

Wednesday, January 31

Is Your Novel All Premise and No Plot?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Ideas come to me all the time. I have a folder on my computer that’s nothing but ideas, and I add to it every time something hits me—either another new idea or something to flesh out an existing idea. It’s pushing 50 ideas right now, but that doesn’t mean I have 50 books waiting to be written. Most of these ideas are nothing more than premises.

And a premise isn’t a plot.

Without that plot (and the conflict at the core of it) there’s no book. Great ideas can make great books, but only if that idea includes a character with a problem that must be solved or they will suffer the consequences of that failure.






Let’s take this premise and add a goal:
Now the premise has direction. It’s a quest story, where the goal is to get something—the way home. But there’s still no conflict or stakes, so we don’t quite have what we need yet for solid plot. We still don’t know:
  • What’s keeping this girl from this wizard?
  • What will happen if she fails?
  • Why should readers care if she gets home or gets to the wizard?

(Here's more on taking your idea from premise to plot)

Let’s add some conflict:

When you’re devising your story conflict, look for problems that connect your conflicts with your goals and tie the premise together. For even stronger conflicts, look for things the protagonist did to cause their own trouble.


Let’s add some stakes:


Do you have any premise-only ideas waiting for a plot? 





*This article was originally published during Rebecca Belliston’s March Madness.


  1. Silva Filho1/31/18, 9:38 AM

    Great post. Writing a paragraph like that is a real challenge.

    1. Please ignore any signs of poor English:

      To rescue his friend and return their paths to success in Torvale, Jafan must search for help from Consco, a local idol and leader of a powerful organization.

      But as he gets near the supposed hero, he finds disputes for power and a magical artifact that attracts more enemies and troubles than solutions. To keep hope of saving his friend, Jafan gets his hands bloody in relationships that threat his return to tranquil days.

    2. No worries, I speak fluent typo :) That looks like a good start. I can see concrete goals in there to shape the story.

  2. This is so so important. If my computer file for 'ideas' was a physical one, it would be bulging! I also have characters who have come to life, yet still have no story to live in.

    In editing, I run across many authors who have a great premise and have spent 50k words trying to create a story around it, then cannot figure out why the story cannot be structured to fully express the premise.

    Thanks for bringing this very simple issue to the forefront. It just might save some authors from struggling with a novel that cannot be written.

    Great post, as always!

    1. That's why I always write a query first :) Those premises can run for pages and pages before we realize they're not going anywhere.