What makes a compelling premise?
How do you make someone desperately NEED to read your story?
Let’s discuss, look at some examples, then come up with our own juicy premises together!
During the last stream, a subscriber requested that we go over what makes a good premise.
Watch a short version of the stream here or scroll down for what we wrote.
What Makes a Good Premise?
- The premise is not only what your story is about, it’s what will hopefully make people want to read it
- For example: The premise of Hunger Games — a dystopian future where children are pitted against each other in a death tournament. The premise of Ready Player One — an Easter Egg worth billions of dollars is hidden inside a massive VR world based on 80s pop culture.
- But what makes for a compelling premise? First let’s discuss what a “premise” is, look at some examples, and then come up with our own premises together!
What is a Premise?
- There are lots of different ways to define a premise, but the one I like best is “What makes your story unique?”
- For example, the vast majority of romance books follow a similar plot: main character is down on their luck, meets love interest, the two of them want to get together, but they can’t, then through zany circumstances, they do get together.
- If you write a romance story, your premise can’t be “two lovers want to be together but can’t,” because that’s not unique
You need something new to entice readers: a romance between a man and a dolphin, or a romance set on Mars, or a romance told from the POV of the characters’ dogs
- If your story doesn’t have a unique premise, then no one will want to read it, because they’ve already seen it done before
- BAD PREMISE: A boy finds out he’s a wizard and goes to wizarding school
- GOOD PREMISE: A boy drops out of wizarding school and has to survive begging on the magical streets.
- BAD PREMISE: A family moves into a haunted hotel that slowly drives them insane.
- GOOD PREMISE: A haunted hotel just wants to make friends, but it doesn’t understand what humans find fun.
- Whatever is unique about your story is its premise, because it’s what will make people want to read it
Going Deeper
- Some premises are so strong that the story itself barely matters
- Stories like Fifty Shades of Grey and Sword Art Online are infamously bad, but their premises (billionaire romance and trapped in a VR game) are so juicy that people still love them
- However! Most premises need some support, and to flesh out a premise, I like the formula that author Jessica Brody uses in her book “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel.”
On the verge of [stasis = death] moment, a [flawed hero] [breaks into act 2]. But when [midpoint] happens, they must learn the [theme stated], before the [all is lost].
Ex 1: On the verge of wasting away with a horrible foster family, an awkward orphaned boy discovers he’s a wizard and sets off to attend a magic school. But when he discovers he’s the target of an evil wizard, he must learn what true magic is, before a powerful artifact falls into the wrong hands, bringing about the end of the magic world.
Ex 2: On the verge of self-demolition, a haunted hotel who just wants to make friends discovers that humans prefer balloons and cake to skeletons and blood, and decides to throw a party. But when everyone thinks it’s a prank, the hotel must learn the true meaning of friendship, before it gets paved into a parking lot.
- Fleshing out a premise like this takes your unique idea to the next level, making sure that it has a juicy conflict and stakes, potentially before you even start writing it!
After that, chat voted on three premises that we fleshed out:
#1. Premise: A man is too angry to die.
On the verge of dying when stabbed in the heart, a jaded Starbucks employee is so mad at the way he died that he wakes up from death to get revenge on his assassin. But as he searches for the person who killed him during his second chance at life, he must avoid happy events at all costs, before his calloused heart melts and succumbs to the knife still stabbed inside it.
#2. Premise: A poor startup company uncovers an elusive, mythical formula: one that produces perfect happiness.
On the verge of bankruptcy, an outcast old man scientist discovers a medicine for perfect happiness. But when everyone in the world uses it, and becomes perfectly happy slaves to corporations, he must learn how to help the world that has forgotten sorrow, before it’s too painful for them to remember.
#3. Premise: A world where people only experience senses/emotions through others, and are incapable of feeling them on their own.
In a world where people only experience emotions through others, on the verge of undergoing a religious lobotomy, a teenage girl who is part of an Emotion Abstinence church accidentally feels emotions for the first time through a classmate and falls in love. But when her family threatens to disown her, she must learn how to make those incapable of feeling feel something, before she becomes one of them.
Now those are some strong premises! Be sure to check out the video for some more awesome interpretations of those premises from chat.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
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