Nine novels. Six years. While I was working full-time and running two businesses.
People hear that and assume I quit my job, or I've got no kids, or I'm some kind of writing savant. None of that's true. What I had — what I built — was a system. And today I'm going to give you a piece of it for free."
Real quick, so you know I'm not just talking — these books hit 4.86 to 4.93 star ratings, and over 50,000 reads, on top of a full-time career and running two businesses.
That novella got 54,000 reads and a score of 4.67 out of 5 stars! One of those chapters scored 4.93 stars! Another short story got 2300 reads and a score of 4.86.
I'm not telling you that to brag. I'm telling you because I looked for a course like this when I started in 2019, and I couldn't find one. Everything out there was punctuation drills and grammar rules — nothing about the system that actually gets a book started, finished, and read.
So I built my own. This video is about the very first piece of it: how I actually start a story."
Here's the problem most new writers run into: they either wait around for 'inspiration' to strike, or they sit down with a blank page and just start typing and hope it holds together.
Both of those are slow, and both of those quit on you halfway through a manuscript.
Instead, I use a four-step method to go from a spark of an idea to a story that actually holds up. I call it: Facts → Presumptions → Questions → Premise."
Step 1 — Facts
"Start with facts. Not facts about the world — facts about this story. Who is this person? Where are they? What's true about their situation right now, before anything happens?
This isn't creative yet. It's just laying bricks. A list. 'She's 34. She just left her job. She hasn't spoken to her sister in three years.' That's it — plain, grounded facts."
Step 2 — Presumptions
"Once you've got facts, you build presumptions on top of them. This is where you ask: given these facts, what would reasonably follow? What does the reader assume is going on?
If she just left her job and hasn't spoken to her sister in three years, a reader might presume there's tension, maybe regret, maybe she's about to reach out. You're not deciding the story yet — you're mapping what a reader's brain naturally fills in."
Step 3 — Questions
"Now — and this is the part most people skip — you turn those presumptions into questions. Real questions a reader would actually ask.
'Why did she leave her job?' 'What happened with her sister?' 'Is she going to reach out, or run further away?'
These questions are gold. They're literally your plot's job security. Every scene you write from here on is either asking a new question or answering an old one."
Step 4 — Premise
"Last step: you turn all of that into a premise. One or two sentences that define what the story actually is. Not the plot, not the ending — just the core tension the whole book is going to live inside.
Something like: 'A woman who walked away from everything has to decide whether going back means healing — or losing herself all over again.'
That's your compass. Every chapter, every scene, gets tested against that premise. Does it serve it? Keep it. Doesn't? Cut it.
WHY THIS WORKS
Here's why this matters more than talent: this method takes the terrifying part — 'what do I even write?' — and turns it into a checklist. Facts. Presumptions. Questions. Premise.
That’s the difference between staring at a blank page for three weeks, and having a working starting point in one sitting. It’s not magic. It’s structure. And structure is repeatable — which is exactly why I was able to do this nine times, not once.
Now — this is just the starting framework. It’s step one of a system that also covers how I self-edit without paying an editor, how I turn a manuscript into an audiobook using AI for a fraction of the usual cost, and how I manage the tools that keep a whole series consistent.
I break all of that down — with live examples from my actual books — in Class 102 and beyond, in my course, Becoming An Author: The Master Class Series.
About The Author
I’m the author of nine published novels about a team of assassins and have seven more in process. I am also the instructor of the Udemy Course, Becoming an Author: The Master Class Series. In that course, I share practical advice on writing, publishing, promotion, audiobook production, and marketing. Learn more at vscampbell.com or explore my Udemy course if you’d like to learn a complete system for becoming the most prolific author of quality literature. Don’t be one of the 95% of authors whose work is rejected due to a lack of merit. These skills can be learned. For the first ten sessions of the course, and to get the rest of the classes in Becoming an Author: The Master Class Series, use this discount coupon and pay only $19.99 for a $150 value! You can save thousands of dollars by learning to handle every aspect of authoring your work yourself, rather than hiring editors and audio production professionals.
https://www.udemy.com/course/becoming-an-author-the-master-class-series/?couponCode=VSCAMPBELL
That coupon is a limited-time offer. If it expires, please contact me at [email protected], and I can provide you with the current discount.
