Thank you Megan! 🤗 I've always feared premises, because (like you) I pretty much always start with a scene idea. I see the character, situation and that world first... But how to derive a theme from that? 🙄 This gave me a very useful entry point! 🍀☕️👍
Execuse meee this was for free!!!????Thank you sooo much for this videooo!!! I know a little bit about writing story (but super super begginer:)), I also started to read "The art of dramatic writing" by Egri (it was left at my uni as "take for free") and I loved his explanation on the premise, but it was a little to vauge for me, so I searched on youtube. But mostly I see people mistake the premise with "whole story in one sentence", which doesn't make sense to me. You were the first one to really talk about the premise but also add more to what I already know and it helped me so much!!! I'm just starting, so it will be a long road, but I can't wait to see your other videos!!
Haha well thanks! I'm so glad you found it helpful :). I LOVE the Art of Dramatic Writing - that book totally changed how I view it 😆. So glad I could help make things a bit more concrete ☺️ And don't worry, we are on the road together! It's a long road but a worthwhile one to take ☺️
@@meganmaclaine I guess Im lucky someone just left this book to take for free on my uni, I wouldn't really search for this kind of book otherwise 🤣 I believe there is no one right way to create stories, but I use those tips that feel like they sit right with me. "The art.." and your videos are definitely those that feel good with me and I trust my intuition 🥰 - I follow those advices that make cresting a story feeling like its super easy and fun! See you around! Btw, do you also have tik tok account related to those topics:)? Or insta/fb?
Magan ! Great video script articulation, great voice accsent , clarity in words, beautiful rhythmic speed of words ,very easy to follow the captions and the subject PREMISE is understood in a great way . Many Thanks.
Thought steak like bacon nom 🤤 nom. Great tips! Kinda like you need to take a step back and think about the hinges, and pivots of that metaphorical skeleton. One thing that also came to mind also was to keep the events with in the likely hood of that character’s probabilistic course of action, that is what they would do as a character. Using your example, Yes you could make your new witch maiden have a pride fall, it just seems awkward for a “good” magic user get startled by a door opening. I know the example was a on the spot thing, I feel it is important that we remember though that those easy extremes are great for conveying an analogy, but not as a rule for literal interpretation. In short if you see the writer’s hand, and a supremely unlikely event happens with out causal relevance to the established story beats it breaks our suspended disbelief in the story and it makes the story feel to contrived. That’s just this monkeys thoughts 😊
Thank you for watching!! And for sharing your thoughts :) Yes, I agree. Whenever something unlikely or out of character happens in a story, I'm always pulled out of it so fast! A great thing to point out, and I appreciate your grace for a spur-of-the-moment example ;)
totally! Yeah you were thinking off the cuff there and I know it was a simple contrived example. U good 😊👍 And I have noticed a bias in your story examples to be extreme in outcomes. Not judging just noticing. Just as a thought, what would you say to idea of meh outcomes? Like not great not good, meh. Kinda like Italian new realism? Or French new wave? (Film stuff I know but still) when do the outcomes need to be extreme to be effective? Thx for what u do 😊
@@fiercemonkey1 Love this! Weirdly enough, I was just thinking about talking about this exact thing in another video. I am definitely a fan of 'meh' outcomes too, and have a lot more of that in my own writing. Endings that just sort of...are, haha. I've studied a lot of writers who present characters just living their normal lives and there isn't necessarily a bow tied to it at the end. To me, those endings are a lot more real and can leave more food for thought. But I do think that a lot of writers who want to write commercial fiction, young adult, or genre fiction tend to benefit from a more 'extreme' outcome, but it's all dependent on the type of story and the effect you're going for, for sure! What do you think? And are you working on a story right now? :)
@@meganmaclaine hey, well I am writing one I think. Several I think. I still feel like I’m just actualizing what it is I even want to say, then I will get flashes of this character in this place, then a jump. Still learning how to craft the story 😊
This makes so much sense as the thing hidden in a story that is basically the underlying moral or lesson of the story. I've had ideas for scenes and characters, but something was always missing. I need to figure out what my story's premise is. Thank you! Also, congrats on 1k subscribers!
While I have occasionally gotten a premise in my head before the story, most of the time I craft my story by discovery writing. This allows me to create a natural-feeling narrative even when I don't have any preexisting ideas. This will usually morph into a coherent premise, but I find that starting with a premise tends to feel more artificial to me, like all the events in the world were specifically crafted to fit it.
