Surrey Sunday Concept/Premise
Here are the slides from Sunday’s workshop on The Intersection of Concept and Premise. Click here: Surrey – Sunday Concept vs Premise I hope you received value and inspiration from this presentation. I invite you to look around this site, there are over 600 posts on craft, including about a dozen story deconstructions, and a […]
Getting Published: The Genre-Concept Connection
Somewhere deep within the genealogical family tree that illuminates the origins of the word genre, we find another word that confuses the whole issue: generic. And that’s the problem. Your genre-based story can easily become generic – it simply becomes another face is a crowded sea of stories – rather than standing out. This very […]
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 […]
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 […]
Case Study: When a Concept is TOO Big
I had trouble titling this one. You’ll see why when you read it. To suggest that a concept is too big is to imply, perhaps, that the writer is reaching for something that feels he/she is ready to tackle, the story they were born to write. But concepts, on any scale, are available to anyone, […]
Case Study: Staying in the Conceptual “Lane”
Here’s a good little case study, taken from my supposedly short (this turned out to be over 8 pages of feedback) $50 Conceptual Kick-Start analysis service. As usual, props to the courageous writer who consented to share this. Actually, she was delighted and enthusiastic when she found out there was a clear direction to take […]
A Case Study in Concept: A Story on the Brink
One of my favorite story coaching clients is a guy named Kalvin. He’s prolific, he’s brought me a half dozen story ideas at various stages of development, each offering something tasty with significant upside. In each case, the process has given him an expanded and illuminated platform to continue to grow his story. That’s why […]
A Clearer Understanding of ‘Concept’
Idea… concept… premise… story… structure… theme… this is what writing guru James Frye means when he talks about writers bleeding profusely from the forehead. “Man of Steel” opened this week, to good-but-not-particularly great reviews. A technical marvel, absolutely. It’s directed by the guy who did “300” (Zack Snyder), and you’ll see the same visual magic […]
The Continuing Chaos of Concept
The challenge of this whole idea vs. concept vs. premise conversation is that anything can be regarded as a “concept.” “I want to write a love story”… is a concept. It least if you don’t care about the differentiation between those three nuances. Which you should, by the way, if you want to take full […]
Case Study: A Concept on the Brink
These are my favorite posts — case studies from story evaluations that demonstrate how a great concept can easily turn into an underwhelming story… and how this process can spot it and turn it around. Yes, it’s okay to learn from the pain of others. Actually, from the resurrection of the stories of others. This […]