Read Online How to Write a Brilliant Novel: The Easy Step-By-Step Method of Crafting a Powerful Story (Go! Write Something Brilliant) by Susan May Warren - Free Book Online
Authors: Susan May Warren
Tags: Fiction, General Fiction, Reference, Writing, Writing; Research & Publishing Guides, Writing Skills
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the biggest casualty of all just might be his heart.
I used some pop words to give it energy: atonement, desperate, killer’s sights, casualty. Finding words that shape the premise will give your entire story color.
Those are the basic steps to crafting a premise! Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
Premise Steps: Recap
Step One: Name your character, and their significance.
Step Two: Identify their goals for the story.
Step Three: Throw in the conflict. Step Four: Find the highest stakes. Step Five: State the story question.
Step Six: Use strong, colorful words to ramp up the tension and hone the theme.
Premise Examples: Sometimes it’s easier to see an example of what you’re trying to accomplish. Here are a couple of premises from fellow My Book Therapy Voices who allowed me to work on their blurbs. Let’s examine how they break down.
Premise 1: Women’s Fiction
It’s the Roaring Twenties and Evie Kimball bucks a life of wealth and privilege for big dreams and true love. Naively believing she can have it all, Evie leaves her true love waiting in the wings and sets off for the bright lights of Broadway. As the Great Depression envelopes New York, Evie returns home, ready to make amends with the one she left behind. But love doesn’t wait forever, and Evie finds a hopelessness greater than that which the loss of fame and fortune has already brought her. Eventually, Evie reclaims some semblance of the good life and focuses on raising her family, but secrets and unforgiveness are always there threatening her happiness and tearing apart her family. So, on the eve of her one hundredth birthday celebration, Evie sets about to break the legacy of despair that has plagued her family for three generations.
I love Roaring Twenties books! And this one sounds very epic. It also sounds like the story might start on her 100th birthday, and we got a great introductory blurb about her backstory. Let’s go through the six steps and see what we can do to restructure this premise a bit:
Step One – Evie Kimball – socialite, heiress, dreamer, aspiring actress. Probably the actress characterization is the strongest in this lineup.
Step Two – She dreams of being an actress, and naively believes true love will wait.
Step Three – Conflict – the Great Depression, and her true love doesn’t wait. There is no hero point of view (POV) here.
Step Four – Evie marries someone else, and secrets and unforgiveness threaten to tear about her family’s happiness
Step Five – Can she learn to forgive before it’s too late?
Step Six – dazzled, empty, broken, sweeping. These words add just a bit of color to the premise.
One of the interesting elements is the legacy of despair. I think that is an angle that could really be explored.
Aspiring actress Evie Kimball is dazzled by the bright lights of Broadway. Believing her true love will wait, she heads to New York, only to return years later to her hometown, empty and broken, thanks to the sweeping despair of the Great Depression. Worse, her love has chosen another—something she can’t forgive. Despite the fact that she marries, and has a family, she seems destined to live a life of brokenheartedness, like her mother, and grandmother before her. Will Evie learn, before it’s too late, how to forgive?
I left out the 100-year-old birthday, because maybe that’s not the crux of the story, and I brought in the legacy of despair. I also put the premise in active voice, which adds energy, and added some punch words.
Premise 2: A Regency!
Because of the lecherous bailiff who once accosted her, Annabel is afraid of men and horrified at the thought of marrying. Instead, she dreams of becoming a nun and of one day being allowed to read the Holy Writ. When her family's debts cause her to become indentured to wealthy Lord Ranulf, all hope seems lost.
Lord Ranulf is shocked by his feelings for his new servant. After being mauled and disfigured by a wolf at age
I used some pop words to give it energy: atonement, desperate, killer’s sights, casualty. Finding words that shape the premise will give your entire story color.
Those are the basic steps to crafting a premise! Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
Premise Steps: Recap
Step One: Name your character, and their significance.
Step Two: Identify their goals for the story.
Step Three: Throw in the conflict. Step Four: Find the highest stakes. Step Five: State the story question.
Step Six: Use strong, colorful words to ramp up the tension and hone the theme.
Premise Examples: Sometimes it’s easier to see an example of what you’re trying to accomplish. Here are a couple of premises from fellow My Book Therapy Voices who allowed me to work on their blurbs. Let’s examine how they break down.
Premise 1: Women’s Fiction
It’s the Roaring Twenties and Evie Kimball bucks a life of wealth and privilege for big dreams and true love. Naively believing she can have it all, Evie leaves her true love waiting in the wings and sets off for the bright lights of Broadway. As the Great Depression envelopes New York, Evie returns home, ready to make amends with the one she left behind. But love doesn’t wait forever, and Evie finds a hopelessness greater than that which the loss of fame and fortune has already brought her. Eventually, Evie reclaims some semblance of the good life and focuses on raising her family, but secrets and unforgiveness are always there threatening her happiness and tearing apart her family. So, on the eve of her one hundredth birthday celebration, Evie sets about to break the legacy of despair that has plagued her family for three generations.
I love Roaring Twenties books! And this one sounds very epic. It also sounds like the story might start on her 100th birthday, and we got a great introductory blurb about her backstory. Let’s go through the six steps and see what we can do to restructure this premise a bit:
Step One – Evie Kimball – socialite, heiress, dreamer, aspiring actress. Probably the actress characterization is the strongest in this lineup.
Step Two – She dreams of being an actress, and naively believes true love will wait.
Step Three – Conflict – the Great Depression, and her true love doesn’t wait. There is no hero point of view (POV) here.
Step Four – Evie marries someone else, and secrets and unforgiveness threaten to tear about her family’s happiness
Step Five – Can she learn to forgive before it’s too late?
Step Six – dazzled, empty, broken, sweeping. These words add just a bit of color to the premise.
One of the interesting elements is the legacy of despair. I think that is an angle that could really be explored.
Aspiring actress Evie Kimball is dazzled by the bright lights of Broadway. Believing her true love will wait, she heads to New York, only to return years later to her hometown, empty and broken, thanks to the sweeping despair of the Great Depression. Worse, her love has chosen another—something she can’t forgive. Despite the fact that she marries, and has a family, she seems destined to live a life of brokenheartedness, like her mother, and grandmother before her. Will Evie learn, before it’s too late, how to forgive?
I left out the 100-year-old birthday, because maybe that’s not the crux of the story, and I brought in the legacy of despair. I also put the premise in active voice, which adds energy, and added some punch words.
Premise 2: A Regency!
Because of the lecherous bailiff who once accosted her, Annabel is afraid of men and horrified at the thought of marrying. Instead, she dreams of becoming a nun and of one day being allowed to read the Holy Writ. When her family's debts cause her to become indentured to wealthy Lord Ranulf, all hope seems lost.
Lord Ranulf is shocked by his feelings for his new servant. After being mauled and disfigured by a wolf at age
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