The Difference Between Idea, Premise, Plot, and Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday revisits an oldie but a goodie, on the difference between the idea, premise, plot, and story of a novel. 

Ideas come to us every day, from big bolt-from-the-blue inspiration to smaller “what if” musings. What's sneaky about ideas is that they're easy--it’s figuring out the story behind the idea that can be the hard part. I’ve had many a premise get me excited, only to discover later that I didn’t have a story, much less a plot, that would go with it.

This is one of the reasons some novels stall after fifty or a hundred pages. The writer gets an idea, dives in too soon, and then the story go splat.
Read more »Written by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com