ABSTRACT
The first step of writing a screenplay is to develop an effective premise. To do so, we must embrace the axiom that there is a difference between drama and history, with drama being of a higher order. That observation leads to the precept that, in a good story, TRUTH is more important than FACTS. That’s because we want a story to deal with the universal, not the particular. So the best story premise is one that strikes a balance between the writer’s personal experience and creative invention, one that uses fiction to explore general truths.
