3 Ways to Deepen Your Novel’s Premise

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The premise is the core of the novel. Make it a solid one.

When I first started The Shifter (the first book in my trilogy), I didn’t know it was going to be part of a series. But as the story developed, I saw the bigger picture and where the problem my protagonist, Nya, could lead to.

As that story continued, I focused more and more on Nya’s journey, because stories are about characters in trouble. But by the time I got to book three, I’d forgotten something.

I was ignoring the broader implications of my original premise.

Nya was a “shifter,” someone who could heal by shifting pain from person to person. This included pain of her own, so anytime someone hurt her, she’d able to shift it right back into them. (Which made for some fun fight scenes).

In the first draft of book three, Nya was doing this almost without thinking, and while she struggled over the moral aspects of shifting, getting hurt was no longer an issue for her.

Which was all wrong.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com