THE IMPORTANCE OF A PREMISE TO A SCREENWRITER

A MAN sits in his workshop, busy with an invention of wheels and springs. You ask him what the gadget is, what it is meant to do. He looks at you confidingly and whispers: "I really don't know." Another man rushes down the street, panting for breath. You intercept him and ask where he is going. He gasps: "How should I know where I'm going? I am on my way." Your reaction—and ours, and the world's—is that these two men are a little mad. Every sensible invention must have a purpose, every planned sprint a destination. Yet, fantastic as it seems, this simple necessity has not made itself felt to any extent in the theater. Reams of paper bear miles of writing—all of it without any point at all.
There is much feverish activity, a great deal of get-up-and-go, but no one seems to know where he is going. Everything has a purpose, or premise. Every second of our life has its own premise, whether or not we are conscious of it at the time. That premise may be as simple as breathing or as complex as a vital emotional decision, but it is always there. We may not succeed in proving each tiny premise, but that in no way alters the fact that there was one we meant to prove. Our attempt to cross the room may be impeded by an unob- served footstool, but our premise existed nevertheless. The premise of each second contributes to the premise of the minute of which it is part, just as each minute gives its bit of life to the hour, and the hour to the day. And so, at the end, there is a premise for every life.
Webster's International Dictionary says:
Premise: a proposition antecedently supposed or proved; a basis of argument. A proposition stated or assumed as leading to a conclusion.
Others, especially men of the theater, have had different words for the same thing: theme, thesis, root idea, central idea, goal, aim, driving force, subject, purpose, plan, plot, basic emotion. For our own use we choose the word "premise" because it contains all the elements the other words try to express and because it is less subject to misinterpretation. Ferdinand Brunetiere demands a "goal" in the play to start with. This is premise. John Howard Lawson: "The root-idea is the beginning of the process." He means premise. Professor Brander Matthews: "A play needs to have a theme." It must be the premise. Professor George Pierce Baker, quoting Dumas the Younger: "How can you tell what road to take unless you know where you are going?" The premise will show you the road. They all mean one thing: you must have a premise for your play.
                                             Excerpts from THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING by Lagos Egri