This week’s video explains how science fiction master Orson Scott Card’s book Enchantment gives a prime example of using up every delicious drop of premise potential.
Video Transcription: How many times have you been thrilled by a book’s amazing plot idea—only to be disappointed because the author never took advantage of the idea’s full capabilities? It’s admittedly very easy to come up with a plot idea, set the characters in motion, and then watch hopelessly (or sometimes obliviously) as the story meanders away from the original premise idea.
However, in Enchantment
, Orson Scott Card’s modern take on the Sleeping Beauty legend, he offers us a marvelous example of how to strengthen our stories by taking full advantage of the premise. Card’s story dumps a young man from modern American into a ninth-century Russia that is rife with interesting story possibilities and all kinds of conflict. Card could easily have written an entertaining tale set entirely within this framework. But because he understood that his premise of magical time travelling supported much more, he masterfully upped the ante and turned the tables on characters and readers alike by sending the hero and his Russian Sleeping Beauty back to the modern world halfway through the book.
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I’m honored to be a featured guest poster on The Master’s Artist today. Hop on over to read my post “The Myth of Being in the Zone.” Below is a peek: Because he realized that the premise could handle so much more than just the obvious first step of sending the hero to Russia and letting him fight his way through an antagonistic medieval society, Card offered a story that literally gave us the best of both worlds. Take a long, hard look at your premise. Are you milking it for everything it’s worth? Don’t settle for the obvious or easy answers. If you have a brilliant premise, don’t let a drop of that potential go to waste.At one point or another, all authors have found that delicious groove called “being in the zone.” The Zone is that enchanted land, in which we can do no wrong. Our words flow from our fingertips onto our keyboards with lightning speed, every one of them singing with the perfect expression of our intent, every one of them beautiful and powerful and vibrant. We write for hours, our energy level so high it’s practically bouncing out of the top of our skulls. When we finally tear ourselves away from our story, we’re so pumped that we alternate between wanting to run around the block and resisting the urge to shove our newly minted words under the nose of anybody we can talk into reading them. Without doubt, The Zone is one awesome place.Related Posts: Does Your Story Have the “Extraordinary Factor”?
Too bad we can’t stay there all the time.
Plot vs. Character: Which Is More Important?
11 Killer Chapter Breakers
Story by K.M. Weiland
Excellent thoughts. :)
Once again, very timely! In revising my NaNoWriMo novel, I'm trying to figure out exactly how to milk the premise for all it's worth. My first draft definitely dropped the ball half-way through, but I think I've got some good ideas for the second.
Thanks for the post!
I agree with Jenn, I'm trying to figure out how to milk my premises for all their worth! I think I'm getting closer in my current project, but last year's NaNo project is still percolating.
That O.S.C. book sounds interesting--I'll have to pick up a copy.
Just a side note, you should start a list of all the books you reference in your blog--so many sound good to read, but I can't always remember to order them from Amazon or the library!
@Lydia: Thanks for stopping by!
@Jenn: Glad it came in handy! Happy milking.
@Liberty: Enchantment's a great read, but very different from most of Card's stuff. You can access all the titles of the books I've analyzed in past videos by looking through the blog archives or by visiting my YouTube page.
Good advice as always. Now to make it work in my own WIP. :p
That's what we're all trying to do!
Hello there! Have a blog award:
http://subtlemelodrama.blogspot.com/2010/04/daytime-television-and-some-awards.html
It's well-deserved!
I'm doing a revise for this right now, making sure I have squeezed the most out of my idea.
Getting 100% out of a premise is something Stephenie Meyer does very well in the first Twilight novel (her other novels may do it too but I can't comment because I haven't yet read them).
I will be thinking about this as I polish my book getting it reading to take the plung into publishing.
@Bethany: Wow! Thanks so much.
@dirtywhitecandy: Thank heavens for revisions, huh?
@Sarah: Happy plunging!
I love OSC's novels, particularly Ender's Game. He has a real skill in pushing the story. This post is a great reminder of that. It's important to think about the 'what if's
I'm a big fan of Card's stuff, as you can probably tell. His sequel to Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead is one of my all-time favorites.
Another interesting, informative post.
I am on a rewrite, and I can see major improvements, just by adjusting small descriptions.
It's wild and wonderful how changing even just the simplest of phrasings can make all the difference sometimes.
K.M. you are a gem. Thanks so much for the obvious effort, thought, and creativity you put into your blog.
I'n intrigued with your title, THE MAN CALLED OUTLAW.
My protagonist is a Texas Ranger, cursed with having become blood-brothers with an Apache only half human. In short stories and two novels, I've taken him from the Texas plains of 1815 to the devastated post-Katrina New Orleans. I've tried to mine the possibilies of his long existence with imagination.
Your posts inspire me to do even more. One day I hope you will read FRENCH QUARTER NOCTURNE and smile, "I remember when Roland first wrote me about this."
May your days ahead be productive and healing, Roland
Best of luck publishing it. I'll be watching the NYT bestseller list for it!