©Stina Lindenblatt
With NaNoWriMo starting next week, I thought I’d pull out some quotes from my pile of writing craft books to help get you ready. Today, I’m focusing on concept.
CONCEPT + CHARACTERS X CONFLICT = NOVEL
Concept is the big idea, the basic premise, the one-liner that will explain your story. . . . Now, knowing this, can you guess the formula for a great novel?
Here it is:
CONCEPTX+ CHARACTERSX x CONFLICTX = GREAT NOVEL
Where x represent some factor beyond the average. You take each element and make it more. Stronger, better. [Who knew writing fiction could be so mathematical???]
Revision & Self-Editing: Techniques for transforming your first draft into a finished novel by James Scott Bell.
If your story concept contains the potential for your hero to become a more evolved, individuated person, then both the commercial and artistic potential of your story increase. . . . [The] character arc means finding not just the physical courage to achieve the outer motivation, but the emotional courage as well.
Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge (great book for novelists, too)
It’s not really the situation that drives a great story concept; it’s the desire that grows out of it. Without giving your hero or protagonist some compelling goal to pursue, your story will have no forward movement, your audience will have nothing to root for, and your reader will have no compelling reason to keep turning the pages of your script.
Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge
One last reason you must have a good premise is that it’s the one decision on which every other decision you make during the writing process is based. Character, plot, them, symbol—it all comes out of this story idea. If you fail at the premise, nothing else will help. If a building’s foundation is flawed, no amount of work on the floors above will make the building stable. [Yeah, no pressure there!]
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby
Do you usually start with a story concept/premise first when planning a new project?