🥑 thanks, they're designer

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So you’ve got a good premise.

How do you turn that into a story?

That’s where the designing principle comes in.

If the premise describes is the concrete what, the designing principle is the abstract how. The premise gets readers through the door; the designing principle gives them a reason to turn every page. It “internally makes the story a single unit” (Truby).

John Truby describes it this way:

Designing principle = story process + original execution

In other words—what makes your story different from every other story?

Let’s practice creating a designing principle. Take your one-line premise, or use this one I just made up: After being unjustly deposed, a young queen undertakes a journey to reclaim her throne at any cost.

Now answer one or more of these questions about your premise:

• What makes this queen unique (compared to other queens in fantasy or historical fiction)?

• What are the A and B points of her character journey (e.g., she starts out as A and ends up as B)?

• What temporal element shapes her story (e.g., day moves to night, cycle of seasons, cycle of a lifetime, lead-up to a particular event)?

• What environmental element symbolizes her story (e.g., natural disaster mirroring her fall, weather elements representing her development)?

• What thematic message will shape her journey (e.g., perils of chasing power, justice prevailing over injustice)?

• What storytelling device shapes her journey (e.g., letters to her estranged sister, a separate storyteller observing her journey)?

• What other story or story format influences your story (e.g. Hamlet reimagined as an African savanna with singing lions)?

These questions are just examples—but you can see how any of these elements could form a designing principle that supports every beat of your story’s development.

Premise + designing principle = the shape and direction of your story.

Next time: who’s your best character?

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