Tag: premise

scrabble tiles on an orange background - most are face down, but four spell out the word plan
Posted in Before You Begin, Craft, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing, Tools

Preplanning and Beginning to Write Your Novel

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Preplanning your novel. Some people outline, other writers just write. I’m the latter—a pantser with a plan. So, before we go any further, an explanation of the methods:

“To Pants or To Plot: Which One Is Best for Your Story?” by Nisha Tuli. This article has lots of references to other reading as well.

If you’re an outliner, I thought this article was helpful: “Outline Tools to Structure Your Children’s Book Plot.”

As a pantser, I still need to know some things before I can start actually writing. Whether I start with a character or plot, I need to know a little bit about who and what. I also like to have thoughts on where I think the story is going.

These posts from my archives might be of use before you write your novel.

Character related:

Making Friends: Character Development

Naming Characters – from Mary’s Notebook

Naming Your Character

The Right Number of Characters

Show Your Character’s Character

Viewpoint in Children’s Fiction – point of view – which can definitely change as you revise

Plot related:

Novel-sized Problem

Raise the stakes, honey!

Know what you’re writing:

So, You Want to Write a Book…

Theme and Premise

Writing a Novel? Where Does It Fit?

Especially for pantsers:

If you’re at the beginning stages of writing a novel, and don’t have an outline, how do you keep track of people, scenes, days of the week, etc.?

Here are some posts sharing thoughts on those topics:

Do You Have Style? aka Master Character Chart

The Story Ladder or Novel Timeline

I’d love to hear from others on how they plan and begin a novel. Feel free to share in comments.

Posted in Craft, The Nitty Gritty of Children's Writing

Theme and Premise

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

What do you want to convey in your story? I’m not talking about preaching or moralizing, but the concept you want a reader to take away from your story. The theme.
Theme might be called an underlying truth. A foundation for the story that will help guide the story. A focus or center. It’s not plot. It’s not necessarily the subject. It’s might be described as something important that the writer believes applies to the subject.
For example, in the Harry Potter stories, the theme is “good conquers evil.” The theme in the Twilight series might be “true love overcomes all.” These concepts are not stated in so many words. The writer shows the theme instead of telling it.
In a novel there can be multiple themes. i.e. Harry Potter books: “loyalty to friends,” “hard work” and “perseverance.” The Twilight books: “protect your family” and “don’t give up on getting what you want.”
Often authors have a common underlying theme for their non series books or book series that feature different main characters. One adult author I read comes to mind: LE Modesitt Junior’s books often express the theme of “hard work;” so much so that his characters make me feel lazy. Yet, he’s not preaching at me. Instead his characters believe in hard work and follow through and I become impressed with what they do as I read. Modesitt must also believe in hard work–just look at his number of published novels.
Resources
I recently read a blog entry on theme that makes a lot of sense. Novelist Larry Brooks. says theme helps a book be memorable. He recommends including your theme in your “What’s your book about?” answer. Read more at http://menwithpens.ca/fiction-writing-story-theme.
Laura Elvin refers to it as the “why of the story” in this article on theme in short stories.
Now what about premise?
Some writers use the terms theme and premise interchangeably. Rightly or wrongly, I view theme as general and premise more specific. So back to Harry Potter: “a young good wizard will conquer the evil old wizard.” A premise for the Twilight series might be “if her love is strong enough, a girl can even win the vampire she loves.” It’s the kernel of the story. Premise might also be described as the situation or the central idea of the story.
Jeanne Vincent has an interesting article on the difference between theme and premise. Alexandra Sokoloff talks about the premise being the pitch for the story. I like her approach. Read it here: http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/2008/05/whats-your-premise.html
However, whatever you call them, these concepts are necessary for a compelling story. You may use them unconsciously as you write or you may have to plan.
Thinking about these again makes me realize I need to make sure I know what the themes are for my works in progress. I believe knowing will help me focus my stories and in the end result in a better project.