What’s Your Starting Point? Character, Setting, or Premise (The Writer’s Non-Negotiable)

Last year, I participated in a book outlining workshop where the first step was to come up with a character. We were challenged to write out our character’s main goal, the obstacles that keep them from their goal, and their character flaw that stems from a past wound or lie.

I finished the workshop with an outline that I actually loved, characters that I thought were compelling and interesting, and a plot that was driven by the characters’ decisions.

But when I sat down to write it… nothing came to me. Trying to put myself in the protagonist’s shoes was a nightmare. I felt entirely unconnected to my main character, which didn’t make sense because the outline I’d created stemmed entirely from my intimate understanding of this character.

Somehow I came across this term on Reddit, the writer’s non-negotiable (I wish I could find the post so I could credit the commenter). The term writer’s non-negotiable doesn’t come up on Google with the meaning that this Reddit commenter attributed to it, so they may have just made it up themselves. Wherever the term came from, though, it changed my entire outlook of my book.

The writer’s non-negotiable is a theory, of sorts, that each writer has a natural starting point when coming up with a story. Some start with the character, some start with the setting, and some with the premise.

I have a friend who religiously starts her stories from the character’s motivational perspective, because those are the first details that come to her mind when creating a story.

Another friend of mine starts her D&D campaign ideas with a setting first and foremost, and then the characters and plot fill in afterwards.

I realized that I have never once started the concept of a story from the character details. I’ve always started from the premise. Once I have an idea for the situation that the protagonist is in at the start of the novel, the character details are able to follow, making it easier for me to see the character’s perspective in the story.

But if I start from the wrong non-negotiable for me, then I get stuck with a story I don’t feel connected to and don’t have inspiration to work on.

When I re-worked my outline with the premise first instead of the character, everything fell into place so easily. The story began to make sense in ways that I didn’t even know were missing from the original outline.

So if you’re struggling to connect to your story, maybe it’s because the starting point wasn’t natural for you. There is no right or wrong non-negotiable, and I’m sure there are writers who don’t fall into these categories of character, setting, and premise. The most important thing is that you feel inspired to write the story, and this writer’s non-negotiable concept may help you develop and keep that inspiration.

So, what’s your starting point? Character, setting, premise, all of the above, or something else?