Where Writers Fail

According to John Truby (The Anatomy of Story), 

"Nine out of ten writers fail at the premise."

What is a premise?

The premise is your story stated in a single sentence. In screenwriting, this would be your "logline." 

The purpose of the premise statement is to present the central characters and conflict in order to give the reader a solid idea of what happens in the story.

Truby gives the following example for the premise of Casablanca:

A tough American expatriate rediscovers an old flame only to give her up so that he can fight the Nazis.

Here we have the main characters (an expatriate and a love interest), the central conflict (will they get together or won't they?), and the outcome (he's going to walk away).

The premise of a story is the foundation. Everything that will be developed within the narrative will serve as proof for the premise.

The success of any story depends largely on the premise because if, as writers, we can't boil the key idea down to a single statement, then it's likely we don't have a firm grasp of the overall point/purpose of the tale. 

The scenes may be in the right order, the climax might work, the characters may be well-rounded, and the writing is stellar, BUT if the overall premise is weak, the story is already lost. 

Nine times out of ten, the story is lost at the premise.

It's worth it, then, to give premises the attention they deserve--to nail down the key concept before the story words are even on the page. 

PREMISE:

"A boy from a privileged, upper-middle-class family falls for a girl in a rehabilitation facility accused of murdering her best friend."

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

The Creative Process

English social psychologist Graham Wallas, in his 1926 book Art of Thought, argues there are four stages to the creative process. 

Preparation 

This is an investigation stage. This is the stage where we’re gathering ideas. We’re reading, watching movies, thinking about the project, and taking notes. I liken it to the gardener who preps her soil for the growing season. It’s all of the groundwork that happens before a seed can be planted.

Incubation

The second stage may look like procrastination on the outside, but might not be. Incubation occurs when we’ve gathered the information we need and now our brains are stepping in to process and make connections. This is the stage where the seeds are planted and the gardener is watering and making sure there’s enough sunlight, but, on the surface, at least, it doesn’t look like anything is happening.

Illumination

After we’ve gathered the necessary information and our brains have finished processing it, we’ll have a flash of insight, where suddenly we know exactly what needs to happen or how to solve the problem. At this point, the seed is a plant, and it’s just pushed through the soil. The fruits of the preparation and incubation processes are visible.

Verification

The verification stage is where we bring our ideas to fruition. This takes a conscious, deliberate effort. It’s where we re-work the scene. Compose the poem. Write the article. The plant is now growing into something amazing.

What stage are you in?

They're all crucial to the process, but without verification, what was the point?

Action Required.

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

(More) On Story

Story: the price a character pays for the lengths to which she'll go to get what she wants.

Story is about action.

Story is about struggle.

Story is about change.

And . . . 

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." 

--Robert McKee

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

What is a Storyteller?

A storyteller is someone who presents to us a series of events in such a way that we feel as if they are our events--that we are living the moments being described.

A storyteller is someone who both provides information and withholds it, dancing with the reader (or listener) until they're desperate to know how it all ends. 

There's a difference between a writer and a storyteller. 

I have read masterful strings of words and turns of phrasing that did not compel me to continue reading. I have read writing that was less than stellar, but it didn't matter because I was so engrossed in the story and what was happening that I barely noticed the words on the page. 

Can good writing be taught? Sure.

Can good storytelling? Perhaps. But storytelling is more about feeling than structures and rules.

It's the difference between sitting through a driver's ed class and getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari on a road course.

But don't take my word for it. 

As I was editing this post, Robert McKee tweeted this out: 

Story is far too rich in mystery, complexity and flexibility to be reduced to a formula. Only a fool would try. #writingtips #amwriting

— Robert McKee (@McKeeStory) March 9, 2020

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~ 

On Waiting for Inspiration to Strike

"You don't need to wait for inspiration to write. It's easier to be inspired while writing than while not writing, so you don't need to be inspired to sit down and begin. You don't need to be 'in the mood.' I think you will benefit if you don't worry about moods: One, you will get in the habit of writing under any circumstances; two, since writing reflects your mental state, you will have a diversity of moods in your piece. The diversity will make your writing more interesting."

~Josip Novakovich~

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~ 

On Writing Without the Interference of Ego

It's inevitable, the more you write, that the more you will appear on the page in all of your variations.

But you are not the characters of your novels, and they should be allowed the freedom to flourish--to step out on their own and tell their stories.

In order to write them effectively you will need to get inside their minds, of course, but their minds are not yours. 

Cast your ego aside and write freely.

One of the best feelings (apart from writing "the end") is that moment when a character does something that wholly surprises us. Something that ties into the plot and narrative arc so perfectly it's almost as if it were imagined from the onset. Something unexpected, but was so clearly meant to happen.

These moments are magic, but they're unlikely to occur if you're writing through a filter of capital S Self.

For draft one, put away the writer to become the character.

And, as always, Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

First Person POV Violations

First person or third person, there is no "wrong" point of view for your story (provided, of course, you've made every effort to find the best point of view). There are pros and cons to each, though, and some things that should be taken into consideration if you do want to tackle that first person narrator.

The first is to remember that you don't have the same freedom with first person as you do third. Because you are speaking as I, me, we, our, etc., you are limited by what your narrator witnesses and experiences firsthand.

This also means there's a key feature you don't have access to as a writer:

The narrator's face.

Sure, you can describe what's happening if they're looking in a mirror, but we often consider that cheating.

Think about it:

She lined her plump, pink lips with a red pencil, brushed a few flecks of mascara off the high cheekbones she inherited from her grandmother.

And perhaps that's not awful. If you're going to use a mirror to describe a character, at least pick unusual features to discuss. That said, you can do better than giving us a basic blonde hair/blue-eyed summary of the girl we'll have to follow for the next two hundred pages just because she happens to be brushing her teeth.

But I digress.

Back to the face. In first person.

An expression of sadness crossed my face.

How do you know? You can't see your face. You can tell us you frowned, but describing a specific expression--something you would see on another character's face if you were standing in front of him or her--doesn't work in first person writing.

What about blushing?

My cheeks grew red with embarrassment. 

Again, how do you know they're red? The first person narrator, when thrust in an awkward situation, doesn't know what color his cheeks are, so a different way is needed to convey this. He can feel the heat in his cheeks or the warmth creeping up his neck and into his cheeks, but he Can't. See. The Actual Color.

Another thing to watch out for with the first person narrator: the phrase "to myself."

I said to myself.

I thought to myself.

There are more deft ways to characterize thinking or speaking to oneself, and this kind of phrasing is redundant. "I said" works perfectly fine. If you need to clarify that no one else can hear, then the character can "mutter" or "whisper." He can be speaking "so low she couldn't hear me" or "under my breath." And thoughts are just thoughts . . .  which brings me to my next point:

Avoid announcements.

My thoughts drifted. 

I remembered. 

A writer doesn't have to tell the reader the narrator is thinking. We're smart enough to discern action from dialogue and something that's currently happening in the narrative versus something that happened in the past, so go ahead and present the memory without labeling it.

I know not every reader feels the same way, but I love a first person narrator done well. There are some pitfalls, but these can easily be avoided with additional attention to detail.

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~