In today’s blogpost, I will be sharing Part 3 of this video series on the topic of:  7 Steps to Nail Down Your Novel Before You Begin Writing.

Part 3 in this series, goes a little deeper on how to write a short summary of your story idea and write a one sentence book premise.

Just a little note: The ideas I share in this video series are brainstorming techniques that have helped me to write my own novels. But it’s important to remember that all writers are unique in their own way and what works for you … might not be what has worked for me. I want to encourage you to experiment with different methods for brainstorming your own story ideas — and come up with a way that works best for you.

But that being said, lets talk about tips on brainstorming and drafting memories and themes from your own life as you sketch out the beginnings of your novel.

Watch the Video or keep reading below to learn more…

Let’s dive into why it’s important to write a summary and start with a one-line premise.

It’s important to lay down the foundations before you begin writing your novel. To have a clear path right at the start.

There are well known and best selling authors like James Patterson who have a marketing background — who understand this and begin each book with a great idea — and a story summary and one-line premise that are compelling and driven to attract the right readers.

As fiction writers, we want to think like that too — that way our books have the best chance of selling well to our target readers.

That’s why an important 3rd step to Nail Down Your Novel before You Start writing: brainstorm and write a short summary of your story — inspired by the ideas you wrote down from Part 1 and 2 in this blogpost and video

Your summary is simply a one page story that highlights the main ideas of your story.

It’s important to include highlights such as: Your Hero’s ordinary world and the catalyst(that forces them to accept the call to adventure). Sketch out the Hero’s flaws and fears(a glimpse of their backstory) and their mentor that helps them in the adventure.

Just a note on digging deeper into your Hero’s and your main secondary character’s wounds and fears:

I find it helpful to look through ideas of possible backgrounds for my Hero — as I go through  The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.

I often have many “aha moments” as I read through the categories that are included with each topic.For instance, in the middle grade adventure novel I’m writing now, one of the topics I looked up in The Emotional Wound Thesaurus were: “Experiencing the death of a parent as a child or youth”(In my current story, my Heroine’s mother has recently died at the start of the book).

I read further down the page through the subcategories listed:
1)False Beliefs that could be embraced: a)people die when you need them the most. Or b)It’s better to hold back than love someone completely.
2)The Character May Fear: a)being abandoned or rejected. b)the vulnerability that comes with fully loving someone.
3)Possible Responses and Results: a)viewing life differently due to a loss of innocence. b)difficulty feeling secure.
4)Triggers that Might Aggravate this wound: a)the date of the parent’s death b)a difficult decision or personal struggle where parental advice would be welcome.
5)Opportunities to overcome this wound: a)losing a second parent or b)meeting someone who suffered a similar loss and being able to process it together.

It’s helpful to go through the topics that you feel might relate to your Main character.

For the next step…

Ask yourself questions like: What revelation does my hero have in the middle of the story?

For example: As I’m brainstorming my character who has just become an orphan, her revelation might be that even though she’s feels that it’s safer to hold back love because of her fears of rejection or abandonment or loss — perhaps her revelation(that comes from an experience she had with a good friend or family member) is that being vulnerable might be scary, but it’s worth it in the end to learn you are valued and loved for who you are.

Other questions to ask: What is their greatest fear that the Hero will need to face at the climax — this will become their All is Lost moment.

What your Hero fears the most — is what they will need to face at the climax. For example: In my current story, perhaps my orphan girl’s greatest fear is being abandoned again by someone she loves. At the climax she would need to face someone who she has come to love… abandoning her for some reason. Now that character might come back into her life or change their mind at the conclusion of the story, but the Hero will need to face that fear.

After you brainstormed the climax, remember to include the “aha moment” the Hero has as they enter Act 3.

These are the important points to include in your story’s summary.

After you’ve finished writing the summary of your story, next write down a one-line premise for your story. This is sometimes called an elevator pitch.

The premise is a one-line sentence that will be very compelling and will offer some sense of conflict or character motivation. When someone hears the premise they should be compelled to read your book.

What is a Book Premise?

It’s the underlying idea behind your story. It’s similar to a main storyline or concept, but punchier.

