The premise behind this book is that stories don't pop into the author's head fully formed. A story is the product of many hours of patient work on the different facets that are needed to build a compelling story. These major facets include character building, plotting, motivation and finally, story design or construction. The book addresses those facets and simplifies the author's struggle by including design forms that can be used to guide the processes of character and plot development.
I'm sure some people will claim I am stifling creativity with a design process. I disagree. Nothing in my process stifles creativity; rather the process channels the creative ideas so that more time is available to the author to be creative.