Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

The 7 Story Plots Looking at the number of remakes that Hollywood churns out, you'd be forgiven for thinking that original stories are in short supply. But actually, remakes are not about creating new stories.  They're more concerned with reworking old hooks , because, the truth is: the public is far responsive to familiarity than originality. An even closer look reveals that it's not the premise of an old idea that is appealing so much as the characters that Hollywood is interested in developing in a more modern context.  The same logic applies to famous books and comic book stories that already have substance (that is, personality) in the mind of the potential viewer.  The very familiarity of old stories lends them a kind of nebulous mystique that can generate interest in a potential audience long before before anything is known about a plot. There is also a theory that there are only so many plots anyway.  Seven plots to be ...

Dear Fellow Writer, Welcome to this week's newsletter. Theme Versus Premise "What's the difference between theme and premise?" I was asked this question by an esteemed subscriber this week and thought it might make an interesting article. In the publishing and movie industry the terms theme and premise are bandied around liberally - and it's assumed that writers know the difference, even if agents, publishers, and marketing people are not so up on the precise meanings. Basically the premise to a story is your starting point. It's the idea behind it - its reason to be. I've heard members of writer's groups ask the question:  "Can you write a story without a premise?"   I would have to say you could try - but fairly soon you'd run out of things to say.  You need a premise to give a story legs. Most writers are able to sum up what their story is about - or going to be about - in a short sentence of two. ...