line is no small task;
in fact, the process of premise development can be the literary
equivalent of skiing the black diamond trail. But when you get it right,
the payoff in saved time, money and creative blood, sweat and tears is
worth the agony.
Fortunately, taking five essential steps can lessen the pain and
facilitate mastery of the premise process. These steps form a repeatable
and proven method for developing any story. This is a critical skill
for any writer, because the premise line is a key ally in writing
effective query letters to agents or publishers and pitching film
production companies or studios. And the premise line is more than a
pitch tool. When you find a premise line that works, then you can know
with confidence that you have a story that will stand the test of
development. These five steps can guide your writing process, acting as a
road map to keep your narrative on track and focused.
After all, if your story is going to go off the rails, isn’t it better to discover that
before you get to page 400?
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE CORE STRUCTURE OF YOUR STORY.
For our purposes, a story is defined as a metaphor for a journey that
leads to change, as played out by the dynamic interdependence of
character and plot. A story is further defined because it possesses a
careful structure. At this basic level, story structure is a natural
force like the wind.
This first step helps you identify the seven structural components present in any story – regardless of genre.
- Character Who is your protagonist?
- Constriction The person at the focus of the story is
constricted in some way. Some personal problem haunts, drives or
motivates him or her. Try to get a sense of what your protagonist’s
problem is and sense how it triggers action. The constriction is usually
activated by some initiating event that forces the protagonist to move
from where the story starts toward a new path of action (the adventure).
- Desire The protagonist wants something tangible: the money,
the romantic interest or to find the radioactive dirty bomb by the end
of the story.
- Focal Relationship Who is the protagonist talking with
throughout the story? What relationship is the focus of the
protagonist’s attention? This relationship will be the engine that
drives most of the drama in your story, even in multiple point-of-view
stories.
- Resistance More than an internal constriction, there is also
the sense of serious, external pushback. Something opposes the goal
seeking of the protagonist, and this force creates dramatic friction.
This is the central opposition and he or she is bent on stopping the
protagonist from fulfillment. Who is this opposing force?
- Adventure/Chaos Entropy is the tendency of all things to move
toward disorder and chaos. This is the adventure and often comes in the
middle of a story.
- Change You may not see the exact end point of your story, but
you can assume your protagonist will not end up where he or she began.
Does your protagonist evolve or devolve?
These are the components of a story’s core structure. If they are
present, then you have a story. If they are missing, vague or muddled,
then you don’t have a story.
STEP 2: DO YOU HAVE A STORY?
What’s the difference between a situation and a story? The main
difference is that the seven core structure elements are missing from a
situation. But there is a quick way to identify a situation without
worrying about a structure analysis.
Any situation has these four conditions.
- A situation is a problem or predicament with an obvious and direct solution.
- A situation does not reveal character; it tests problem-solving skills.
- A situation has no (or few) subplots, twists or complications.
- A situation begins and ends in the same emotional space that it started in.
Situations are parts of stories; they are not stories themselves.
These four conditions are not present in a story, so if you see them,
then you know what you’ve got.
STEP 3: MAP THE CORE STRUCTURE TO THE ANATOMY OF A PREMISE LINE.
Are you still unsure if you have a story or a situation? Then use the
Anatomy of a Premise Line template to unlock this mystery. This
template takes a very specific form.
[When] some event sparks a character to action, that
[character acts] with deliberate purpose
[until] that action is opposed by an external force,
[leading to] some conclusion.
Mapping the core structure elements in step one to this template will
quickly tell you if you have a workable story. Let’s break down each
clause into its constituent parts to see the true power it offers your
writing process.
Clause #1: When Clause
Take your sense of the first two components of the core structure and try to combine them into a “when” clause.
When … some event provokes the protagonist to act (not react)
You have a sense of a character. Now is the time for dimension. Who
is the character? What sparks him or her to action? Some call this the
inciting incident; maybe you don’t have that clearly in your head yet.
That’s OK. What else might push the character forward (or backward)?
What happens to this person that gets him or her to act and begin an
adventure? The when clause is asking, “When something happens …” –
what’s the “something”?
