A Premise Line and a Writing Path

You are at the VERY BEGINNING of the writing process for a great story idea you have been toying with for years. Do you buy screenwriting software and plug in your characters and start typing away? Answer: NO. THIS IS THE DEATH KNELL FOR A STORY. AFTER A FEW PAGES, YOU WILL BE LOST.

TAKE YOUR TIME…A premise is also called a Log Line. If you stand in a parking lot and yell across to a friend and tell the friend what the story is about, you should require only one or two sentences. In Premise talk, you should be able to tell what your story is about in approximately 30 words or less.

A Premise is a combination of character and plot. It is NOT theme, not a character’s weakness, not every detail in the story, not a sequence of events. It should include the following:

1. The inciting incident

2. The main character

3. The problem (highly summarized) inherent in the story

4. The genre

5. Who the opponent(s) are in general terms: the killers, a great white shark, a mafia family, an abusive mother
6. The stakes in the story. ie. How important is it that the protagonist find the missing child?

A Premise gives you the “High Concept” of the story. The “high concept” is the premise with a flip, a story that transcends the usual, with unlikely outcomes. The Premise should NEVER be the same as a movie you have seen. The Premise should never be an idea that you cannot develop into a story that has all the structure beats.

Here are examples of some famous Premise Lines:

Jaws – Great white shark eats tourists off a small East Coast island community; a conflict-avoiding, water-phobic sheriff has to go out and kill it. 

The Inciting Incident in JAWS is when someone is eaten alive by the Great White. The main character is the sheriff. The outcome of the story is that the Great White is killed.

Mrs. Doubtfire – a Divorced Dad who misses his kids disguises himself as a British nanny and is hired by his ex- so he can see his kids more.  

The Inciting Incident is when the divorced dad is told by a judge that his wife has sole custody of his kids. The main character is the divorced dad. The outcome of the story is that the divorced dad will be able to see his kids.

THE FIRM – A young lawyer joins a law firm, only to be told by FBI he’ll be indicted soon since it is Mafia-owned; no one quits. 

The Inciting Incident in THE FIRM is when the young lawyer joins a law firm. The main character is the young lawyer. The outcome of the story is that the young lawyer will find a way out of the Mafia-owned firm without getting killed.

Practice writing your Premise Line. The more you do this exercise, the better equipped you will be to start writing your story. Please note: Come up with a “working premise line,” knowing that as your story progresses, you will massage/change/ rework about a hundred times until you’ve gotten it just right!