All articles
Everything on The First-Draft Question, organised by topic.
Drafting Tools
- How to Choose Point of View for a Story: A Scene Test — Choose point of view by deciding whose experience organizes the story, what the narrator can know, and how that voice shapes the reader's understanding.
- Premise vs Logline: Use Each Without Getting Stuck — A premise describes the story's core situation and pressure, often for development; a logline compresses a particular version of the story for a reader,…
Story Development
- How to Test a Story Premise Before Drafting — Test a story premise by naming a specific protagonist, destabilizing change, consequential want, active opposition, and reason action cannot wait.