The Setup

If you are like me and you LOVE the beginning of stories but you are also a crazy perfectionist, you probably have a love-hate relationship with your first few chapters. Starting a new story, the words usually fall onto the page so quickly they are nothing but black streaks of ink. Or pixels. But at the very latest, it is when your draft is finished that you return to these first pages and think to yourself:
what is this abomination?
where is the structure?
where is the agency?
where are the stakes?
why are there twenty scenes that might be, let’s be honest here, hilarious, but just… redundant?

In the following post, I’m going to explain (what I believe) are a setup’s most important elements and show you some of the things I’ve learned while working on my own projects.

Expectations vs. Reality

Expectations vs. Reality is a term I first read about in Robert McKee’s Story. It’s about how every scene should introduce a change in some sort. An expectation the protagonist has meets reality and thus, conflict is created.

But how can we use this knowledge for good? And how can we make use of it both for the external plot and the protagonist’s internal development?

Desire and Misbelief

Reading a new story craft book is a bit like learning a new language; everybody is trying to say the same thing, but some people point at a character’s goal and go, “that’s their want!” while another says, “this is called the desire.”

Hello and welcome to my brain after I’ve read Lisa Cron’s Story Genius and am trying to understand this new language I’ve learned. Specifically: how can I make use of my new knowledge regarding the character’s desire and misbelief and the resulting third rail.

Method Acting

Method acting, isn’t that when actors go out and beyond to become their character to the point where they will send dead pigs to their costars?
Well, yes and no. This might seem a bit extreme to some, but hear me out.

Villains

Antagonists and villains come in many shades. You have society, nature, a nemesis, and most of the time the protagonist is their own antagonist as well.

In the following post, I will specifically talk about villains. Keep in mind, not every story has a villain, but if they do, they should be complex and interesting characters. Often, they are even more intriguing than the protagonist themselves. But how can you create a memorable villain? To achieve this, keep the following question in mind:

What is the connection between the villain and the protagonist?