Saturday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

4 STEPS TO DEVELOPING A SOLID STORY PREMISE

By: Tom Farr

How would you describe your story if you could only describe it in one sentence?

If you’re writing a story, whether a novel or a film, developing the core of your story in one sentence can be the glue that holds your story together from beginning to end. It helps to keep you focused on what fits within the story you’re writing and what doesn’t.

This one-sentence summary of your story is called the premise. It’s what the story is about, stripped down to its most basic elements. In the screenwriting world, the premise is often called a logline.

The premise is what keeps you focused on the story you’re trying to tell, and it’s often the quickest and most efficient way of selling your story to another person.

So how do you develop the premise of your story?

Well, it starts with answering four key questions.

1. Who is Your Main Character?

This is who your story is about. It’s whose journey we’re going to follow from beginning to end.

When you’re developing the main character of your story, you want to make the character complex and interesting to the reader. You may want to sketch the character out by answering several of the following questions.

1. What is her name?
2. How old is she?
3. What is his ethnicity?
4. Who are his parents?
5. What was his childhood like?
6. Who does he care about?
7. What does he fight for?
8. What is her selfish desire?
9. What does she most want?
10. What would he do if someone he loved was threatened?
11. What does she believe is right?
12. What does he believe is wrong?
13. How influential is he?
14. Is she a leader or a follower in relation to others
15. What does he look like?

When it comes to the premise, you want to focus in on the character trait that is most important to your story. It’s the one that helps drive the entire story.

For our purposes, we’re going to use Christopher Nolan’s excellent film Inception as our guide to building a solid premise. The film’s main character is Dominique Cobb, and although Cobb is a complex character with many characteristics about him that stand out, in the context of the film’s story, his role as a desperate father who misses his children wins out above all.

So for Inception, the main character is a desperate father.

2. What Does the Main Character Want?

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

• Gatekeepers for Indie Publishing - The Wayfinder - Hugh C. Howey http://ow.ly/OPpHI
• 4 Steps to Developing a Solid Story Premise — Medium http://ow.ly/OPpPE
• Authors: Should You Join A Box Set? | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/OPqRd
• The Writing Desk: Setting Up Amazon Author pages http://ow.ly/OPqWH
• 5 Reasons Why It’s Great To Be A Writer Today | Dysfunctional Literacy http://ow.ly/OPqZD
• Should Writers Incorporate? by Helen Sedwick — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/OPr39
• Print-on-Demand: Introduction to IngramSpark — Guest: Kerry Gans | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/OPr66
• Fiction University: Real Writing in Virtual Worlds http://ow.ly/OPrc4
• Facebook Groups: How to Nurture a Community on Facebook Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/OPrfE
• 10 PBEVENT Speakers Tell How They Stay Motivated - @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/OPrpe
• Are you a Passive or an Active Media Consumer? | Alexis Radcliff | Lexirad.com http://ow.ly/OPrJk
• Mythcreants » Five Failed Character Arcs http://ow.ly/OPrSr
• Freya North's Top 5 Writing Tips - Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers http://ow.ly/OPs2P
• You’re A Bestselling Author? Prove It! : Women Writers, Women's Books http://ow.ly/OPs5V
• Medieval Stasis: Why is Fantasy Trapped in the Past - Author J.S. Morin http://ow.ly/OPsco
• #WriterWednesday: 6 Books Every Writer Should Have On Their Bookshelf | The #FeedArt Network http://ow.ly/OPseU
• BLOGGING WITH BEVERLEY: Writing A Top Selling Novel in a Month http://ow.ly/OPsn5
• Want to Succeed in Self-Publishing? Don’t Do Everything Yourself: Tips from an Indie Author http://ow.ly/OPsBN
• How to Block Out Distractions and Focus on Your Work http://ow.ly/OPvcL
• How I improved my writing productivity by 100% http://ow.ly/OPvok

Happy writing and running, Kathy

Pictures from yesterday's tour of the National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton, OH.

The Bockscar is the B-29 bomber that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. 

Sho Sho Baby is a B17. It was named by the crew for a song made popular by The Andrews Sisters. The plane flew out of Bassingbourn, which is where Cav Cavanaugh is stationed in THE EMERALD BROOCH.

This is the Swoose, a B-17D, that saw extensive use in the Southwest Pacific theatre during WW II. It was selected as the personal transport for General George Brett through 1944 and modified for his personal use. They are now restoring the plane to his original configuration.

The Memphis Bell in the restoration hanger.