Preptober: The Challenges of Your Premise
Why you should figure out what will make this story hard to write before you write it
For the last several books I’ve written, I’ve done almost all of my prewriting through the lens of John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story. It’s a deep book, a little difficult, but I’ve found I write much better stories when I honor his process.
I was going to write about worldbuilding today, but I don’t have much to say about it that I didn’t write already. I’ll link it here if that interests you more.
But what I want to talk about today is one prompt Truby gives in the very first section of his book. First, he asks you to develop a premise. That is, the single-line description of what the book is about. Then you are to brainstorm about what’s possible within that premise. What-ifs, ideas, anything. Remember, there are no wrong answers in brainstorming.
Then, when you’ve written one sentence and a few ideas for its possibilities, he invites you to look at the challenges and problems. Before you settle on the specifics for your character, before you look at relationship dynamics or theme, he says “you must confront these problems head-on and solve them if you are able to execute your story well.” (Truby, 23)
He then goes on to give examples of problems from stories as iconic as Star Wars, Forrest Gump, and The Great Gatsby. For instance, for Star Wars, “how do you introduce a wide range of characters quickly…make a futuristic story believable…[and] create character change in a hero who is morally good from the beginning”? (Truby, 23).
For my own NaNo Preptober, this question has, I think, saved my book before it’s even been written. I’m working on a loose Much Ado about Nothing retelling, but adult contemporary. Some of the challenges I saw in my premise:
- What sort of trouble will Hero get framed for, if I neither want to deal with the idea of purity before marriage or end with a literal wedding?
- How can I make a modern believable villain out of Don John, whose Shakespearean logic is almost entirely “I am bad because I want to be”?
- Beatrice is clearly the protagonist of Much Ado, but she has very little agency. So much of the story happens to her. How am I going to give her agency and clear goals to make the story fit modern conventions?
Since asking questions primes you to look for answers, Truby’s method here is grounded not only in good storytelling but in psychology as well. Outside of this idea of the benefits of asking questions, Truby presents two reasons you should look for these problems before you start:
- Every premise has inherent problems. You shouldn’t try to sidestep them; leaning into them and solving them in a unique way helps you find your true story.
- Most of the time, people don’t spot the problems until they’ve finished a draft. This is far too late, and reconstructing it to address the problems takes far more work than fixing them from the beginning.
I’d add one more reason to this list, too: if you anticipate the problems, solving them is simply part of the process. It isn’t time to give up, scrap the idea, or start over. It’s time to dig in to the inherent issues as a feature, not a bug, and solve them in a way that works with your story.
What are the challenges with your premise? Let me know in the comments, or journal them.
Happy planning!
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