1. Kwb104 – The Short Story Developing ideas & a Premise Week Two Donna Hancox.

2. What is Premise?  To be completely reductive: Premise is the logic on which your story is based. The message the reader takes away from the work.  Premise is usually a truth or conclusion – often about human nature – that is illuminated by the events in the story.  Some corny but useful examples of premise: true love never dies; what goes around comes around; you can’t buy happiness; or some examples of a more concrete premise might be: life exists on mars; machines will rise up over humans; animals are smarter than people.  Make sure that once you have a theme and a premise you want to explore in your story that it doesn’t become a ‘moral’, and the story doesn’t become prescriptive.

3. Let’s get some common confusion out of the way…  Theme vs. Premise?  Simply put: theme is what your story is about. It, ideally, works as a cohesive force throughout the story.  Theme lends significance to the events, and characters, of your story.  The themes you choose to write about are often informed by your own experiences, and pre- occupations as a writer and human being.  Common themes: human vulnerability, greed, redemption, forgiveness, family or change.

4.  ‘We read fiction for the delicious escape it affords, but we read it also to find ourselves, to discover truths, untangle knots of human mischief, to answer questions and explain possibilities –in other words, to cast light on what it means to be human, and to explore the implications and truths of what it means to inhabit this spinning planet. This light is cast by the means of theme and premise. (Morrell, J. 2006. Between the Lines – master the subtle elements of fiction writing. P.263).

5. Coming up with an idea for a story  Newspaper stories  Eavesdropping on unsuspecting public  Myths and fairytales  Your own life  Writing groups  Photographs  Philosophy

6. Coming up with an idea for a story  The big inspiration…. LIFE!  Ask yourself what you see in life.  Notice too ideas that won’t let go, small moments or life events that haunt you years after they happen.  Two resources that I regularly check out to see if there are any ideas for me  http://www.skelliewag.org/110- resources-for-creative-minds- 121.htm http://www.skelliewag.org/110- resources-for-creative-minds- 121.htm  http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/ http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/

7. Characters & Conflict

8.  The journey of the character is what proves your premise to be correct.  Your character(s) is changed in some way during their journey. Their change is caused by CONFLICT!  Types of conflict – 1)External: struggling with a force or forces outside oneself 2)Internal: struggle with oneself.

9. Resolution  By the end of the story, there needs to be some kind of resolution – no matter how vague or subtle that resolution is.  After all conflict that your characters have been through, think about how you want their lives to look at the end of the story.

10. Skin by A G Slatter  What are the themes in this story?  What do you think the premise might be?  What kind of conflict does the narrator endure?

11. And the last word goes to Kurt Vonnegut…  http://literature.sdsu.edu/onWRITING /vonnegutSTYLE.html http://literature.sdsu.edu/onWRITING /vonnegutSTYLE.html