I read People magazine on the regular (it’s my guilty pleasure), and one thing I love about it is there’s always a “Best New Books” section, mostly filled with novels. I love reading this section to keep tabs on the new books that are coming out.
Plus, I always learn something about Concept and Premise.
Take the write up I saw for the book, Maybe In Another Life, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The write-up for this book details the plot as:
“Tired of meaningless jobs and fresh from a breakup, 29-year-old Hannah goes home to L.A. seeking a new start. What she encounters first is her old boyfriend, Ethan, in a bar. Is it fate? Should she stay with him or leave with her friend? In parallel story lines, Reid plays out the consequences of each decision.“
What’s Conceptual about this story is the parallel story lines–we’re seeing two stories happening to the same character simultaneously, and we don’t know which one is reality and which isn’t. This in and of itself is interesting, and an Antagonist hasn’t even been introduced.
And then the Premise happens when we see that she has moved all the way back home–only to run into her high school boyfriend (the story’s Antagonist, I’m assuming, since I haven’t read the book).
Where Story Ideas Comes From
I don’t know about you, but I love the Concept that Reid is playing with in this story. It has so much inherent conflict, and so many possibilities built right in. It’d be cool to know where the idea for this story came from, and how it transformed into the book Reid published.
‘Cause story ideas are just that–ideas. They aren’t actual stories. Not yet.
In order to count as a story, it needs a whole list of things, like a Protagonist, an Antagonist, a Concept, a vicarious experience, and something happening.
Story ideas are merely seeds or sparks of inspiration that can be turned into a story by asking questions, playing with different scenarios, and finding the most optimal choices.
But a good story can be sparked by almost anything:
- something you hear or see in real life
- a story in the newspaper
- a song lyric
- another story
- an experience you’ve had
- an experience someone else has had
- an experience you’d like to have
- a character
- a setting
- a year in history
This list of story sparks could go on forever…
But none of these sparks is an actual story. Not yet.
First, a Concept and Premise needs to be introduced.
An Inside Look
There’s so much that goes into what you see in the final published story. And there’s so much that came before it–the story development process, writing the draft, revising the story, editing, polishing, etc.
Problem is, you rarely ever get to see this stuff. All you ever see is the final product.
So I wanted to give you an inside look at my story planning and development process, the one I use for my stories and all of my client’s stories. I’m live-planning my new story starting next Monday.
The idea seed for my new story comes from something that actually happened. Back in 2008, I came across an inspiring story online that totally captured my heart–a Starbucks barista donated a kidney to one of her customers.
It struck a chord with me, and made me ask a lot of questions:
- Why would someone donate a kidney to an almost-stranger?
- What would it be like to go through this experience?
- How would it change you?
These questions were enough to hold my interest and spark a story idea that I’ve been marinating on for years.
Next week, I’m diving deeper into how I’m turning this idea seed into an actual story, with a Concept and a Premise.
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Hello Jennifer,
This is really interesting. I also wonders how people usually come up with good stories.
But as you said, there so many ways to go about it especially through reading. The more you read, the more you’ll discover some things that can make up a good story.
Its all about being super creative.
Thanks for sharing.
@Theodore Yep, super creative and super observant 🙂
Very interesting points. A lot of the stories I come up with are spur of the moment while I’m doing something else. It could be watching a movie, reading a book, talking to someone…and something will just click over.
@H. Robert I love how story ideas just seem to come from nowhere. Just sitting there and then boom, an amazing idea that you have to now go chase and find more about. Love it.
Great post! I enjoy the way you differentiate sources of inspiration from the stuff of story.
I like to think of that difference in in terms of conflict. Without a protagonist, his/her goal, and a massive gap between them, the story can’t take off. A lot of “situations” are inspiring, but amount to nothing when we try to write them down. Odds are this is because the situation lacks a protag+goal.
@David Exactly! The story needs a Protagonist with a goal. That’s what makes a big difference in turning an idea into an actual story.