Since I’m working on a couple of new fiction projects right now, I’ve been thinking a lot about narrative theory—dramatic structure in particular. A good chunk of this comes from Lajos Egri’s Art of Dramatic Writing. Another big chunk is just my reflection on narratives in general.
I’m intending this to be the barest of outlines. This time I’m just going to talk about Premise.
Premise
Egri hits this hard. Your story must have a premise, a point you’re trying to prove with the logic of fiction. This premise is a proposition: X > Y. Ideally, it’s something (a) not completely obvious (b) that you believe in.
X: The Attitude
Egri wants the X in this proposition to be an exaggerated emotion or attitude, like “ruthless ambition” or “bitter hatred.”
Y: The Result
The Y of the proposition is the fiction-logical result of this emotion or attitude, like “utter destruction of everything you love.”
>: The Conflict
The “>” merely shows that Y is linked to X according to fiction-logic. It represents the conflict through which we realize this. I.e., through conflict, X will be shown to eventuate in Y.
Our Sample Premise
So, if we’re using those variables, we get “Bitter hatred leads to the utter destruction of everything you love.”
Word. Now we’ve got the backbone of a story.