(The following is an excerpt from my book Novelsmithing.)
PREMISE TRINITY
Every well-written novel will have three levels of Premise, a Premise Trinity. First, there’s the cosmic Premise (e.g., good versus evil), then the story Premise (e.g., freedom overcomes bondage), and then the character Premise (e.g., self-determination overcomes society’s demands). These are three aspects of the same Premise, although each may have a different outcome. In Titanic, the cosmic struggle is between the divine forces of good and evil, and this struggle remains unresolved. The story Premise is the Titanic’s struggle to stay afloat. The Titanic loses. The character premise is Rose’s attempt to throw off the bonds of her mother and her fiancé and live her own life. Rose wins.
Each subplot could potentially also have a full set of Premises. From this, you can now understand the complexity of a novel’s underlying structure, and the reason novels, or any story for that matter, are so variously interpreted. You may also be able to understand the multitude of reasons why so many novels and movies fall short of their promise. Few writers really understand the underlying structure inherent in a novel or screenplay.
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Chances are you’ve seen all of these movies and read these novels, never realizing the structure underneath. That’s the nature of plotting. Story structure disappears behind events, just the same as a home’s framework isn’t visible under drywall, paint, and texturing. A novelsmith, or any advanced storyteller for that matter, can’t afford to operate solely on intuition. That’s the reason some novels fail so miserably. The authors haven’t built the framework, and actually don’t understand the nature of storytelling. But don’t paste the storyline artifacts onto your story. Examine your story to uncover these turns of events, and place them where they should occur.
Henry James provides us with another example, this one concerning the plotting of his novel, The American, and I’ve included it as Attachment II. In just a couple of paragraphs, James describes how the idea for the novel came to him, and how he plotted it on the spot. It just goes to show that, when you know your craft, an idea can be turned into a plotted novel almost immediately.
HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION:
“What is your novel about?”
This is one of the most frustrating questions a novelist can be asked, and you’d be surprised at how few can provide a good answer. You can answer this question in many ways, and with the description of the novel’s structure provided above, you’ll be able to come up with several good answers. You may simply state the Premise, provide a short summary of the storyline, or provide a description of your protagonist and/or the antagonist. You may answer on the Premise level by saying that it’s about the cosmic struggle between good and evil, for instance. On the story level, James Cameron could say that Titanic is about the sinking of a great ship. On the character level, he could say that it’s about a woman who gains her freedom from family domination. He wouldn’t even have to say that she does this while surviving the sinking of the Titanic.
Understanding your Premise provides the tools that will enable you to discuss the essence of your novel with an agent, publisher or publicist. You won’t become tongue-tied, as is so frequently the case, when asked, “What is your novel about?”
PERPETUAL CONFLICT
Conflict may be the force that drives the novel forward, but it isn’t the be-all and end-all. The blacksmith doesn’t apply only fire to get the shape and hardness of the object with which he is working. Even the surface finish may be important, and that can take a little tender love and care. Similarly, applying too much heat to the novelsmith’s fire or pounding the conflict too much can cause the destruction of the whole concept. In other words, the conflict doesn’t have to be a “to-the-death” struggle. It can be emotional, as in Kramer vs. Kramer in which the characters are sympathetic to each other and share a love for their little boy. They resist their lawyers’ efforts to get them to destroy each other. It is often said that the most meaningful stories are those in which the conflict is between two rights. Good does not change, nor does evil. The more interesting struggle is between two good characters who are trying to determine the better path to follow, or perhaps, to understand the very nature of goodness. This was the nature of the conflict in Kramer vs. Kramer.
Don’t get stuck in the “take-no-prisoners” mentality. The conflict may even be obscure as in Arthur C. Clark’s Rendezvous with Rama, in which the Premise seems to be “Curiosity overcomes Narcissism.” In this sci-fi novel, conflict doesn’t seem to exist at all. The novel’s forward motion appears to be driven solely by discovery. The focus for most of the novel is on the questions: “What’s inside the mysterious spaceship entering the solar system,” and “Why are these visitors from outer space coming to visit us?” Only at the very end do we realize how narcissistic our perceptions have been, and meaning finally comes to the story when the spaceship dips in close to the sun to scoop up plasma. This act tells us unequivocally that the spaceship is on a fueling run and has no interest in us at all. The conflict, all along, has been between perception and reality. And the resolution comes as a revelation at the very end.
These then are the basics of plotting. Remember that your Premise will many times be obscure, but don’t let that fact permit your focus to drift from it. Allow Premise and story structure to focus your material. Once you have a storyline, you can start working earnestly on the narrative technique you’ll employ to begin writing the novel. We’ll get to narration shortly, but first we need to talk about character development in more detail.
FOUR SENTENCE SUMMARY
Storyline gives the novel length.
Characters give the novel breadth.
Premise gives the novel depth.
A novel with these elements is a three-dimensional simulation of life.
Novelsmithing