A Good Premise?

I'm working on a comic book with Nathan. We're just in the conceptual stages. He's working out what the illustrations will look like, and I'm playing with ideas for the story. Grabbing Mr. Egri's work (The Art of Dramatic Writing), I'm trying to come up with a premise for the story.

Where do I start? It's got to be something I'm passionate about. Makes sense, right? Writing about something I'm not passionate about is likely to come out dull. Characters need to come alive. I need to care about their struggles. I need to either root for them or against them. What's the point of writing about people that I don't care about, right?

I started my journey by looking at lists of virtues and emotions. To start, I'm not interested in creating a story in which the lead character tears himself apart. There is certainly merit in those types of stories, but I'd rather stay on the positive side of things. I want to showcase someone dragging themselves out of the gutter to succeed.

I started to hone in on some of the following virtues that resonate strongly with me: "Faithfulness," "Honor," "Honesty," "Integrity," "Justice," "Diligence," "Discipline," etc., etc. What next then? I need some sort of conflict and then a resolution.

Here's what I came up with:

Diligent pursuit of the truth leads to freedom.

What do you think?

"The Premise" is not just a theme!

Just had a great discussion with another writer regarding "theme." I had been using the term "theme" to describe what Egri calls "the premise." My fellow writer was quick to point out that a "theme" in and of itself cannot stand as a good story. Character and plot must be worked out first. Only then can the theme work in context.

Her point is excellent, which is why I believe Egri chose to call it "the premise." Why? Because the premise is made up of character, conflict, and resolution. Better said, theme, the characters, and the plot are all intertwined in what Egri would call the premise.

A writer writing about "love" as a general theme won't get very far without a solid plot and good characters. A properly formulated premise, however, will capture all of those things:

Love, unrequited, results in heartache.

The premise reveals what the characters must embody while it also reveals how the plot must be driven to its finish: heartache (which, you'll note, is the resolution of the premise!).

Man #1 loves Woman #1, but she loves Man #2. We can now hone in on our characters knowing that we have the basis of our framework. We also know the conflict (namely, that love will be unrequited), and how we wish to resolve the conflict (heartache).

What other examples might you think of?

What are you passionate about?

That's one key question for someone seeking to develop what Lajos Egri calls "the premise." It's that undergirding message that flows through your work. It's not something you stand on a soapbox and preach to your audience, but it is something that reflects the science of human nature.

Why is it essential? For one, because people naturally gravitate toward works that say something. Maybe it's simple, like "Good triumphs over evil," but at least it's something. The premise allows you to set characters in motion and watch them play out exactly what it is you're trying to get across.

So, how do you create one? Egri gives us a simple formula: character + conflict + resolution = the premise (all right, so that's my interpretation of his work). Start with something that you're passionate about. I like to slog through a huge list of virtues or emotions, things like: diligence, faithfulness, honesty, ruthlessness, jealousy, etc. Select the most meaningful one you can.

Now consider that virtue (or emotion). What result would that have if played out in a certain scenario? Let's take jealousy. Okay. What's the result of jealousy? It blindly destroys love! It festers until it destorys the jealous person and sometimes even his or her lover...

Guess what, you've just defined the premise of Othello: "Jealousy destroys itself and the object of its desire."

I think Mr. Egri is onto something, don't you?

Breaking Down a Writer's Task

I mentioned in the last post that I'm reading a book by Lajos Egri. I know what most of you (if not all of you) are thinking...who is Lajos Egri? I didn't know, either. In fact, honestly, the only reason I own the book is because a college professor made me buy it for a class (thank you, Dr. Esselstrom - the book is awesome!).

The book? The Art of Dramatic Writing. Mr. Egri focuses in on playwriting, for the most part, but the principles of this book are rooted in storytelling, which is what makes it so compelling. It's a look into human nature. An examination of life. Sounds like reading a psychology book, right? It's not far off.

As a writer, it is critical that we understand human nature. That we identify those things that make up life. Behaviors, emotions, connections. Those may be identified in some intense melodrama (e.g. Shakespeare) or they may be hinted at in action-adventure (e.g. Die Hard). Either way, you must identify those things.

I highly recommend Egri's book. It breaks down how a writer must behave in order to tell a compelling story. And, if we don't intend to tell a compelling story...why are we writing?

I'll be exploring my learnings more in the next few weeks as Nathan and I struggle through some of these questions in relation to all the Timeslingers items that we're working on. Stay tuned!

It's Official

All right, we've got an official launch date for Timeslingers.com! If you've been dropping by the "online time travel adventure series" from Nathan Scheck and I, you've noticed that we launched the "preview episode." Well, as of July 6, 2009, all the other ones are coming. We update the site every Monday and Thursday.

As we talked about before on our podcast, the new installments take less than 5 minutes to read (most people get through them in less than 3!). Nathan's illustrations are bigger as well.

Please drop by when you get a chance!

Also of note:

• I just finished reading a book by Alan Moore (popular comic book author and very strange dude) titled, "Writing for Comics." It was an excellent book on writing in general with some specificity into comics. I'll be discussing it more here when I get the chance.
• I'm currently reading a very good book on writing drama by Lajos Egri. I'll also bring some learnings to this blog.
• Nathan and I are also considering publishing a comic book, so we'll let you know how that's going.
• And...I've got posts from Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff (more in the series I was running) and Lori Z. Scott (an interview).

So, there are plenty of things going on here! Check back soon for more! And check out Timeslingers!

PS. If you're a writer and you're on Twitter, check out the Twitter Fiction contests (yeah, you've got to be brief!) at Book View Cafe. Cool stuff! And, I tied for second place in the last one...so, obviously, I'm a fan.