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When an Idea Becomes a Story

Writer's picture: M.P. KiddM.P. Kidd

‘The End’ are the two most beautiful words in the English language if you’re a writer. In that order, they are elusive, withholding, and sometimes fickle. For every time I’ve had the pleasure of writing those wonderful words, there have been numerous times that I’ve scrapped a story 1,000 words in (or 5,000 or 10,000 or . . .). Thank God I don’t live in the typewriter era, or I would have wasted a forest’s worth of paper. For me, it was a problem of premature articulation. I started the story before it was ready. So, how do I know when a story is ready?


A big pitfall for a writer can be to think they’ve got a great story when all they really have is a premise. That is not to say that the premise is not important. Or even that it’s easy to come up with. Actually, I think the reason that we fall for this is because a premise is the the real triumph of our imaginations. It’s what people see and ask, ‘How’d you come up with that?’ Still, a good premise does not equal a ready-to-go story.


Premise VS Story

Here’s an example of a great premise:


 A totalitarian government and its elites rule over impoverished districts and make them pay fealty by submitting their youth to compete in an annual battle royale.


Suzanne Collins really had something here. All that’s missing is a Katniss Everdeen. Katniss reluctantly volunteers to the Hunger Games to save her little sister from certain death and turns her victory into a movement. Katniss is the story.


Some writers use the ‘story will follow’ approach. They have an original premise and dive in, hoping the story will reveal itself during the process. To them, I say I commend your bravery. I’m sure it can be done, but I wouldn’t want to risk it.


My process includes letting it stew for a bit while making sure to stir it every so often. My recipe consists of a healthy amount of shower thoughts, thinking about it while walking the dog, reading or watching something new, Wikipedia rabbit holes, and, of course, journaling.


I sat with the premise for They’re Not Here to Save Us for about a year. What if there was someone giving out super powers? No vat of chemicals. No special X gene or spider bite. You just had to be selected. My first idea was for a character to pull some strings to get chosen only to get a power that he lamented. But it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t interesting to me. Really, it was how I thought my story would go if I lived in such a world. Of course, I’d get super smell or something stupid when all I want is to teleport.


And then, one night, I was binge-reading Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga. And my synapses started firing, and the story came to me. There are no traces of Saga in TNHTSU, but that didn’t matter. The story came.


My advice to those who want to see their premise grow up to be a full-blown story is simple: take your time. And read Saga. And you’ll know when you’re ready to write ‘Once Upon a Time.’



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1 Comment


ah
Aug 20, 2024

Great distinction, Mike. And a good example, too. Right on the money.

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