Plot versus premise

I'm taking a little break from my World Lit reading, mainly because about eight of my reservations came in at the library at once, and most of them are YA paranormal/fantasy or contemporary novels. So today, I'd like to talk a little about plot and premise.

I've read a lot of work by my fellow aspiring authors over the past few years. Some of this has been for friends or creative writing classmates, and some for my freelance editing work. One problem I see fairly often in beginning writers (it was a problem for me too) is confusion over plot and premise. I think this is because, generally, when you ask someone what a book is about, you are actually asking about the premise, not the plot. Not what happens in the book, but the situation the main character finds himself or herself in.

Example: Katniss, who lives in the dystopian future, is forced to take part in the Hunger Games, a brutal fight to the death with twenty-three other kids as opponents. (Premise.)

If someone asks you what a book is about and you start telling them about the actual plot (First Katniss goes to the Reaping ceremony, where ________ happens, so then Katniss has to _______ __ _______...), they are going to get pretty annoyed with you for spoiling the book.

Of course premise is important—ideas for novels or stories often start with a good premise and grow from there, and an interesting premise can be the hook that draws readers into a book—but it doesn't work without a good, strong plot to back it up.

Plot is where I used to fall down. I could think of great premises (well, in my head they were great, anyway), but I would always get stuck, because I didn't understand how to plot. It's great to have premise like: an  11th Century orphan boy befriends a dragon who lives in the river Thames, but if all the boy and dragon do is wander aimlessly around London, doing various unconnected things, it's gonna be a pretty boring book.

A good plot needs:

• a goal the protagonist is working toward—this is the heart of the plot; it drives the action for the entire book.
• tension
• rising action
• conflict
• obstacles
• climax
• resolution
• denouement

Even if you're writing literary fiction, where plot tends to take a backseat to character development and the protagonist's inner journey, plot is still important. There needs to be some degree of tension, some kind of struggle, internal or otherwise, to keep the reader interested. And there needs to be some sort of resolution, whether it be positive, negative, mixed, or ambiguous.

There are some great resources for plot out there (Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell, or the Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers, for example), but I find that the best way to study plot is to look at the books you love and study their structures (Harry Potter for Writers is one useful site which does just this): What makes you keep turning the pages? Notice the way your favorite author builds tension, the way he or she foreshadows plot twists. The way they build your curiosity. The way they surprise you. Then take the techniques you find most interesting, most satisfying as a reader, and apply them to your own writing.