We’ll use the novel
Jaws, by Peter Benchley, as an illustration how this might play out in execution:
When: … a doubt-filled, fearful, big-city cop moves to a small coastal town dependent on tourism …
Here the character is clear: He is constricted with fear and doubt,
and there is a sense of the spark that broke his inertia, i.e., he moved
from the city to the coast.
Clause #2: Character Acts Clause
Take the next two components of the core structure and combine them to give you the next clause in the premise line.
Character Acts … the protagonist joins with one or more people acting on some desire with purposeful intention
This clause captures the sense of a tangible want and defines the
relationships involved, especially the core relationship (if any) that
drives the middle of the story. Now is the time to give a clearer idea
of what the character wants and who is moving through the story with him
or her. This should also give a sense of the motivation for the desire,
not just the thing that is desired (i.e., “with purpose”). Using
Jaws, once again, we get the following:
Character Acts: … he teams with an oceanographer and a crusty
sailor to Convince the doubting, money-grubbing Chamber of Commerce to
close the beaches because a giant man-eating shark is lurking just
offshore…
The protagonist wants to catch the shark and he’s doing it with his
buddies (later the oceanographer becomes more defined as the key buddy).
There is deliberate purpose in this and a clear, tangible desire.
Clause #3: Until Clause
The next two components of the core structure combine to give a clear
statement about the opposing force acting to upset the story’s
trajectory.
Until … the protagonist’s actions are met by some external force that generates disorder and/or chaos – the adventure
This is the big-picture jeopardy of the adventure and the central opposing force acting against the character’s action. For
Jaws we have:
Until: … the shark terrorizes swimmers, threatening the survival of the town …
The writer identifies the nature of the “serious pushback” and the
chaos that will ensue, including the final outcome if the pushback wins.
Here is the force defined, as well as the tendency toward disorder, in a
clear and dramatic statement that fits perfectly with the idea as a
whole.
Clause #4: Leading to Clause
Leading to … the dénouement – an evolutionary change for the protagonist
The chaos component of the adventure crosses the third and fourth
clauses due to the nature of crisis: It spreads and is messy and is
often indistinguishable from the resistance it creates and the change it
generates. In this final combination, we see how chaos leads to
resolution, the order implicit in all chaos. This finds its expression
in
Jaws as:
Leading to: … forcing them [the town] to allow the cop and his
buddies to take on the monster mano-a-mano, during which encounter the
cop faces his fear and saves the day.
Finally, the writer expresses the change that is at the end of all
disorder and chaos, as well as the change that is personal to the
character from the “when” clause. There is a coming full circle in a
sense; the beginning, middle and end all tie back to the first and most
fundamental step of sensing a protagonist and a personal story.
STEP 4: FINALIZE THE PREMISE LINE.
This is how the final premise line would look:
Final Premise Line: When a fish-out-of-water, big-city cop
moves to a small, coastal town dependent on tourism, he must team with
an oceanographer and a crusty sailor to convince the doubting,
money-grubbing townsfolk to close their beaches because a giant,
man-eating shark is lurking just offshore, until the shark strikes,
forcing the townsfolk to allow the cop and his buddies to take on the
shark mano-a-mano.
Here you can see the entire structure of the story in a single
sentence. As stated earlier, two sentences are fine, but shoot for one –
brevity forces cutting the fluff. In
Jaws you know the
protagonist, the focal relationship (in this case made up of three men)
driving the middle of the story, you get a sense of the adventure itself
and see the opposition structure that feeds into the final ending. It
all fits, it all flows and it is a metaphor for a human experience
resulting in evolutionary change; it is a story. Armed with this premise
line, you can confidently move forward to writing, knowing your story’s
armature is strong.
STEP 5: TEST THE PREMISE LINE WITH OBJECTIVE READERS.
Once you think you have a solid premise line, then is it time to
start writing? No! If you’re smart, you’ll “unit test” the premise line.
Find three or four trusted readers who have experience with
storytelling, whom you respect – maybe even hire a professional
consultant – and get their feedback. Your mother is not in this
category, unless she is a novelist. You need objective feedback, not
hand-holding. Does the premise line work for them? Do they “see” the
whole story and get a gestalt picture of the overall structure? Does the
idea pull them in? Do they sense the beginning, middle and end and
would they write this themselves if they had come up with the idea?
