The Premise of It All
Before I can invest in any story, I need to buy into the premise. If I can’t buy into the premise, I’ll struggle to believe the story that unfolds. My brain will be on alert for realism, credibility and probability issues. I don’t want it to be. That’s just the way my brain works. You know? It thinks. Now this doesn’t mean the only stories I like are ones grounded in contemporary society or and/or issues. I love anything that tells a good story, no matter how fantastical. Just sell the premise to me and I’m in. An eccentric inventor builds a time machine into a DeLorean? No problem! Immortals…
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I wrote a science-fiction screenplay, entitled True Blood, right around the same time that Charlaine Harris would’ve been writing the first book of The Southern Vampire Mysteries – these are the books that, eventually, became the TV series True Blood. (I mention that as nothing more than coincidence – I just found it funny the way two similar things can occur on different sides of the world. I emailed Charlaine about it, and we got to talking, and are now collaborating together on a science-fiction vampire opera featuring zombie gerbils.) I wanted to sub True Blood to a comp a couple of years ago, so I took it out with…