*blog note: My good friend Ty King made a good observation and rightfully chided me for failing to provide an outline for where this series is headed. My apologies for not saying so earlier, but if you haven’t been able to guess yet, we’re walking through our storytelling structure from the beginning of the story through to the end. Last we week we talked about establishing our central character in an ordinary world, and now we’re going to look at the best ways to begin the transition out of that ordinary world and into the meat of the story that lies in the second act! This post went a little long, so to keep it bite-sized, I've divided into two parts...

Moments of Longing, Hints, Calls, and Incidents – the ordinary world is in for a shake-up! Part 1

I love classic rock. In fact, not much feels better than driving down the highway on a sunny day with the windows down, hair blown back, rocking out to a great tune on the radio. One of my favorite such road songs is More Than a Feeling by Boston. Even if you’re not a fan of 70’s rock there’s a good chance you’ve heard this instant classic before and found yourself singing along (in my case, singing along quite terribly.) There’s a moment in that particular song, what might be its signature moment in fact, that comes between the verses and the chorus. It’s a short, guitar solo pre-chorus: a few notes that transition the song from the soothing, acoustic opening to the head-nodding, foot tapping power chords of the chorus.

This is a common technique in musical arrangement and every good musician knows that to enhance a listeners enjoyment of a song, it is important to tip the listener off to upcoming tempo changes, solos, or choruses, give them hint, or building into those musical changes. These “hints” create excitement and anticipation. They prime the audience for what is to come.

The same is true for storytelling. Hopefully, as you’ve crafted the first few pages or chapters of your novel, you’ve built an ordinary world and given your audience a clear picture of the global problems that face that world and, more specifically, the individual and unique issues that challenge your central character. So now that you’ve set the scene you’re probably chomping at the bit to get the action going and take your hero into the second act, full of danger, challenges, and adventure. But before we move into that fist-pumping, foot-stomping, hand-clapping chorus, we can give our story an added boost by “priming” our reader with an effective pre-chorus that tells them: change is coming, and you’re going to love it!

The elements of our storytelling “pre-chorus” are varied and not all necessarily used together, or even in every story, but I’ve grouped them in the following order: The Moment of Longing, Mysterious Hints, the Call to Adventure, and the Inciting Incident.

The Moment of Longing

One of my favorite, nerdtastic childhood-defining moments in film is the binary sunset scene from Star Wars. Luke Skywalker has just stormed away from a frustrating dinner with his Aunt and Uncle. With the purchase of two new droids earlier that day, Luke expresses his hope to finally leave the farm and go off to join his friends at the academy. But once more Uncle Owen forbids it, telling Luke (again) “maybe next year.” Luke sulks out into the desert evening, the music swells, and he stares off into the twin sunset with tears in his eyes. Even as a boy that scene moved me. I instinctively knew what Luke was going through. He felt trapped - by the farm, by his Uncle, by his own youth, and he longed for freedom from his dusty, desert home and hoped for adventure far away in the stars.

The moment of longing is a vital trigger for the coming change of the second act. It gives the audience insight into whatever it is our character truly needs or wants (or thinks she wants!) In most cases (as many stories begin with the ordinary world and our hero in noticeably difficult or needy situations) this longing is for something the character lacks. This missing piece can certainly be physical, but the moment of longing gives you, the writer, a chance to demonstrate that there is an internal or spiritual component to the missing piece. In Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes obviously wants to escape his wrongful imprisonment in the dreaded Chateau d’If, but when he carves the words, “God will give me justice” into the stone walls of his cell he reveals his deeper hope: revenge on those who put him in chains.

Perhaps the trickiest part of executing the Moment of Longing successfully is isolating it around a specific instance, but at the same time giving the sense that this is merely the latest in a series of similar disappointments. There is a wonderful scene in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in which Harry, cold and hungry, counts down to his birthday on his cousin’s watch, wondering if his Aunt and Uncle will even remember it at all. It is a marvelous moment, for we know that Harry has wished for a family that would celebrate with him and love him for all of the birthdays leading up to that particular one. And the countdown serves double duty, as it also perfectly builds up to a moment of change about to come bursting through Harry's door!

Mysterious Hints

People in general, but especially those on the receiving end of a good story I think, love clues. It’s the whole reason people read or watch mysteries. The only thing more fun than being surprised by a twist or turn in a brilliant tale is anticipating the surprises of those twists and turns! Even if readers are only barely aware of what the clues might mean, they catch and hang onto even the smallest of hints, itching to see what they might mean to our hero. As we writers ready our characters and the world into which we've written them for the changes about to come in the second act, it is equally important that we also prepare our audience, even if it’s with just a breadcrumb here or there.

In one of my favorite books of all time, Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card, Ender Wiggin and his siblings have all been tested throughout their childhoods for entrance into the prestigious Battle School through implanted monitors that record their every word and deed. But neither Ender’s older brother nor his sister were accepted. When Ender has his own monitor removed early he assumes it is because he, like his brother and sister before him, has failed to gain acceptance to Battle School. But the audience knows better!

In the first Twilight novel, Bella Swan is both told by her high school friends and notices for herself that there are many strange goings-on surrounding the Cullen children. Most noticeably, the entire lot of them are without fail absent from school on all beautiful, sunny days. Bella at first guesses this must be because they are simply an eccentric family, but any reader who’s glanced at the jacket copy knows there’s more to the story than that.

In the movie Rocky, just after Rocky has lost his locker at Mickey’s gym, another boxer let’s Rocky know that there’s a phone call for him. Rocky has been asked to come visit Apollo Creed’s manager. Rocky assumes this is because he’s going to be asked to be a sparring partner for the champ, nothing more.

It is interesting to note that in all these examples, and quite often in storytelling, the hero of the story misinterprets the meaning of the hints given to them, not fully comprehending the extent to which their life or world is about to change. But the audience always knows better. The reader catches the hint and eagerly awaits the surprise they already know for certain is in store for the main character. The hint isn’t there to necessarily fool the reader, it’s there to get him or her excited for what’s about to be revealed to the main character!

Something you may have already noticed in all the above examples is that neither the Moment of Longing nor the Mysterious Hints are enough to trigger a full-on move into action. We'll get to that next week as we continue on to the Call to Adventure and the all-important Inciting Incident! Until then, here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you are reviewing or rewriting your own stories:

1) Have I taken the time to include a singular moment, no matter how brief, that demonstrates my main character's inner hope and longing?
2) If so, is this longing something our hero has yearned for over time and through frustration and disappointment?
3) Have I Ieft any hints for my audience that change is right around the corner?
4) If so, what are my central character's reactions to these hints?

I hope everyone has a great week of writing! I'll be back with part 2 two this section in a few days!