Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Write Stuff - The Power of Premise

Next workshop from the Write Stuff: The Power of Premise with James Frey.

An example of a premise: Love leads to insanity (through a chain of causal events [jealousy]) - Othello's premise

Drunken slob leads to religious enlightenment (drunk, lose job, lose family and kids, get divorced, attempt suicide, seeks help, AA, finds religion)

Honesty leads to ruin.

Premise is not a moral.

Irony: man drowns wife, collects insurance money, buys a boat, goes out sailing and drowns.

Knowing your premise is a tyrant (because it helps you to focus on what scenes you need and don't need)

Elements of a dramatic story:

- Dramatic Character

Theatrical, extreme of type.
Active, determined.
Governed by a ruling passion (which can change throughout the story)

- Dramatic Struggle

High stakes
Don't have to be life or death
Honor, marriage, love

-Dramatic transformation

Never have a static character.

All transforming characters have a premise.

Alcoholism destroys love - plot premise
He triumphs alcoholism (MMC premise)
She doesn't. (FMC premise) (An example of a character with a changing ruling passion: first love of husband, then love of alcohol, he gets her into drinking)



Next blog post will be about How to Write Damn Good Prose (again from James Frey)

2 comments:

Aubrie said...

Great post! I make my premise be a moral or else it doesn't make sense to me to write about that. Maybe I'm just a prude. :)

Nicole Zoltack said...

I think most premises are morals, they just don't have to be. Then again, premise isn't that different from theme either so they all tie together.

~Nicole