Two months ago, I swore I wouldn’t buy any more books dealing with the craft of writing fiction. But after reading this and this post on the moral premise, my interest was piqued regarding the book The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue & Vice for Box Office Success by Stanley D. Williams.
Did I buy the book right away? Nope. Didn’t need to. The moral premise for my WIP came easily to me, thanks to the blog posts. It wasn’t until I started to figure out my next story that I became stuck. My moral premise was lame. Actually, it went beyond lame. It sucked.
So, I ordered the book and I’m glad I did.
The book goes into what the moral premise really means and why it can benefit your story. As Dr. Williams points out, theme only plays part of it. For example, the moral premise for the James Bond movies would be: The pursuit of power leads to death and defeat; while the pursuit of justice leads to life and success (taken from the book).
The Moral Premise brilliantly explains how to create yours based on vice and virtue, how to use it to create your characters, and how to apply it to your plot and story structure. It gives you a framework for building a strong story that won’t let you and your readers down.
If you want to write a story that will resonate with your readers, I highly recommend the book. It’s both insightful and enjoyable. In all honestly, I couldn’t put the book down (though I did skim through a few of the early chapters). And the best part of all, there are plenty of examples from movies to demonstrate the author’s points. Movies we’re all familiar with.
What is the last writing craft book you’ve read? Do you usually figure out your theme before writing your story?