How to Write A Novel

Your Story Idea

Overview

As you saw on the overview page of the 'How To Write a Novel' section, found here, the first step in writing a novel is to explore and refine your story idea. Why would you want to do this? Your story idea is the foundation of your novel. Everything you plan and write will be built upon this foundation, so you will be best served by a solid foundation that you've laid down with careful thought and foresight. Exploring and Refining your story idea is about considering all of the core elements that your story needs, putting your own spin on them and considering what possibilities are available in terms of what direction to take the story itself, once you start plotting or writing. This page covers the process of taking your raw story idea and forging it into a dense Premise with a meaningiful Theme and Enticing Possibilities. I'll break it down into these sections:

  1. Formulate a Premise
  2. Develop your Themes
  3. Explore the Possibilities

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily need to do one after the other. Your premise and themes will feed into each other and can be developed simultaneously, if that is what you prefer. Both will influence the story possibilities open to you. You can also refine and update all three as you write, although you need to be careful not to change things too much, lest you end up in an endless cycle of changing your story. Rather reference and refine it while you plot or write and make any big updates or changes after finishing at least one draft of your story.

Now some of you might do something resembling this process on the fly, while you write. That's fine, if that works for you. If you're writing excellent stories, you'll most likely find that you're doing all of this mentally or simply less formally, anyway. However, why not take some of the load off of your poor brain? Instead of having to juggle all of this mentally while you try to write your story, why not write it down in a more formal process and then reference the result as you write? Something to consider.

1. Formulate a Premise

Before you can sit down and start crafting your narrative with any measure of effectiveness, you're going to have to figure out a few things about your story. Your premise can help you do that: Formulating a premise can help you to think about all of the necessary story elements before you start writing.

The formal definition of the word premise is: "an assertion or proposition which forms the basis for a work or theory". A premise in creative writing has taken on a subtly different meaning from the formal definition. A narrative premise can be defined as: "The core idea that drives the plot, characters and theme of the story". Crucially, a complete story is built around characters and conflict. Captivating characters, in turn, require goals and motivation. Thus, bringing this all together, a narrative premise can be defined as "The core idea that drives the plot, characters and theme of the story, with the story being centred around characters, their motivations, goals and the conflicts that they face."

So, to craft a premise you need to consider following elements within the context of your raw story idea:

  • Who is the story about? Who is your main character?
  • Why do they do what they do? What do they want?
  • Conflict/Obstacles: What gets in the way? Why can't they achieve their goals or meet their desires?
  • (Optional) How does your story end?
  • What themes do you want to include and what is your viewpoint on those themes?

Answering these questions in relation to your story idea is the basis for creating a concise premise that conveys everything that you need to know about your story. Formulating a premise forces you to consider all of the necessary and sufficient elements of a story. Keep in mind, this is not your plot, so don't get into too much detail. Just the core. Let us quickly go through each one.

1.1 Who is your story about?

Who is the main character in your story? You don't need their history or detailed description here, just some core details. Ask yourself: What are their defining attributes? A good template to follow is to include who they are and one or two descriptive words. You can include a name if you have one already, but you don't have to.

Some examples:

  • no-nonsense retired space-marine
  • socially awkward spacecraft technician
  • naive young girl
  • bumbling vampire

You'll build out this character either during the plotting phase or, if you're a pantser, while writing. For now, you just need enough so that you can answer the next question.

1.2 Why are they doing what they're doing?

Once you know who your story is about, you can consider the important question of why they're doing what they're doing. What are their goals and motivations? What do they want? You need to give your character something to strive towards. Once again, you don't need details yet, just identify the broader issue at hand for your story. If appropriate, integrate elements of your themes into the "why?" of your story.

Remember that your main character's goal should have deep meaning to them and be plausible. Your readers will notice if you've just slapped any old goal into place, as it won't gel with your character.

Below are some possible avenues to consider to figure out the "why?" of your story. You can use multiple of these ideas together to come up with a goal:

  • Does your main character want something such as:
    • Material wealth
    • A family heirloom
    • Some magical item
    • Status
    • The affection of a love interest
  • Is your main character trying to uncover a truth or solve a mystery? Must they:
    • Uncover the identity of a murderer or thief
    • Find some location or object
    • Uncover the source of mysterious events
  • Are they trying to right an injustice?
    • Avenge a murder or bring a murderer to justice
    • Free somebody or a people from captivity or oppression
  • Are they simply trying to survive:
    • Are they in a war or some kind of conflict?
    • Is their environment deadly?
    • Are they surrounded by people that would harm them?
    • Are they alone without resources such as a home or food?
  • Are they trying to prove something:
    • To themselves
    • To somebody else

The primary "why?" of your story will be the anchor point for the actions of your main character for every scene that they feature in. Consider that each scene or sequel will have a character acting or reacting. Their goals and motivations that drive your story forward in each scene should be consistent with the overall "why" of your story as captured in your premise.

