How to Structure the First Act of a Novel: The Setup
A deep dive on four-act story structure. (part 1 of 10)
Welcome to your tour of the four-act story structure (a modified version of the three-act). I am particularly fond of this model because it makes writing the book’s middle more manageable.
So let’s begin at the beginning, with Act I, also known as The Setup. This Act includes the hook, which we discussed in the last blog post (check out the previous article on crafting grippy narrative hooks here), the inciting incident, resistance, and a pivotal moment where a character crosses a bridge into the new world of Act II.
Today is all about understanding The Setup!
What’s a narrative setup?
A narrative setup is everything between the hook and the kick-off of Act II, including the inciting incident, but unfortunately, it’s misunderstood.
So often, writers associate The Setup with the setting or endless backstory and fluffy exposition and the only thing that will set a reader up for is a nap.
The purpose of The Setup is to establish the story’s premise. It answers the “What will this be about?” question. It’s a working part of the story and whets our appetite for more.
Remember the golden rule of story: “MAKE ME CARE.” That is what a good Setup does for a reader.
How do we make a reader care? By allowing them to understand who the players are, the motivation behind their actions, and the context of their everyday lived experiences.
Understanding The Setup is vital, and as K.M. Weiland writes in Creating Character Arcs: The Setup is essential because “... it sets up the plot but even more importantly, it sets up the character arcs.” These items must advance and change as the story progresses; otherwise … you guessed it, there’s no story.
What to include in a narrative setup?
Characters. World. Genre. Situation. Plot. Conflict. Stakes. Hint at the Big Story Question.
The characters: most importantly, the protagonist. You want to introduce your characters, their goals, personalities, flaws, and problems. When it comes to the protagonist, we need to understand their current emotional state, motivations, and worldview (what they think about themselves, especially in relation to their world and its ongoings.) We also need a glimmer of understanding about their false belief (what holds them back from achieving the necessary internal change the readers come to experience whether they know it or not.)
The world: Introduce your character in the world. Have the character interact with the world around them vs. beginning with exposition or info dumping. This also helps to satisfy genre expectations.
A situation: Stories don’t start out of nothing and nowhere. Your characters have lived experiences before the reader meets them on page one. Something needs to be brewing before the reader encounters them in the opening pages, and there needs to be a sense *(good or bad) the situation has been long-standing or long-awaited. So, plunk that main character down in the midst of a problem or an opportunity!
Plot: We need the plot too, and when I say plot, I mean the sequence of events (think story issues in action here) that you, brilliant writer, have cooked up to get in the way of your character’s goal! These events should indicate the book’s central conflict, though they may only speak to it indirectly. This helps to plant the big story question, which usually comes down to a will they or won’t they situation.
All of this leads us to the inciting incident, the next stop along our four-act story structure. The inciting incident is where the main story conflict is revealed, and the reader understands the character’s plight and the stakes they face because you, smart, savvy writer, have demonstrated what they hold dear in the Setup! In short, you made the reader care!
We will talk more about the inciting incident in the next blog post!