Hi B.K.! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this - you make a good point. I think it's similar for me, too, honestly. I almost never start out with a premise but more like a character or a scene that comes to mind, some kind of story idea, etc. From there though, I do try to figure out okay, based on those things, what could the premise of this story be? That just helps me know where the story is going so I can work more intentionally on it (and hopefully so it makes more sense 🤣). But it sounds like your premise emerges organically as you go and that that's a process that has worked well for you so far 😍. If it ain't broke!
Hi! Your comment totally got lost in the shuffle - sorry about that!! This is a great question. I don't know too much about your story, but this makes me wonder if there's a way for your sleuth to still learn and change throughout the story? I think every case would definitely impact a detective, especially one who's just starting out (an amateur), so I'd still ask myself, 'what is he/she going to learn by the end?' If you're starting with an idea for a case (which often happens when writing mysteries), maybe the question becomes, 'what will he/she learn as a result of working on this case?' or 'how is this case going to change him/her?' and then going from there. What do you think? I hope that helps a bit!
I am writing a multiple POV fantasy novel, so do you think it would be possible for each POV to have their own premise? And if so, do you think the story as a whole should have an overarching premise as well?
Usually, the premise is for the overarching story and what your reader will end up taking away from it. But I definitely think you can have an individual lesson for each POV to learn throughout! Those could even be related to the premise but slightly different or entirely different. Do you have one POV that is more of your 'main' story vs. the others?
This is awsome! I'm so glad I found this video and your channel. I've been trying to finish writing a novel but still ended up being stuck at the first 5 chapters and somehow I realized that this is what I'm missing out. I missed to generate a premise so I often get lost on how to move forward. But right now I was being enlightened by this video of yours that I could literally cry of gratefulness😭 I just love it and it helps me a lot to keep on track of my story. The premise I come up with is "Crossing the thin line between uncertainty and certainty" but I felt like there's a missing piece about that which I can't point out😅 Is this okay, Ms. Megan? Anyways, thank you so much for these videos. I'm gonna watch more hehee❤
Oh yaaaay welcome! Thankful you're here ^.^ and I'm so, so glad you found this helpful! I think that is a good start to your premise, but yes I do think it's missing a piece. Basically you have the "before" and now you need the "after." If your main character crosses the thin line between uncertainty and certainty, what happens to them? What do they need to learn about crossing that line? Essentially, where are you hoping your main character ends up by the end of your story?
@@meganmaclaine "Crossing the thin line between uncertainty and certainty opens up a path filled with mystery that leads to a journey of healing." Was this too long or is it okay?😅 Btw, thank you so much for the tip💖
@@nylislost you’re so welcome! You could shorten it to “crossing the thin line between certainty and uncertainty leads to a journey of healing” if you want it to be shorter, but I think it works great as is! :)
Hmm, good question. Maybe it would help to think about what kinds of people (or beings) live in that environment? What goes on there? Maybe do some freewriting as if YOU were living there - what is there to do? What people do you meet? From there, you can start finding a character or two to then build a premise around :)
Hi! So I've already done a lot of work with my story, but I have a hard time wording my premise in a way that makes sense. The closest I can come to wording it is "Denying/Fearing and/or letting your feelings control you leads to a loss of self and missery", does that make sense as a premise?
Hi! Thanks for reaching out. Yes, if that's the main idea your character comes to learn by the end, I'd say it's a perfectly fine premise! It would make me expect that your character learns not to let their feelings control them. They start out doing that, but it leads to loss of self/misery, which then teaches them the lesson. The only thing I'd say is that it seems like they end up in a place of loss of self/misery (which is totally fine). Not sure if that's what you're going for though. But either way, I'd say it's perfectly fine :)
Would you be able to take my logline for my feature screenplay and put a premise into words? I still find myself over-thinking this when I'm guessing it's easier than I realize? I'm guessing when I tell a producer my premise it needs to be short and concise. Sniper in Cartel Land When a retired sniper and his family face homelessness, a Mexican kingpin hires him to smuggle drugs across the border and train the young cartel crews. Soon enough though, the sniper discovers a child-trafficking operation that he must destroy - despite the consequences.