This is when you nail down your story into something short — a one-liner that is succinct and just as important that will grab reader’s attention and sell your book.

A book premise is your backbone of your novel and it’s a very useful focus to have in front of you as you write.

So you want it to be compelling and offer readers some sense of conflict or character motivation.

When a reader hears a good premise, they should be compelled to read the book… that’s what you want.

Ideally, it’s best to wait to write your book until you have fleshed out a clear premise line.

Some tips for Writing a Short Premise Line..

• It should be easy to write, if it isn’t… your story concept might be too complicated.
• You can also think of a strong premise line as an Elevator Pitch.

Here are some examples:

Sleeping Beauty:
“A princess falls asleep for one hundred years, and must be rescued by a prince’s kiss.”

Hansel and Gretel:
“Two children are lured into a witch’s gingerbread cottage and must escape.”

Other premise lines from bestselling novels:

“A teenage girl must fight 11 teens to the death in a dystopian kill zone.” The book? The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

“Science brings dinosaurs back to life and puts them in a theme park.” The book? Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

What makes a good book premise?

1.A good premise contains conflict or opposing forces.

For example — a situation that pits two characters together — like in the hunger games — a teenager against 11 heavily armed other teenagers.

A conflict can be a fight between two characters or it can also be metaphorical.

The conflict is between what the Main Character wants(their goals/desires) and the obstacles standing in their way of getting what they want.

2.A good premise should be simple enough that a child can understand it.

The average child over 7 should be able to understand what your story is about from your premise.

3.A good premise also creates conflict.

For instance in the hunger games: The premise: A girl is thrown into an arena with 11 other teens all of whom want to kill her. So it’s kill or be killed— which makes the stakes really high and it will be impossible to write this premise without conflict… which is great.

Conflict can be something violent and life threatening or it can be two characters with conflicting motivations.

Another example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

We can understand what the main conflict is in this novel, by the title.
The hero Mr. Darcy is proud and the heroine Elizabeth Bennet is prejudiced.

Elizabeth dislikes proud and rich people, probably because her family are on the lower echelons of polite society. And Mr. Darcy is aloof, proud and rich.
So there we have conflict.

Two people with very different outlook and experiences on life. We know they’re bound to come to some kind of disagreements and conflict of some kind. So we have character clash… which makes the story interesting.

The conflict will be resolved by the end of the story.

Readers(and humans in general) are fascinated by conflict and resolution. We are desperate to see how the drama unfolds and how it will be resolved by the end of the novel.

Tips to help you create a strong premise:

Ask “What If” questions:

“What if you fell in love with a vampire?” from Twilight.

By asking “What If” questions it helps you get one clear focus and conflict in one sentence. Try writing a “What If” question that fits with the chosen genre you want to write.

For example if you’re writing a romance ask: “What if a serious business person and a flighty and scatterbrained artist were together?”

What kind of conflicts can you create?

For example if you were writing a thriller, then you’d likely have darker more intriguing / mystery type questions:

“What if you wake up and don’t know who or where you are?”

After you have your “What If” question figured out — then you add more conflict. Make sure the stakes are very high.

Examples of high stakes for the character: Will your Hero lose his or her standing in society? Will they lose their. Family, child or even their life?

If you have a strong premise, writing the sales paragraph later will be easy and from there you can use the one-sentence premise line to focus on while you write your manuscript.

For Your Premise Line: Your focus is on the main character, their motivation and conflict. Try to get rid of any detail that doesn’t need to be there.

What does your main character Really want and what are the obstacles to getting what they really want?

This is your story’s premise.

So after you’ve written a short summary of your story and then nailing down your one-line premise… these are details that are helpful to have in place before you start putting in the many hours it will take to write your story.

This will help to bring focus to your writing and will help you have a strong story by the end of it.

After you’ve done that, you will be ready for the next blogpost and video in this series.

In Part 4: Learn how to brainstorm and write down details about your main character(your Hero or H1). What is their backstory and personality? Pick details you relate to and understand.

We’ve briefly touched on a few of those ideas today, but I’ll share what that looks like in the next blogpost and video.

Happy Writing! 🙂