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.

Theme (feat. Finding Nemo)

I’ve already talked about theme once in my post about the Controlling Idea, but now I’d like to expand on the topic a little more. So, what is theme, how do we find it and how can we show it instead of tell it?

The North Star Pt 3 – Act 2 Pt 1 – The Setup

Now the story begins! This part is often called the “Fun and Games”, the reactive phase, the introduction to the adventure world, the “What is going on and what am I supposed to do now?”

In short: the characters have no idea what to do, and to be honest, right now, neither do I.

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.

Density

Rain splatters against my window, failing to cover the noise of the cars rushing past on the nearby highway, the motorcycles hissing across the concrete and the trucks’ deep roar. Berlin is a grey city, my sisters told me when they heard of my move. I refused to believe them until, plagued by an anxiety I had successfully ignored in my quiet little hometown, I felt the urge to decorate my apartment with atmospheric lights: large Ikea lamps, stained glass lampshades handcrafted by my father, chain of lights along my walls like the stars I never get to see.
This, I realized, this is a post about density.

But what the hell is density?

The Controlling Idea

The Controlling Idea is an element that Robert McKee talks about in his book “Story”. The Controlling Idea is the heart of your story, the central idea, the “why are you telling me this?”. It is similar to a theme, but instead of popping up every now and then, it is, more or less, present in every scene. McKee argues in his book that the Controlling Idea should be boiled down to a single sentence.