Hi! I don't know enough about your story, unfortunately. That longline seems pretty concise to me, though! If you're trying to figure out a premise like the ones I describe in this video, you'll want to consider what your main character learns and/or how they change over the course of the story. What's the bigger "theme" or arc behind the action?
I'm assuming you mean the arch of the story? On page 38 might be the sniper's discover of drugs in boss' flooring truck where Markus(sniper) makes deliveries across the boarder. He discovers the drugs in his truck, a little cocaine for himself, and motive to go behind his boss' back(kingpin), only to discover the children, and lots of dynamite. The other arch could be on page 70 ...might be while sniper is on patrol of kingpins mansion, he discovers a girl and cartel guard coming out of a tunnel behind mansion. Im guessing this would be that "ah ha" moment. which becomes the snipers goal, to rescue this girl and more. Could this be the turn which usually happens around minute 60 in screenplays? IF we are talking character Arch, then that would be when sniper throws the drugs away that he's abusing and goes to pursue taking down the sex/drug operation and rescue children in shipping containers at the lithium mines, where kingpin has taken over the mining refinery to control lithium production.@@meganmaclaine
Who else is distracted by that adorable kitty in the background?
Awesome video btw.
Hahah thanks so much! Sunny loves to make a cameo :)
More Cat - HaHaHa. @@meganmaclaine
Love from India...great vedio
Thank you!!
Thank you Megan! 🤗 I've always feared premises, because (like you) I pretty much always start with a scene idea. I see the character, situation and that world first... But how to derive a theme from that? 🙄 This gave me a very useful entry point! 🍀☕️👍
I'm so glad you found it helpful!!
Execuse meee this was for free!!!????Thank you sooo much for this videooo!!! I know a little bit about writing story (but super super begginer:)), I also started to read "The art of dramatic writing" by Egri (it was left at my uni as "take for free") and I loved his explanation on the premise, but it was a little to vauge for me, so I searched on youtube. But mostly I see people mistake the premise with "whole story in one sentence", which doesn't make sense to me. You were the first one to really talk about the premise but also add more to what I already know and it helped me so much!!! I'm just starting, so it will be a long road, but I can't wait to see your other videos!!
Haha well thanks! I'm so glad you found it helpful :). I LOVE the Art of Dramatic Writing - that book totally changed how I view it 😆. So glad I could help make things a bit more concrete ☺️
And don't worry, we are on the road together! It's a long road but a worthwhile one to take ☺️
@@meganmaclaine I guess Im lucky someone just left this book to take for free on my uni, I wouldn't really search for this kind of book otherwise 🤣 I believe there is no one right way to create stories, but I use those tips that feel like they sit right with me. "The art.." and your videos are definitely those that feel good with me and I trust my intuition 🥰 - I follow those advices that make cresting a story feeling like its super easy and fun! See you around! Btw, do you also have tik tok account related to those topics:)? Or insta/fb?
@@zofiago6767 I'm so glad to hear that ^.^ and I think that's a great way to approach it :). Yes! I'm on IG @meganmaclaine
Magan ! Great video script articulation, great voice accsent , clarity in words, beautiful rhythmic speed of words ,very easy to follow the captions and the subject PREMISE is understood in a great way . Many Thanks.
Thank you tons!!
Great video - Do premises tell the whole story in a nutshell? And why not. Of course, getting there is a whole nether story.
This was actually really great! Just subscribed 😊 looking forward to seeing more
Thank you so much!!
Thanks. Useful video.
Thank YOU! Glad it was helpful!
Thought steak like bacon nom 🤤 nom. Great tips! Kinda like you need to take a step back and think about the hinges, and pivots of that metaphorical skeleton.
One thing that also came to mind also was to keep the events with in the likely hood of that character’s probabilistic course of action, that is what they would do as a character.
Using your example, Yes you could make your new witch maiden have a pride fall, it just seems awkward for a “good” magic user get startled by a door opening. I know the example was a on the spot thing, I feel it is important that we remember though that those easy extremes are great for conveying an analogy, but not as a rule for literal interpretation.
In short if you see the writer’s hand, and a supremely unlikely event happens with out causal relevance to the established story beats it breaks our suspended disbelief in the story and it makes the story feel to contrived.
