Checklist for Beginning Your Story: Plot Considerations

hi I'm cam wand and welcome to this week's video which is a continuation of what we talked about last time when we cover started covering kind of a checklist of important elements to consider for your story's beginning last time we specifically talked about what you need to consider in regards to character and all of the many elements that you can use both to enhance character in the beginning and to use character to really um create an awesome beginning that hooks readers in now I talked in that video just about how complex a topic that Beginnings

are and how really just the first chapter is just has so many moving pieces and so many things to think about not just in in hooking readers and convincing them this is an entertaining story but also in laying the groundwork for everything to follow because if it doesn't do that then it really does compromise the story that follows so I wanted to divide it into two videos because really there's just so much to talk about and even then we're not covering like even a inth of everything that there is to consider about beginning so as

always I will leave lots of resources down below if you're watching on YouTube and if you are listening to this as a podcast then you can find uh the trans complete transcript of this on my website at helping writers author.com so in this week's video we're going to be talking about plot considerations for your stories beginning so obviously character is a huge part of this you can't have plot without character so um beginning with some of the things that we talked about in the last video as a foundation is very important in um you know

creating or highlighting elements of your character's personality that are really going to drive the conflict in showing um your character's relationship to the Thematic lie and Truth which are going to drive their character Arc and which in turn is really going to influence um what they want and how they interact in the plot so one of the first things to consider in introducing the plot in your story's beginning is that basically every scene in your story is is like a domino in a row of dominoes so you know how people create those you know really

elaborate designs and if you push one Domino over it creates this chain reaction and every Domino has to be perfectly in place for this to happen or you know that the action comes you know to us Halt and at best you know the person has to come in and oops you know n to the next Domino along to recreate the Chain Reaction so the first domino in your plots line of dominoes is this first scene so you have to really think about how does this set up the Chain Reaction that's going to follow it can't

just be this arbitrary scene that's tacked on in order to accomplish other important things that have to happen in the beginning such as introducing um characters or even just hooking readers it has to to do so in a way that is very integral to the entire story and that creates this sense of cohesion and resonance so plot in a nutshell we can simply think of it as the character wants something right they have a goal and that goal is going to be met with obstacles which is what creates the conflict and therefore the entire drama

of the story so it all begins with something that your character wants and in plot this is going to be something specific right it's going to be the plot goal whatever that may be be in your story whether it's um a relationship they want to be with somebody whether it's you know an actual item that they're pursuing that they need whether it's you know to defeat um an enemy whatever it is um it can be something very specific like they're going to get the thing and hold it in their hand or it can be something

more abstract whatever it is it's going to be something specific within the the plot but that specific thing is going to be driven by a deeper desire on your character's part and this is the thing your character wants um and so this is something to really consider in the beginning of your story and it's very important in setting up this first chapter because the plot goal that specific plot goal is something that's going to kind of gel as the story goes along and particularly throughout the third act it may not be something the character specifically

is as after or even knows about necessarily um it may not you know fully come come into view until the beginning of the second act but you still have this whole first part of your story that you have to fill with stuff that has to happen that's going to engage readers and make them want to read on until they get to that full immersion in the story's drama so what do you do what drives the plot in this early part of the story and the answer to that again is the thing your character wants and

this specifically is something that's that's a deeper desire it's a deeper want that is going to then fuel the desire and the need for that plot goal as the story progresses it's going to sort of funnel down into something that's more specific but this want and we talked about this a little bit in the last video this want is something that is going to be founded upon and driven by the character's relationship to the story's thematic lie to the LIE the character believes and again this is a limited perspective that the character holds a limiting

belief about themselves or the world they live in that is motivating their actions in a way that is ultimately dysfunctional and it's becoming increasingly So within the events of your specific story so think about in this first scene as you're crafting your stories beginning think about what it is what is the thing your character wants and so even if you're not yet able to craft an opening scene that is specifically involved with the plot goal that will come in come to light later on you can still craft a scene that is very much based around

the character's desire around the thing that they want whatever that is in this opening scene and in so doing you get the opportunity to also dramatize their relationship to the LIE their relationship to the normal world the things that we talked about that are more character-based in the last video think about the thing your character wants you can also think about the thing your character needs which is something that is in contrast to this want and usually just generally is the truth that the character will come to believe as The Story Goes On um it

is the more expanded mindset that's going to be in contrast to the limitations with which they start out and obviously they don't have that at this point in the story and they may never get it depending on what type of Arc they're following but in a positive Arc they they won't find that until the end of the story but you can use your your awareness of the thing they need and their lack of it to show you know how they're interacting with the thing they want how they're trying to pursue the want as kind of

a replacement for the need so like a basic example of this would be they need to let somebody love them but their want you know is to fill that need via other things maybe they're you know want to be a pop star or something and fame right they think they want fame when really what they need is love and that's a very very general um example but you're kind of going to get the idea from that of how you know maybe the story is about um you know falling in love or maybe it's about you