These are just a few of the questions you want them to answer. If you
get more passes than thumbs-up, then you have to reassess and decide if
you want to move forward with a new idea or fix this one. If you get a
lot of thumbs-up, then you’re probably good to go.
What if you have a situation and not a story?
This is not a bad thing. Some of the most successful commercial
fiction ever written falls into this category. The point is that you, as
a writer, need to be able to recognize what you’re writing (a story vs.
a situation) so you can make informed and conscious choices about what
you write, why you write and how you write.
If you have a situation and you love the idea, and you think readers
will enjoy the ride, then go for it. There is no judgment here about a
story being more valuable than a situation; readers enjoy both. The
question is: What kind of writer do you want to be? If you decide to
write a situation, and not a story, then make it fun, exciting, filled
with set pieces and challenging puzzles. Readers will likely love it,
and Hollywood may come knocking at your door. If you prefer writing a
story, then hunker down and get into the structure and tell a
fascinating tale of human growth and change. Stories are primal and at
the heart of our humanity. Situations entertain us; stories entertain
and teach us what it means to be human.
These five steps will help you develop a powerful story premise that
can be your early warning system protecting you from story creep and
months of lost writing time. Once mastered, premise development can
guide your entire writing process while giving you an effective and
professional pitch tool to use with publishers, agents and editors.
Trust in the premise line. It will tell you if you have a story or a
situation. The rest is up to you.
Jeff Lyons is the founder of Storygeeks.com, a professional
services company offering story development and consulting services to
authors and screenwriters.
———————-
Seventeen-year-old Bella is drawn to bad-boy vampire…
Using
New York Times best-selling author Stephanie Meyer’s book,
Twilight,
we can see how the Anatomy of a Premise Line template can be used on a
contemporary genre novel. This book is an interesting hybrid of a story
and multiple situations combining into a surprisingly satisfying read.
Even in a YA blockbuster like
Twilight, the Anatomy of a Premise
Line can provide a clear premise that can be used as a development road
map. Most important, it confirms that even with episodic plotting,
adhering to a map of core story structure components can work.
Clause #1: When Clause
Character
Constriction
When … 17-year-old Bella agrees to move to nowheresville Forks, Arizona, and live with her father
Clause #2: Character Acts Clause
Desire
Focal Relationship
Character Acts … she finds herself powerfully drawn to
classmate and bad-boy vampire Edward Cullen, with whom she begins an
obsessive love affair culminating in her desire for him to turn her into
a vampire
Clause #3: Until Clause
Resistance
Adventure/Chaos
Until … the affair and Bella’s life are threatened by James, a
predatory vampire who targets Bella for death because she is a “hard
target,” as he loves the hunt more than the kill
Clause #4: Leading to Clause
Adventure/Chaos
Change
Leading to … Bella uniting with Edward and his vampire family, who kill James, effectively bringing Bella closer into the vampire fold.
Premise Line as a Sentence:
When 17-year-old Bella agrees to move to nowheresville Forks,
Arizona, and live with her estranged father, she finds herself
powerfully drawn to classmate and bad-boy vampire Edward Cullen, with
whom she begins an obsessive love affair culminating in her desire to be
turned into a vampire, until the affair and Bella’s life are threatened
by James, a predatory vampire who targets Bella for death because she
is a “hard target,” as he loves the hunt more than the kill. This leads
Bella to unite with Edward and his vampire family, who kill James,
effectively bringing Bella closer into the vampire fold.
Marsha's special guest is the very successful Best Selling author
Allison Bruning. Allison has always had a passion for the literary arts.
She originally hails from Marion, Ohio but lives in Indianapolis,
Indiana with her husband. Allison is the author of six historical
fiction series: Children of the Shawnee, The Secret Heritage, Irish
Twist of Fate, New Hope, Lost Identity and Cherokee Tears.
What president would make a good character in your novel, short story or poem? http://t.co/hx3KNzVkXX 
©2013 The Hollywood Reporter.