1.3 Conflict & Obstacles

A story where there are no obstacles or conflicts is going to be quite brief and boring. Your readers NEED your characters to have some obstacles to overcome. What is stopping them from achieving their goals or meeting their desires? Any good story has plenty of conflict. Conflict keeps the reader invested and wondering: What happens next? How do they overcome this hurdle? When do they achieve success? What are the consequences for failure? Conflict is another good place to consider integrating your themes.

Not all conflict is created equal. Conflict that makes sense within the context of your story and themes will be more engaging than conflict just for the sake of it. The obstacles and conflicts that arise in the scenes of your story should be consistent with the primary conflict that you identify while formulating your premise. In turn, the way that your characters go about resolving these conflicts should remain consistent with their goals, motivations and character traits.

Remember, you don't have to get super specific about the conflicts in your premise, that will came later when you develop the plot of your story. For now, just identify the core conflict for your character.

The two sources of conflict to consider are:

  • Internal Conflict: Conflict that arises from within the character themselves.
  • External Conflict: Conflict from the world around them, and other characters.

It is a good idea to have both internal and external conflict in your story. Internal conflict allows you to showcase your character's humanity, thereby giving the reader something to relate to or empathise with. Showing how your character overcomes internal conflict is also an excellent way to develop and grow your character.

Examples of Internal sources of Conflict:

  • Internal strife, fears, doubts
  • Anxieties
  • Old wounds
  • Moral dilemmas

Examples of External sources of Conflict:

  • Difficult circumstances
  • Villains & other enemies
  • Disagreement between allies or friends
  • Misunderstandings
  • Uncovering lies, deception & betrayal
  • Personality clashes
  • Time limits, deadlines, ultimatums

Having multiple sources of conflict allows you to create a more varied narrative. You can change up which conflict is the most pressing in any given scene, thus avoiding too much repetition and monotony. You can also use conflict to grow your characters and show how they change their approach to solving problems.

1.4 End

The last element to the premise is: How does your story end? It is generally considered optional as part of your premise. You might not have decided exactly how to end the story before you start writing. It is still worth thinking about while exploring and refining your story idea. Maybe jot down a few possibilities to keep in mind while you plan and write your novel. Or come up with the ending itself. It is up to you.

Your ending is also a good place to consider your themes. Your story ending might be used to bring your themes to conclusion, for example:

  • Finding redemption at the last moment
  • Overcoming self-doubt
  • Finding companionship or a sense of belonging

1.5 Final thoughts on the Premise

You'll want to keep your premise quite short. Firstly, you want to keep it about the core of your story, don't limit your narrative by adding too much detail. Secondly, if its short and concise, its easier to refer back to it while you're writing. You don't want to read long paragraphs to double-check that your story is staying consistent with your core vision.

Finally, don't worry too much about making your premise catchy and exciting. Its purpose is to keep you on track through the long arduous task of planning and writing the story. If you want something to entice readers or publishers, then you'll want to look into creating a logline once you're done with the process of exploring and refining your story idea.

2. Develop your Themes

I mention a few times above where you could integrate elements of your themes into the process of formulating your premise. But what exactly is a theme? A theme is a central idea or message that your story conveys. Don't confuse it with a lesson (that's more of a moral). Your story can have multiple themes, list them all for yourself while you explore & refine your story idea.

Some possibilities:

  • coming of age
  • forgiveness
  • redemption
  • love
  • war
  • loneliness
  • revenge
  • bravery
  • death
  • power and corruption
  • oppression

This list is not exhaustive, do further research online if you're looking for a theme that tickles your fancy. Every scene is a potential candidate for integrating your theme, but don't force it. Work your themes into the events and character actions/reactions throughout your story, where it makes sense to do so.

2.1 Your Viewpoint

By consiciously considering your theme, you also give yourself the opportunity to consider what viewpoint you want to convey. You're writing YOUR story, so you can decide what viewpoint to take on any theme that you integrate. Consider your own beliefs and feelings about the themes that you choose, and decide if you want to explore those or if you want to flip the script and explore the opposite of what you, yourself, might identify with.

2.2 Final thoughts on Theme

If you haven't managed to explicitly integrate your theme into your premise, don't worry. Just keep your list of themes handy while you write and integrate your themes into your scenes where it makes sense to do so.

