Premise

Before you can even start writing, no matter what kind of writing you are trying to do, you have to have some kind of idea of what topic, genre, or focus you want to write. And that's a hard thing to decide - especially when you're writing fiction. We've all seen movies or tv shows where half way through, it seems like the writers forgot what exactly was going on or where they had come from, and just started throwing things together because they thought it would be cool. I can't blame them if they wanted to change things up, or wanted to put specific scenes into their creations, but lord help me, it would have come out a thousand fold better if they had actually made it fit within the story. You need to have your story feel realistic to the premise that you started out from.

The premise itself, however, does not have to be realistic in the slightest. I think most cartoons, be they western or eastern, are perfect examples of that. I was recently reminded of a series I used to watch when I was young, called YuGiOh, which was based entirely around a children's card game. And yet there was intense drama and action that came out of that card game, and the things that happened to the people who were involved in the games was bone chilling. Or at least, they were when I was a kid.

Looking back, I can't help but realize just how terrible the show was. There really wasn't any logic to what was going on, and especially the fact that problems could somehow be solved by playing a card game. I mean, when you have good guys going up against bad guys, the good guys have to have some way of ensuring that the bad guys do as they say they are going to. In more realistic settings, this is done with a weapon - from a sword in the middle ages to a gun in present time, the good guy having something they can point at the bad guy that can take their lives as they make demands gives the bad guys reason to keep their promises. But in YuGiOh, there's no discernible reason why the bad guys should actually do what they said they were going to after having lost a game of cards.

And yet there are other animes, likes Fullmetal Alchemist, that have equally bizarre premises that are executed beautifully, and give serious depth and interest to every event that occurs. In what way is being able to turn lead into gold after clapping one's hands any more realistic than retrieving the soul of one's grandfather after beating someone in a card game? It's really not, but Fullmetal had a set of rules to its universe, and people would try to cheat those rules and face the consequences, and those consequences had extreme severity at times, and it made sense within the world's rules. Everything about the premise was constantly being played to, and if there was ever any question to what was happening, there was usually a reason for that that actually came up in the show.

Sticking to a premise like that is definitely not easy. I'm not saying it is. But it is important, and it's what gives one's story credibility. If you want to change up the premise, you can't continue writing the same story. You lose any interest and momentum that you've built. But a lot of people forget that, because they're so attached to their characters and the worlds that they've created. I should know. I've been doing that for years.