Case Study: The Untapped Dramatic Potential of Concept…

… When the Premise Doesn’t Pick Up the Ball and Run With It The traps that would compromise or even sabotage our best story intentions are everywhere. Even when it all begins with a strong conceptual proposition… which is what’s up with today’s case study. The author has consented to sharing this story overview here—via answers […]

Case Study – The New Writer TRAP That Awaits The Unaware

As readers, we consume a lot of average content. And sometimes average is perfectly fine, it fills thirty blank minutes of staring at a television or 90-plus minutes of munching popcorn in a dark theater with perfectly reasonable satisfaction, an ROI of our time that doesn’t feel like a ripoff. Then again, if that’s the case […]

A Case Study in Near-Perfect Concept-Premise Integration

Plus, some Storyfix.com updates on coaching and a few new ebooks.   Submitting your work for evaluation and coaching can feel like a daunting experience.  Sometimes things don’t work as well as you thought, or hoped, and the feedback feels more like backpeddling than the forward-energizing catalyst that it really is. And then there are […]

“The Situation” – True Dramatic Arc vs. Static Situational Narrative

A Case Study in One Dimensional Storytelling   There is a saboteur lurking in your writing dream, wearing a mask of perfect acceptability.  This killer is seductive, because at a glance he fits right in with your other writing guests, commiserating and kibitzing about the “nature of story” in a way that seems so… normal […]

Case Study: When Your Premise is as Vague as a Campaign Promise

When you think about it, the story concepts and premises we pitch – and just as often, the story concepts and premises we write from – are nothing other than promises. We pitch a story concept and an ensuing premise to an agent with hope that they’ll want to read more.  By implication, by virtue […]

How to Create a Story Premise that Works

A case study illustrating a premise that tried, but comes up short. With an extensive tutorial on why, and how to avoid this trap.   When asked how one moves from knowledge to execution… more accurately, the ability to apply storytelling principles to the writing of a draft… I always say this: look for and […]

Case Study: When Your Concept Disappears

From my chair, sometimes it seems like folks encounter the “What is your concept?” question, and then they scramble for an answer.  They conjure something conceptual, or what seems conceptual in that moment. As if they weren’t ready for that question.  Hadn’t considered it.  This is part of the value of the analysis process, it […]

Story Deconstruction: “Remember Me?” by Sophie Kinsella

A guest post by Jennifer Blanchard Spoiler Alert: This deconstruction dig deeps to break down the novel. The story will be fully exposed. This process provides a great opportunity to follow along when reading the book and see how a badass story is put together. There are a lot of things at play in this […]

Case Study: This is What SUCCESS Looks Like

I’m delighted to share a WIN this time.   A middle-grade Young Adult novel in the making. Can we learn from a case study that models a solid grasp of concept, premise and the First Plot Point?  That sets up a story with the inherent dramatic tension and drama, conceptual appeal and heroic arc that will […]

Case Study: When Your Concept is Also a Paradox

Some concepts can end up being too much to handle.  The more layered and complicated, the greater the upside if handled brilliantly, and the deeper the abyss when it’s not.  Trouble is, some writers aren’t aware that they’re already tumbling into a black void. Such concepts — it’s good to recognize them as such, and […]