 Fantasy: September 15, 2010 Issue [#3968] |
  Fantasy
This week: The Premise and the Plot Edited by: Prosperous Snow celebrating  
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The Premise answers the question “What is the plot?” and “Who are the characters?”
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In the novel, the author reveals a plot, usually based on some type of conflict, and characters. Before beginning the novel, an author should know the basic plot and the characters. This is where the premise comes in. A story premise answers six important questions, which are who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Usually the first two questions answered in the premise are what and who, with what being the conflict or plot and who the characters. The characters consist of the protagonist, antagonist, and several minor characters whose actions help carry the plot along by increasing or decreasing conflict.
What, the plot question, is the most difficulty of the premise questions to answer. This question is hard to answer because the author has numerous plots from which to choose. If you do a search on the Internet for basic story plots, you will find three different results. Those results are seven, twenty, and thirty-six. So with all these choices how does a writer choose a plot?
A good way to choose a plot for a novel is to look at the conflict. Conflict occurs when the character is in opposition to someone or something in the story. This type of plot pits the protagonist against one of seven different situations. These are the protagonist against (1) another character, (2) him or her self, (3) technology of some type, (4) some aspect of the environment, (5) a deity or religion, (6) a supernatural force of some type, and (7) nature.
You will find the plots listed in The “Basic” Plots in Literature at http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html.
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A thinker never sleeps  writes: I write, what I would call, modern fantasy. This is where the characters come from a modern day setting but either travel to or belong involved with the fantasy element. I.e Travelling to another world, finding a fantasy element within our world.
Great newsletter.
very thankful  writes: Cool newsletter! I write Dark Fantasy/Horror. Most of it is contemporary, but definetly not urban because it's set in a small Southern town in Mississippi.
bumper writes: I embrace Erotic Fantasy Fiction.
jlbane writes: We write to tell a story. Does the specific genre really matter. Take for instance Jim Bucher's Dresden Files. Its a mystery, an urban fantasy, has wizards and vampires and... Remove some of the fantasy elements and you have a paranormal mystery. My point is, do we need to really focus on the genre over the idea of telling a good story? If we force our ideas into a category, could we be stifling our creativity? I say let the marketing dpt. worry about what shelf it belongs on.
sarahreed writes: I never seem to fit into one genre, let alone one subgenre. I know it's important to be able to categories your work, but I pull from so many different areas of what I've read, what I like and what inspires me. So I never try to fit into any particular category, but I also know that this will mean that my writing may not be as marketable and I may remain a niche writer for the rest of my life. But I'm okay with that. 
aile writes: Thanks for mentioning my item in your newsletter! And don't feel as if you need to conform to a specific genre. My rule of thumb is just write. But it is nice to know what is out there. Write on!
Aile
What do you think about plot?
Prosperous Snow celebrating
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