AutoCrit Writing Center

                                             View Cart | Contact Us | Member Login /Logout   manuscript editing software purchase options


Theme/Premise


    Designing Your Novel's Premise

    Where do you get your ideas? If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked this wrong-headed question. . . .

    Ah, well.

    When a non-writer asks me this question, basically, I just smile and lie, because the truth is more complicated, less magical, indeed, a good deal grubbier than most people who are just making conversation really care to hear. If you tell them that it’s work -- hard work -- they look at you like they suspect that you must be doing it wrong.

    There seems to be a myth floating around out there that story ideas pop full-blown into our imaginations like Athena out of the head of Zeus. Sheee-yah.

    Theme Thoughts

    I'm going to identify a few possible problems that can come up with
    theme, in no particular order:

    Story Flow

    Just recently, a writing friend, who, despite being an excellent writer, is having problems with her story's jerky feeling, asked me: "What do you mean by flow (big wail here!!!)?? I know how to recognize it in other people's writing, but I'm not sure what the specifics are. Is it a technique you can learn, or more a feely, intuitive thing?"

    These articles are brought to you by the AutoCrit Editing Wizard

     

    Get a Free
    Instant Analysis
    of YOUR Manuscript!

    Copyright 2010 AutoCrit Writing Center: Writing Advice. All rights reserved.