How to Find Your Story's Premise | Story Premise Ideas & Story Themes

-- Grab my FIND YOUR STORY PREMISE WORKBOOK --

Ever asked yourself, "Where is my story going?" or "What's my story about?" This video is for creative writers looking for writing tips on how to come up with a story premise. I used to start all my new stories based on a scene, character, or idea that popped into my head. But it took forever to figure out a plot or develop my characters. In this video, I teach you how to take those ideas and turn them into a story premise that can give your story focus and direction.

Find a story premise so you don't get stuck wondering what happens next in your story. A strong story idea can help you know how to develop characters and how to plot a novel.

Don't spend years on a project that you could finish in far less time. Let's go!! #creativewriting #writingtips #theorganizedwriter #organizeyourwriting #storyideas #storypremise

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How to Find Your Story's Premise | Story Premise Ideas & Story Themes

[willowdigger]

Who else is distracted by that adorable kitty in the background?
Awesome video btw.

[samonamission_]

Thank you Megan! 🤗 I've always feared premises, because (like you) I pretty much always start with a scene idea. I see the character, situation and that world first... But how to derive a theme from that? 🙄 This gave me a very useful entry point! 🍀☕️👍

[zofiago]

Execuse meee this was for free!!!????Thank you sooo much for this videooo!!! I know a little bit about writing story (but super super begginer:)), I also started to read "The art of dramatic writing" by Egri (it was left at my uni as "take for free") and I loved his explanation on the premise, but it was a little to vauge for me, so I searched on youtube. But mostly I see people mistake the premise with "whole story in one sentence", which doesn't make sense to me. You were the first one to really talk about the premise but also add more to what I already know and it helped me so much!!! I'm just starting, so it will be a long road, but I can't wait to see your other videos!!

[bakhshishsingh]

Magan ! Great video script articulation, great voice accsent, clarity in words, beautiful rhythmic speed of words, very easy to follow the captions and the subject PREMISE is understood in a great way . Many Thanks.

[amandalionelli]

This was actually really great! Just subscribed 😊 looking forward to seeing more

[ChromeVader]

This makes so much sense as the thing hidden in a story that is basically the underlying moral or lesson of the story. I've had ideas for scenes and characters, but something was always missing. I need to figure out what my story's premise is. Thank you! Also, congrats on 1k subscribers!

[fiercemonkey]

Thought steak like bacon nom 🤤 nom. Great tips! Kinda like you need to take a step back and think about the hinges, and pivots of that metaphorical skeleton.

One thing that also came to mind also was to keep the events with in the likely hood of that character’s probabilistic course of action, that is what they would do as a character.

Using your example, Yes you could make your new witch maiden have a pride fall, it just seems awkward for a “good” magic user get startled by a door opening. I know the example was a on the spot thing, I feel it is important that we remember though that those easy extremes are great for conveying an analogy, but not as a rule for literal interpretation.

In short if you see the writer’s hand, and a supremely unlikely event happens with out causal relevance to the established story beats it breaks our suspended disbelief in the story and it makes the story feel to contrived.


That’s just this monkeys thoughts 😊

[josephstanski]

Great video - Do premises tell the whole story in a nutshell? And why not. Of course, getting there is a whole nether story.

[keirac.]

I am writing a multiple POV fantasy novel, so do you think it would be possible for each POV to have their own premise? And if so, do you think the story as a whole should have an overarching premise as well?

[blue]

Nice video, and I loved seeing your cat in the background lol very cute 🐈

[BKPrice]

While I have occasionally gotten a premise in my head before the story, most of the time I craft my story by discovery writing. This allows me to create a natural-feeling narrative even when I don't have any preexisting ideas. This will usually morph into a coherent premise, but I find that starting with a premise tends to feel more artificial to me, like all the events in the world were specifically crafted to fit it.

[bignapolean]

Great advice. I'm just not sure how to use this technique when writing a static character. For example, an amateur sleuth in a murder mystery series.

[nylislost]

This is awsome! I'm so glad I found this video and your channel. I've been trying to finish writing a novel but still ended up being stuck at the first 5 chapters and somehow I realized that this is what I'm missing out. I missed to generate a premise so I often get lost on how to move forward. But right now I was being enlightened by this video of yours that I could literally cry of gratefulness😭 I just love it and it helps me a lot to keep on track of my story.

The premise I come up with is "Crossing the thin line between uncertainty and certainty" but I felt like there's a missing piece about that which I can't point out😅

Is this okay, Ms. Megan?

Anyways, thank you so much for these videos. I'm gonna watch more hehee❤

[anny]

Hi! So I've already done a lot of work with my story, but I have a hard time wording my premise in a way that makes sense. The closest I can come to wording it is "Denying/Fearing and/or letting your feelings control you leads to a loss of self and missery", does that make sense as a premise?

[BiswajitDas-wqhn]

From the moral premise... we can know conflict
Greediness leads to own destruction... an honestly leads to own succeeded

[CyberCaliber]

What about for people who start with a setting? I have a tendency of making an environment but struggle to come up with a story.

[BiswajitDas-wqhn]

Premise line is story direction and know about happy ending
or sad ending or know about theme
Like greediness leads to own destruction

[tedgreene]

At 609 in the video a large red cat comes into the scene. Cat steals the scene. Girl is very cute but he cat's awesome!

[commercialand]

Would you be able to take my logline for my feature screenplay and put a premise into words? I still find myself over-thinking this when I'm guessing it's easier than I realize? I'm guessing when I tell a producer my premise it needs to be short and concise.

Sniper in Cartel Land

When a retired sniper and his family face homelessness, a Mexican kingpin hires him to smuggle drugs across the border and train the young cartel crews. Soon enough though, the sniper discovers a child-trafficking operation that he must destroy - despite the consequences.

[Dragonflyfiredoll]

Instead of a happily ever after. I thought this: the unforgivable can never be forgiven. What you think?