Millions of writers are aware of the Hero's Journey and the Snowflake Method.

Thousands are aware of Sequences versus Scenes.

Hundreds are concerned with Theme.

But, I wonder, how many are aware of the Moral Premise?

Is it more or less than one hundred?

And I feel sad because it is this industry's carbon monoxide; that's right, its absence is the silent killer.

For decades, we've lived under the power of Lajos Egri and his concept of the Premise as the driving force for a Story.

It started as help for the stage play and branched off into the other forms of writing and settled into use in the familiar world of Screenwriting.

The problem with Egri's concept is that it was not FINISHED.

We were so captivated by its allure and its obvious help that we never questioned, is this concept complete?

So we continued writing with this shortcoming and for awhile, this fulfilled that inner and insatiable drive in our souls to CREATE.

However, its use has dwindled in the face of our fast-paced world and now, the entire industry of Hollywood has suffered for not EVOLVING.

Like tools and technology, it served its purpose, but like all things, it has come to its end and now - it's IN THE WAY.

How ironic, a tool that freed writers has ENSLAVED us all.

But luckily, we have a better tool.

A tool that unites our creative works with power that takes our ideas and concepts and shapes them into works of art.

With the old model (Egri), we viewed writing as a journey.

Now we know that is NOT TRUE.

Writing and Storytelling is like the universe - not linear, but cyclical.

As a cyclical tool, we have reached a new era and now we require a new tool.

Out with Egri's Premise and In with Stanley's Moral Premise.

In the old world, we were caught up in theories, ideas, philosophies, and opinions.

We believed there was always ONE WAY to do something.

Our monotheistic and patriarchal thinking drove us using Vertical Thinking and pushed us into a corner so deep that many of us will NEVER recover.

In the new world, we have evolved past those weak concepts.

We left the world of Vertical thinking and Monotheism and Monotone and Patriarchy for the new world of Lateral Thinking, Polytheism, Color, Magic, and Matriarchy.

We left the old world of ONE THING and we now live in the age of MAGICK.

Instead of arguing about story, we're now able to VISUALLY show why one story works and another doesn't.

In the new world, the obvious shortcomings of Egri's Premise are put "ON THE BOARD" and the concept is weighed and found wanting.

Egri argues that Romeo and Juliet's premise is the following:

Great Love defies even Death

But this is a flawed perspective and only talks about ONE SIDE of the Moral Premise and thus, doesn't truly capture the ESSENCE of the story.

In the new world, the Moral Premise drives home a story from two sides and provides a more complete picture of a story's development.

Romeo and Juliet, as seen as a Moral Premise, reads as follows:

Tradition erodes emotions into systematic Hate and War, but Freedom evolves emotions into Sacred Love and Peace that defies death

Using the Moral Premise, we're able to easily see the problem inherent in this story. The Montagues and the Capulets have allowed tradition to erode their emotions and blinded them into Systematic hate fueling a feud between the two families, but the Moral Premise promises that this tradition will be met by others who refuse to accept tradition and use their freedom of thought and ascend to sacred love.

Isn't that a more accurate description of Romeo and Juliet than saying that great love defies even death?

But let's look deeper at how powerful the Moral Premise works in a story.

Let's look at the VICE side of the Moral Premise.

We see that Tradition is a NEGATIVE VALUE that erodes a character's emotions and leads to systematic hate and war.

Doesn't that describe the moral standing of the Montagues and the Capulets?

Now, let's look at the VIRTUE side of the Moral Premise.

The beauty of the Moral Premise is that allows you to see things VISUALLY and understand what's going on in your story.

As you see above, we see Freedom is a POSITIVE VALUE that evolves a character's emotions and leads to sacred love and peace.

The key difference, in my findings, is that you can embue the VIRTUE with positive benefits (that defies death) and this benefit subconsciously rewards the reader.

The reader subconsciously understands the Virtues in this story provide positive benefits and the Vices lead to dire consequences that are dismantling and deadly to the characters that choose the Vice side of the Moral Premise.

Like in Life, when you provide structure and do things in an orderly fashion, you reap incredibly positive benefits!

Armed with this new tool, The Moral Premise, I'm able to accurately zero in on a story, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and harness its thematic power and mythic elements.

NEXT EPISODE

https://steemit.com/moralpremise/@miquielbanks/the-visual-truth-about-great-good-and-bad-writing