That’s just this monkeys thoughts 😊
Thank you for watching!! And for sharing your thoughts :) Yes, I agree. Whenever something unlikely or out of character happens in a story, I'm always pulled out of it so fast! A great thing to point out, and I appreciate your grace for a spur-of-the-moment example ;)
totally! Yeah you were thinking off the cuff there and I know it was a simple contrived example. U good 😊👍 And I have noticed a bias in your story examples to be extreme in outcomes. Not judging just noticing. Just as a thought, what would you say to idea of meh outcomes? Like not great not good, meh.
Kinda like Italian new realism? Or French new wave? (Film stuff I know but still) when do the outcomes need to be extreme to be effective?
Thx for what u do 😊
@@fiercemonkey1 Love this! Weirdly enough, I was just thinking about talking about this exact thing in another video. I am definitely a fan of 'meh' outcomes too, and have a lot more of that in my own writing. Endings that just sort of...are, haha. I've studied a lot of writers who present characters just living their normal lives and there isn't necessarily a bow tied to it at the end. To me, those endings are a lot more real and can leave more food for thought.
But I do think that a lot of writers who want to write commercial fiction, young adult, or genre fiction tend to benefit from a more 'extreme' outcome, but it's all dependent on the type of story and the effect you're going for, for sure! What do you think? And are you working on a story right now? :)
@@meganmaclaine hey, well I am writing one I think. Several I think. I still feel like I’m just actualizing what it is I even want to say, then I will get flashes of this character in this place, then a jump. Still learning how to craft the story 😊
@@fiercemonkey1 Gotcha! Sounds like the full concept is still materializing - I will you all the best as you continue with it! :)
This makes so much sense as the thing hidden in a story that is basically the underlying moral or lesson of the story. I've had ideas for scenes and characters, but something was always missing. I need to figure out what my story's premise is. Thank you! Also, congrats on 1k subscribers!
I'm so glad! Yes, it helps to give the story a backbone of sorts that everything can rest on. And thank you!! 1k 🥳
Nice video, and I loved seeing your cat in the background lol very cute 🐈
Thank you!! ☺️ they love to make appearances haha 😆
While I have occasionally gotten a premise in my head before the story, most of the time I craft my story by discovery writing. This allows me to create a natural-feeling narrative even when I don't have any preexisting ideas. This will usually morph into a coherent premise, but I find that starting with a premise tends to feel more artificial to me, like all the events in the world were specifically crafted to fit it.
Hi B.K.! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this - you make a good point. I think it's similar for me, too, honestly. I almost never start out with a premise but more like a character or a scene that comes to mind, some kind of story idea, etc. From there though, I do try to figure out okay, based on those things, what could the premise of this story be? That just helps me know where the story is going so I can work more intentionally on it (and hopefully so it makes more sense 🤣). But it sounds like your premise emerges organically as you go and that that's a process that has worked well for you so far 😍. If it ain't broke!
"work more intentionally" ; as a school teacher, I like that direction and use it a lot in my own screenwriting. :o) @@meganmaclaine
Great advice. I'm just not sure how to use this technique when writing a static character. For example, an amateur sleuth in a murder mystery series.
Hi! Your comment totally got lost in the shuffle - sorry about that!! This is a great question. I don't know too much about your story, but this makes me wonder if there's a way for your sleuth to still learn and change throughout the story? I think every case would definitely impact a detective, especially one who's just starting out (an amateur), so I'd still ask myself, 'what is he/she going to learn by the end?' If you're starting with an idea for a case (which often happens when writing mysteries), maybe the question becomes, 'what will he/she learn as a result of working on this case?' or 'how is this case going to change him/her?' and then going from there. What do you think? I hope that helps a bit!
I am writing a multiple POV fantasy novel, so do you think it would be possible for each POV to have their own premise? And if so, do you think the story as a whole should have an overarching premise as well?
Usually, the premise is for the overarching story and what your reader will end up taking away from it. But I definitely think you can have an individual lesson for each POV to learn throughout! Those could even be related to the premise but slightly different or entirely different. Do you have one POV that is more of your 'main' story vs. the others?
This is awsome! I'm so glad I found this video and your channel. I've been trying to finish writing a novel but still ended up being stuck at the first 5 chapters and somehow I realized that this is what I'm missing out. I missed to generate a premise so I often get lost on how to move forward. But right now I was being enlightened by this video of yours that I could literally cry of gratefulness😭 I just love it and it helps me a lot to keep on track of my story.
