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 full potential of his story’s premise?
Coming up with plot ideas? Easy.
Setting the characters in motion? Also easy.
What’s also regrettably easy, however, is watching helplessly (and sometimes obliviously) as the story then meanders away from that original great premise idea.
What Does It Meant to “Take Full Advantage” of Your Story’s Premise?
Enchantment by Orson Scott Card (affiliate link)
Consider Enchantment
Card’s story begins by dumping a young man from modern American into a ninth-century Russia that is rife with interesting story possibilities and all kinds of conflict. How easy would it have been for Card to have written his tale entirely within this framework?
But he didn’t.
Thankfully, he understood his story’s premise—of magical time travel—supported so much more.
Instead of using only the obvious surface idea presented by his story’s concept, he masterfully upped the ante in a delightful plot twist by sending the hero and his Russian Sleeping Beauty back to the modern world halfway through the book.
How to Evaluate Your Story’s Premise to Find Its True Potential
Card recognized his story’s premise could handle much more than just the obvious first step of sending the hero to Russia and letting him fight his way through an antagonistic historical society. Instead, he was able to offer a story that literally gave readers the best of both worlds.
How did he do this?
I suspect he looked at his premise—and then looked again.
Take a long, hard look at your premise. Are you milking it for everything it’s worth? Sit down with a notebook and paper and start asking yourself questions on the page.
- What are the obvious outcomes of your story’s premise as it now stands?
- What would you, as a reader, expect from a story of this type?
- What wouldn’t you expect?
- “What if….” this happened? “What if…” that happened?
Throw all your ideas onto the page, even those that at first seem less than great. Keep digging down through the layers of obvious possibilities to find those that are unique in their plot and theme offerings.
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.
