Plotting – Part II

(The following is an excerpt from my book Novelsmithing.)

THE SECRET BEHIND PLOTTING

The first step in plotting is to establish the core of the story around which everything will evolve. This central core is known in the industry as the Premise.

Definition: Premise, a proposition to be proved; a basis of argument.

Premise is the Rosetta Stone for decoding the entire idea and getting it into the form of a novel. A Premise forms the core of every meaningful story. In the same spirit as the proverbial grain of sand that contains the history of the universe, so the Premise contains the motivating force behind everything in the novel, and is the author’s guiding light for what to put in and leave out.¹⁰

Since the Premise is the “seed” from which your novel will grow, it contains the genetic material for the entire tree. Only then will it have a strong trunk (storyline), develop branches (subplots), flower (generate ideas), and in the end, bear fruit (prove its point). Henry James explained the effect of having a good Premise this way:

One’s luck was to have felt one’s subject right—whether [by] instinct or calculation…; and the circumstance even amounts perhaps to a little lesson that when this has happily occurred faults may show, faults may disfigure, and yet not upset the work. It remains in equilibrium by having found its centre, the point of command of all the rest. From this centre the subject has been treated, from this centre the interest has spread, and so, whatever else it may do or may not do, the thing has acknowledged a principle of composition and contrives to at least hang together.¹¹

James’ statement emphasizes the point that every story should be more than just a sequence of events. It must have the intellectual core that will hold it together, a core that provides meaning. We’ll discuss “meaning” in more detail later, but keep in mind that every novel has a point to make. Any event that sticks in your mind does so for a reason, and that reason is that it means something to you. What, you may not quite be able to articulate, but it does.

Henry James aside, all this has undoubtedly started to degenerate into obscurities that you can’t quite see how to put into practice, so let’s set this rather philosophical discussion aside and make it really simple. The Premise in its essence is conflict. And conflict can be expressed in three words:

X versus Y

Example: Good overcomes Evil

Again, first and foremost, Premise is about conflict. That’s what sets the forces in motion (starts the novel) and leads to resolution (ends the novel). You must have a Premise to have a novel at all. Until you have one, you’re just stoking a dead fire. Hidden within the Premise are both main characters and the central conflict.  This may sound startling, but it’s the nature of conflict. Conflict occurs because of opposing wills. These “wills” may be two individuals, two families (as in a family feud), two countries (as in war), etc. The possibilities are endless. If you want an image for the Premise: two bighorn sheep butting heads during rut.

My friend with the character who found a suitcase of money couldn’t find his story because he didn’t have a Premise. No one opposed his character’s desire to keep the money. If he brought in a drug lord, he’d be in business.

The reason I say that you should first have an idea for a novel is that it’s practically impossible to start with a Premise; the Premise is ambiguous by nature. If you have an idea for a novel first, then you can use the principle behind the Premise to uncover the hidden elements and fully develop it into a well-rounded story.

If the Premise is viewed as the key, then the idea is the locked door that must be opened to expose all the elements of the story. Using this key, the first word of the Premise gives us the protagonist, the third the antagonist. The second word contains the conflict and its result. These three elements are immediately revealed through examination of the Premise. Since novels are about conflict, the conflict must be “locked” early in the story, thus setting the characters in motion. Some movie makers are so anxious to lock the conflict that they do so before the titles roll. The story ends when the conflict is resolved.

AN EXAMPLE

As an example, let’s say you want to write a novel about a young woman who loves children. As far as this idea goes, it isn’t a story because it has no conflict. It has a character, possibly the protagonist, but no story. If you further state that the woman can’t have children because she is sterile, we then at least have conflict. The woman’s emotional needs are in conflict with her biological state, and we have the beginning of a story, although we don’t yet have a full Premise, because we don’t know the nature of her biological problem and how she overcomes or succumbs to her physical limitations. If you say that she is sterile because her husband forced her to have surgery, we have uncovered more of the Premise because we know the antagonist, the husband, but we still don’t know the outcome. If you say that she divorces her husband, has her surgery reversed, and has a child by artificial insemination, then we have a full story.

I’ll not go into the multitude of possible Premises inherent in this simple story, but I will provide a couple of attempts at defining it. A very simple Premise might be “wife overcomes husband,” which is character-oriented. “Good overcomes evil” is another possible Premise, and this time it is cosmic in its scope. A further possibility is “determination overcomes control,” which is psychology related. The main thing you should get from this example is how to work with a Premise to develop your idea.

At this point, you might want to consider other novels, movies or plays you admire to determine whether you can uncover a possible Premise for each. Remember that the Premise is a working tool for the craftsman. It insures that your efforts are rewarded by a full-bodied story.