Write Good or Die

it kills again .
    -A young female FBI trainee must barter personal information with an imprisoned psychopathic genius in order to catch a serial killer who is capturing and killing young women for their skins.
    -A treasure-hunting archeologist races over the globe to find the legendary Lost Ark of the Covenant before Hitler’s minions can acquire and use it to supernaturally power the Nazi army.
    Notice how all of these premises contain a defined protagonist, a powerful antagonist, a sense of the setting, conflict and stakes, and a sense of how the action will play out. Another interesting thing about these premises is that in all three, the protagonists are up against forces that seem much bigger than the protagonist.
    Here’s my premise for The Harrowing :
    Five troubled college students left alone on their isolated campus over the long Thanksgiving break confront their own demons and a mysterious presence–that may or may not be real.
    I wrote that sentence to quickly convey all the elements I want to get across about this book.
    Who’s the story about? Five college kids, and “alone” and “troubled” characterize them in a couple of words. Not only are they alone and troubled, they have personal demons. What’s the setting? An isolated college campus, and it’s Thanksgiving—fall, going on winter. Bleak, spooky. Plus—if it’s Thanksgiving, why are they on campus instead of home with their families?
    Who’s the antagonist? A mysterious presence. What’s the conflict? It’s inner and outer—it will be the kids against themselves, and also against this mysterious presence. What are the stakes? Well, not so clear, but there’s a sense of danger involved with any mysterious presence.
    And there are a lot of clues to the genre—sounds like something supernatural’s going on, but there’s also a sense that it’s psychological—because the kids are troubled and this presence may or may not be real. There's a sense of danger, possibly on several levels.
    The best way to learn how to write a good premise is to practice. Make a list of ten books and films that are in the same genre as your book or script—preferably successful—or that you wish you had written! Now for each story, write a one-sentence premise that contains all these story elements: protagonist, antagonist, conflict, stakes, setting, atmosphere and genre.
    If you need a lot of examples all at once, pick up a copy of the TV Guide , or click through the descriptions of movies on your TiVo. Those aren’t necessarily the best written premises, but they do get the point across, and it will get you thinking about stories in brief.
    And now that you’re an expert—go for it. Write yours.

    Alexandra Sokoloff— http://www.alexandrasokoloff.com
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12. YOU, TOO, CAN RESEARCH
    By Gayle Lynds
    http://www.gaylelynds.com

    I’m often asked how I research my novels. Much of research is intuitive, but here’s a short trip into this addictive, mysterious realm of the unknown.
    The common wisdom is that only about one percent of research ends up in a novel. That’s a very small fraction, but my experience is it’s actually far less–closer to a tenth of a percent, even when the research involves a plot line. For instance my new novel, The Book of Spies , has a critical historical element–the lost library of Ivan the Terrible –that required intense research.
    I first read about this fabulous collection of illuminated manuscripts twenty years ago in The Los Angeles Times and was instantly intrigued. After all, Ivan’s remarkable library had allegedly been the heart of the Byzantine Empire’s grand imperial collection and contained priceless works dating back millennia to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Embedded with precious jewels, the books were bound in glittering gold. As I read that, I gave the collection a name—the “Library of Gold.” Tragically, it vanished at Ivan’s death, in 1584.
    My problem was I couldn’t see a way to use any of this in a contemporary spy story. But at the same time I was so interested I began collecting clippings that were even tangentially related, when I came across them in other research.
    Then finally, after nearly two decades, the constant drumbeat of this intriguing subject meshed with an idea I had for a modern tale. I had a way to use the Library of Gold.
    Excited, I began serious research. There is no actual name for the library, so I Googled “ Ivan the Terrible ,” “lost library,”