Writing a First (or Second) Novel: Story Premise & GMC

I love new, fresh story ideas.

When I first started writing stories, I would attempt to capture a thought or feeling the minute it sprang to mind. I didn’t plan my stories. Needless to say, many of these vignettes meandered or ended up unfinished.

What was I missing? Story premise.

This isn’t an article about plotting versus pantsing. This is about generating a viable story idea from a seed or impression.

How do you know if a concept is story worthy?

With my first novel, I accidentally managed to produce good structure. My main character had a concrete story goal early on. She also had a strong emotional desire stated in the opening sentence. From the initial moment of external conflict, the stakes continually increased, following a logical progression. It unfolded this way until the conclusion.

Easy peasy, right? Surely I had mastered the art of story structure and could replicate the process.

Not exactly.

I began a second book and focused on the emotional state of my character, neglecting to give her an external goal. Even though I was attempting a character-driven work and wanted to explore emotional growth, my protagonist still needed to have an external goal. 

The book had to be restructured to include both internal and external GMC – goal, motivation, conflict.

Broken down, it looks like this:

Goal: What does your protagonist want?

Motivation: Why do they want it?

Conflict: What’s in their way?

{Protagonist} wants {goal} because {motivation} but can’t succeed, because {conflict}.

All of the important characters in a successful story have both external and internal GMC. The differing goals produce conflict. They initiate the action and keep it going. Without a clear and concrete external goal for the protagonist to pursue and obstacles (conflict) to overcome, the story stagnates.

In plot driven stories, the external GMC is what keeps the story moving along. I find these easier to figure out. With character driven work, the character’s want directly opposes the (true) need. This produces conflict and forces growth in the character. Every character has internal and external goals and motivations. The two GMCs, external and internal, go hand in glove.

There will be many smaller goals and conflicts along the journey, but the overarching, or main, GMC of your story is the foundation of your premise.

The story premise is a few sentences distilling the key elements of your story, and incorporates the main GMC.

The premise contains:

The protagonist, set-up, protagonist’s goal, the source of resistance or antagonist, the core story conflict, and the protagonist’s motivation. A story premise can also include the other essential character(s).

Does the GMC or premise have to be perfectly expressed before you begin writing a novel? Not at all, but I’ve found the process goes much smoother if I understand what my character wants, needs, why they want what they do, and why they can’t have it. The better I solidify these things early on, the more likely I am to end up with a coherent story.

Nailing down GMC can take a few tries and a bit of time, but is well worth the effort.

Resource for Further Study

GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict Book by Debra Dixon

Related Post 

WRITING A FIRST NOVEL: CHOOSING A GENRE

Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.