3. Explore the Possibilities

Once you've formulated your Premise together with developing your themes, you have a solid foundation from which to work. The last task to discuss is the process of exploring the possibilities available to you given your Premise and Themes. For any given combination of story idea, premise and themes, you could craft many vastly different stories. Not only will your writing style and character development heavily influence the story, but you can decide on various directions to pursue. Exploring the possibilities is in essence the start of formulating ideas for the plot of the story (What is Plot: It is what happens in the story. The cause-and-effect sequences of events, actions and reactions that make up the story). You don't want to write out a whole plot just yet, however. You want to keep your options open. So consider many different possibilities, write them down and then curate them as you develop your plot, plot outline and write, later on.

A large part of your story will be take place in the areas between the questions "what do they want?" and "why can't they have it?". Some of the questions you might ask yourself are:

  • What are the possible scene-to-scene conflicts and obstacles that could arise from your central conflict?
  • How does your main character go about tackling different kinds of obstacles?
  • Where does your story take place?
  • When does your story take place? Consider unusual options, e.g.:
    • A Western, but set in the future in a sci-fi setting.
  • What does your main character do about not being able to achieve their goal?
  • How do they react to the obstacles in their way?
  • Why doesn't their plan work?
  • How do they adjust their approach?
  • What are some possible crucial tipping points for the characters and story?
  • What is at stake?
    • What are the consequences of failure?
    • What happens if your character succeeds?
      • Perhaps the outcome is not what the characters expect.
      • What is the price for success?
  • How do Relationships affect the direction of the story? Consider:
    • Love interests
    • Family
    • Friends
    • Relationship troubles
    • Death or suffering of a loved one/family member
  • Genre: Your chosen genre can heavily influence the direction that you take the story. For example, a Romance novel will be heavily driven by characters and character relationships. A fantasy novel might demand a fantastical setting, so setting is an important consideration for story direction.
    • Consider the possible directions for your story within the constraints of that genre's expected story progression
    • You can consider purposefully diverging from the norms of your chosen genre
    • You can identify story possibilities in various genres so that you can decide which genre you'd like to use for your story idea
    • Perhaps you would like to merge elements from multiple genres
  • Past
    • Past events or actions could influence the story direction and character actions/development
    • Past relationships might influence events or actions
  • Plot Twists: Consider what plot twists you could use.
    • What if your main character is acting on false information?
    • What if a supposed ally is secretly working against the main character?
  • Consider Tertiary sources of conflict besides the core conflict of the story. What other sources of conflict are you going to include in your scenes?

For each of the above questions, you can identify and note down multiple possible avenues to explore further in your writing. Exploring the possibilities offered by your story idea, premise and themes is an open-ended task, don't limit yourself to considering only what I listed above. Get creative.

3.1 Final thoughts on Exploring the Possibilities

Remember, explore the possibilities. Don't limit yourself to your first thoughts or ideas. Write down all of them. Try to think outside the box, come up with YOUR take on a story idea. Remember to jot down ideas you have later under your list of possibilities, you don't have to stop thinking about it once you move into the writing process.

Conclusion

We can summarise the process of exploring & refining your story idea in the three bullet points:

  • Formulate a premise: For your story idea: Identify "who is the story about?", "why?", "what gets in the way?", and optionally "how does it end?".
  • Develop your themes: List your themes for reference while you plot and/or write. Integrate themes into your premise if you can, otherwise consider them in the context of your story possibilities.
  • Explore the possibilities offered by your premise & themes: Spend some time contemplating what possible directions your story could take, give the premise and themes.

I believe the value in exploring and refining your story idea as outlined above lies in the following:

  • It formalises the process of thinking about your story idea, thus assisting by:
    • Ensuring that you have all of the necessary and sufficient elements for a complete story
    • Making it easier to start your story
    • Making it easier to keep your story consistent with the core idea and themes
    • Acting as a guide when you're stuck or unsure about where to take the story next
    • Acting as a catalyst for innovative ideas and story directions
    • Making the story YOURS by adding your viewpoints to the theme and taking the story in unexpected directions that you've considered
  • It takes the mental load off, allowing you to focus on creating the narrative. And while you're creating the narrative, you have ready access to everything you've gathered and considered while exploring and refining your story idea.
  • It gives you possibilities to consider when you get stuck or need to vary the story to maintain the readers attention.

Thank you for reading, I hope you find this information useful. Please share it with a friend or colleague. Also check out our blog. It isn't updated that often right now (see here if you're curious as to why), but it has some interesting posts.

Tue Mar 11 2025
Tue Mar 11 2025
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Genre M a i n C h a r a c t e r Who? What is at stake? Obstacles C o n fl i c t End Success Failure Relationships Past False Information G o a l Why? Writer's Viewpoint Central Idea/ message External Conflict Internal Conflict Possibilities Theme Premise

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