Create your premise

The Premise is the promise you make to a stranger before they've read a single line. It's what shows up in the catalog: a title, a short hook, the genre, and whether the story is meant to be lived alone or together with others.

Write it the way you'd describe the story to someone at a party, not the way you'd summarize it for a filing cabinet. "The lighthouse should have gone dark at 2am. It's 1:14." tells a reader everything they need to feel curious, without giving anything away.

The Premise never changes what happens inside the story - it only changes whether someone decides to step into it.