What's Your PREMISE? — Identifying the ACTION LINE of your story
This is my entire message for today:
WRITE OUT YOUR PREMISE.
Whether you’re doing Preptober/Nanowrimo or not — no matter where you are in your book or script— I really urge you to do this TODAY.
Writing out your Premise sentence is an exercise you should be doing periodically through your writing process, to make sure you’re remembering the SPINE of your story.
No one ever has to see this premise sentence. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It is not going to go on the back cover of your book. It’s a roadmap for you.
Also, if you’re a little further on in your book or script, this will help you check in to see if the central action of the story has actually changed during the writing of your first draft!
And to make it super easy, here’s a template you can use to write a premise sentence that will work for almost all books or scripts, and keep you on track, especially through that endless middle:
When (Inciting Incident happens), a (description of your protagonist) (sets off on this action) in order to (investigate, pursue, date, seduce, etc.) and (confront the antagonist in some way).
I’ve taught and coached a whole hell of a lot of writers for a long time, and I am telling you— completing the blanks and filling out that sentence will clarify your story faster than almost anything else you can do.
Here’s how that template works with a few well-known movies:
——When (a great white shark begins killing swimmers in a small island town), a (city-bred and water-phobic Sheriff) must (gather a crew and go out on the open water) to (kill the beast.)
——When a (Roman general’s wife and son are brutally murdered and he himself is enslaved), the (grieving general) must (train and become the greatest gladiator in Rome) in order to get a chance to (kill the Emperor who ordered the murders.)
—— When (a charming but shallow serial dater)’s (best friend announces her engagement to a wealthy Scottish hottie), he (commits to being her maid of honor) in order to (sabotage her wedding plans) and (steal the bride from the groom).
I suggest reading those sentences a couple of times to absorb how they spell out the ACTION of the story.
Do you see how those sentences evoke numerous scenes and conflicts that must take place to achieve the protagonist’s goal?
That is the essence of dramatic storytelling!
If someone gave me any one of those premise lines (and a check), I could write a book or a script that followed that action plan. I am NOT saying I could write Jaws, or Gladiator, or Made of Honor, or that I would want to. What I am saying is, I understand what I would have to do to research and write those scenes to create a readable, salable book or script.
Because it’s all spelled out in that one sentence.
And any agent, editor, producer, or executive who is worth their paycheck can also see that any of those premise sentences is an idea they can sell.
So isn’t it worth your time to figure out how to write one of those $%#^& things?
Get more examples of Premise sentences here.
Over and over and freaking over, I see writers struggling because they haven’t identified the ACTION of their stories.
To further clarify this:
The ACTION of a story is the PROTAGONIST’S PLAN, or really a combination of the Protagonist’s and Antagonist’s Plans.
And I cannot stress this enough:
You need to be reminding yourself of those two Plans AND continually spelling them out for your reader or audience!
Except, of course, if you’re writing a mystery. In that case, you don’t tell your reader or audience the antagonist’s Plan —
BUT YOU NEED TO KNOW IT YOURSELF!
And you need to make those plans clear to your reader or audience. Knowing those plans, or guessing at what the antagonist’s mystery plan is, is what keeps your reader or audience involved in your story.
So I implore you all to take a stab at that Premise sentence right now, using that template.
When (inciting incident happens), a (description of your protagonist) (sets off on this action) in order to investigate, pursue, date, seduce, etc. and (confront the antagonist in some way).
If you can’t identify the action of your story, then let’s get that right before you do anything else!
I am really happy to help on this, if you want to leave your rough premise as a Comment.
Because just doing that— working out a Premise sentence in the company of other writers— is one of the most career-changing things you can do. Seriously.
The post below details writing premise sentences with a slightly different template, and more examples.
What's your PREMISE? (Part 1)
When people ask you what your book or script is about, what they are really asking is – “What’s the Premise?” In other words: What’s the story line in one immediately understandable sentence? That one sentence is also referred to as a “logline” (in Hollywood) or “the elevator pitch” (in publishing) or “the TV Guide pitch”—it all means the same thing.
Also helpful!
Three Essential Questions About Your Protagonist
And once again, in case you have been putting off watching this, or need a refresher -
What’s the PLAN?
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If you’d like to go through the brainstorming and plotting process with direct feedback from me on your story, you have a couple of ways to do that.
A paid subscription— includes access to the message board, where you can post questions, problems, premises, story elements, or anything else for me to give you specific feedback on in a private setting. Also includes the full Screenwriting Tricks for Authors archives.
The online class— which includes the private feedback, but also more intensively uses videos and written lessons to take you through the set up and writing of your novel or script at your own pace. You can sign up for just one section or all three parts.
You can find ten full Act by Act, Sequence by Sequence, scene by scene story breakdowns in Stealing Hollywood and Writing Love.
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Hi Alex,
Here is my premise. Do you think I need to add more about my protagonist?
When an American Christian is captured by the North Korean government, an unemployed knife-thrower embarks on a perilous journey across the globe to rescue the prisoner and prevent an international crisis
Hi Alexandra. Thanks for your help with this. I tie myself in knots. I hope this is closer to a premise than the last ramble: When the five tribes of humans on earth are slaughtered, a surviving young hunter, self-effacing and guilt-ridden, must trick a narcissistic immortal despot into believing he loves her like a devoted son in order to discover her achilles' heel and defeat her before she destroys the whole world.