The premise I come up with is "Crossing the thin line between uncertainty and certainty" but I felt like there's a missing piece about that which I can't point out😅
Is this okay, Ms. Megan?
Anyways, thank you so much for these videos. I'm gonna watch more hehee❤
Oh yaaaay welcome! Thankful you're here ^.^ and I'm so, so glad you found this helpful! I think that is a good start to your premise, but yes I do think it's missing a piece. Basically you have the "before" and now you need the "after." If your main character crosses the thin line between uncertainty and certainty, what happens to them? What do they need to learn about crossing that line? Essentially, where are you hoping your main character ends up by the end of your story?
@@meganmaclaine "Crossing the thin line between uncertainty and certainty opens up a path filled with mystery that leads to a journey of healing."
Was this too long or is it okay?😅 Btw, thank you so much for the tip💖
@@nylislost you’re so welcome! You could shorten it to “crossing the thin line between certainty and uncertainty leads to a journey of healing” if you want it to be shorter, but I think it works great as is! :)
Wow...I m biswajit das from India
What about for people who start with a setting? I have a tendency of making an environment but struggle to come up with a story.
Hmm, good question. Maybe it would help to think about what kinds of people (or beings) live in that environment? What goes on there? Maybe do some freewriting as if YOU were living there - what is there to do? What people do you meet? From there, you can start finding a character or two to then build a premise around :)
@@meganmaclaine Thank you! I'll try that!
Hi! So I've already done a lot of work with my story, but I have a hard time wording my premise in a way that makes sense. The closest I can come to wording it is "Denying/Fearing and/or letting your feelings control you leads to a loss of self and missery", does that make sense as a premise?
Hi! Thanks for reaching out. Yes, if that's the main idea your character comes to learn by the end, I'd say it's a perfectly fine premise! It would make me expect that your character learns not to let their feelings control them. They start out doing that, but it leads to loss of self/misery, which then teaches them the lesson. The only thing I'd say is that it seems like they end up in a place of loss of self/misery (which is totally fine). Not sure if that's what you're going for though. But either way, I'd say it's perfectly fine :)
From the moral premise... we can know conflict
Greediness leads to own destruction... an honestly leads to own succeeded
Premise line is story direction and know about happy ending
or sad ending or know about theme
Like greediness leads to own destruction
At 609 in the video a large red cat comes into the scene. Cat steals the scene. Girl is very cute but he cat's awesome!
Sunny says thank you!
Would you be able to take my logline for my feature screenplay and put a premise into words? I still find myself over-thinking this when I'm guessing it's easier than I realize? I'm guessing when I tell a producer my premise it needs to be short and concise.
Sniper in Cartel Land
When a retired sniper and his family face homelessness, a Mexican kingpin hires him to smuggle drugs across the border and train the young cartel crews. Soon enough though, the sniper discovers a child-trafficking operation that he must destroy - despite the consequences.
Hi! I don't know enough about your story, unfortunately. That longline seems pretty concise to me, though! If you're trying to figure out a premise like the ones I describe in this video, you'll want to consider what your main character learns and/or how they change over the course of the story. What's the bigger "theme" or arc behind the action?
I'm assuming you mean the arch of the story?
On page 38 might be the sniper's discover of drugs in boss' flooring truck where Markus(sniper) makes deliveries across the boarder. He discovers the drugs in his truck, a little cocaine for himself, and motive to go behind his boss' back(kingpin), only to discover the children, and lots of dynamite.
The other arch could be on page 70 ...might be while sniper is on patrol of kingpins mansion, he discovers a girl and cartel guard coming out of a tunnel behind mansion. Im guessing this would be that "ah ha" moment. which becomes the snipers goal, to rescue this girl and more. Could this be the turn which usually happens around minute 60 in screenplays?
IF we are talking character Arch, then that would be when sniper throws the drugs away that he's abusing and goes to pursue taking down the sex/drug operation and rescue children in shipping containers at the lithium mines, where kingpin has taken over the mining refinery to control lithium production.@@meganmaclaine
Instead of a happily ever after. I thought this: the unforgivable can never be forgiven. What you think?
You definitely don't have to have a happy ending! That premise can for sure be something your character learns by the end