1. Introduction to Premise

Hey storytellers! It’s day 4 of Storytelling with CS First! Get ready for an exciting day where we’ll learn about premise and conflict. “Premise” is the situation in which the main character begins the story, and the problem, or conflict, it presents must be solved by the end of the story. Here’s an example of premise: in Shakespeare's classic play Romeo and Juliet, the two main characters are in love, but their families forbid them from being in a relationship. That's the premise. The events in the story – the plot – work together to resolve this main problem.

Every premise fits into one of four categories: character versus character, character versus society, character versus themselves, or character versus nature. For example, a story about a person in the wilderness trying to survive fits into the character versus nature category.

You may notice that the four starter project options today are named after these four categories.

You can choose one of these premises to start out the story for today.

In the sprite versus sprite starter, the knight encounters a dragon, which will not let the knight pass. In the sprite versus society starter, one alien feels different from all the other aliens at a pool party.

In the sprite versus themselves starter, the ballerina wants to dance, but she's scared.

In the sprite versus nature starter, the creature is out in the cold and needs to find shelter.

Your task now is to pick one of these starter projects and make it your own! Tell the story you want to tell, and keep in mind that these are just the beginning. They lay a foundation for you will build your story upon. On the next page, you’ll get to continue telling your story by adding cool elements to your project. You can pick and choose which elements you want to add, and you don’t have to go in order!

Now, it’s your turn: 1) Pick a starter project from the ones listed next to this video. 2) Begin to build your story based on the premise you selected. Once you’ve started your story with scripts for each sprite, move on to the next page.