know reuniting with um an estranged parent or something like that you know that's going to help the character evolve their perspective of and their relationship to love and to themselves into loving themselves ultimately but you know you're setting up this plot in which they're pursuing this mistaken mode of trying to get this via their Pursuit Of Fame you know I'm going to become a famous pop star and everybody's going to love me that kind of thing and you can start setting that up in the very first chapter even as you're allowing the rest of that

to develop and bringing in the Dynamics that are really going to start challenging that mindset and making it difficult for the character to get what they need via what they think they want so think about setting that up in your very first scene and even using that you know as the scene goals you know to set up early scene goals and early scene conflict before the character is fully engaged with the antagonistic Force as that progresses later on in the First Act okay so from a structural perspective the main function of the beginning in general

is to set up the story that is to follow right it's to introduce all of the important elements whether that's the characters the settings the stakes um the theme you know just the pieces of your character's Arc the lie that character believes the Thematic truth the thing they want the thing they need all of that that has to be introduced within the First Act of your story and usually there you will at the very least start foreshadowing almost all of those things from the very beginning from the very first scene in the first chapter a

couple of ways that you can kind of Leverage this and think about it to try to make sure that you're bringing in all these crazy disperate elements that have to you know start happening within a very confined space within your story is to think about the relationship structural relationship of this first chapter to other important structural moments throughout the story so first and foremost the what happens in the beginning of your story whether it's exactly the first chapter a little later on but the that opening what happens there is something that is going to set

up and therefore foreshadow whatever happens at your story's first plot point so the first plot Point happens around the 25 % Mark and it's the kind of the doorway between the First Act and the second act so it's a big moment it is the moment where your character becomes fully engaged with the story's main conflict um against the antagonistic force in your story whatever is creating obstacles to the character getting what they want and what they need so think about how you can set that up in the very first chapter um how even if it's

just subtle right it's still that first domino in the row of dominoes how is what's happening in this opening scene that you've chosen creating this line of cause and effect within your plot that is going to lead your character to the first plot point and if you realize that maybe some of your ideas for how to open your story and create this beginning chapter don't really seem to influence the first plot point then it is definitely possible that you're beginning too soon because the true beginning of your story is that moment where the character's life

begins to change right it's not dramatic yet it's not overt but very subtly the circumstances are changing their own inner experience is changing in a way that means they cannot Remain the way they are anymore and this could be you know largely external circumstances you know maybe their neighborhoods going to you know be condemned or something and they're going to have to move whether they want to or not or it could be you know just internal circumstances which is you know what we see very often in archetypal character arcs such as what I talk about

in my book writing archetypal character arcs in that life circumstances you know wherever you're at within the life Arc brings you to a point where you're changing you know puberty is a great example right it's like you don't get a choice you're going on this next character Arc into adulthood um so that moment you know whether it's something that's happening externally against the character's will or internally that really they can't help or maybe they're excited for it maybe they think they know what they're getting into and they want it um either way something is changing

and it's really subtle right it's not it's not at a point where they even recognize that their life is going to change forever but it's the first Rumblings of that that's where you want to begin your story because that is what's then going to lead into and foreshadow uh the first plot point at the end of the First Act and one other thing that you can kind of think about structurally um that's kind of fun um in setting up your beginning yeah and we're going to talk about this a little bit more I think in

the next video when I talk about endings um but that is how your beginning how the hook in your story's beginning actually mirrors um and sets up the resolution in your story's ending so the first scene and the last scene so the structural point and job of the first chapter is to act as a hook for readers right it's to pull them in it's to create that opening Dynamic and that opening situ ation that not only kicks off the plot but that's you know pulls reader readers in and is interesting so the hook is that

first beat in your story's structure and it's something that by the time you get to the resolution whatever happens in the beginning even if it seems very ancillary to the rest of the story by the time you get to the end there should be a Harmony and it doesn't have to be overt it doesn't have to be necessarily like say the character returns to wherever they were in the beginning of the story in that first scene and they see the same characters and sometimes that will happen and it can be an extremely effective way to

bring the story full circle and to show how the character Andor the world has changed because of the effects of the story but it can be much subtler than that um sometimes it is literally just mirroring whatever the characteristic moment was in the beginning with another characteristic moment in the very end that shows how the character has changed they're in a similar circumstance but they they have changed or maybe they haven't and that's what you're trying to emphasize but you know obviously it helps if you know you know how you want to end your story

and sometimes you won't necessarily you know realize that something you've created in the opening scene is something that you can and well um Mirror by the time you do get to the ending but just kind of keeping that in mind and realizing that that even if the beginning of the story seems very separate from what's going to be the main conflict that you can help it seem like a cohesive hole and bring It full circle by thinking about how any questions um you know whether they're overt or just you know subtextual that you're raising in

that first chapter can eventually be answered in the end and again this can be very subtle it is probably isn't something that you want readers thinking about throughout the whole story but you can sew those little seeds that can come to fruition at the end and just make the whole story feel very grounded and resonant um and purposeful um even if you didn't intend it even if it just magically happens you know in the end that you're mirroring something in the beginning that you didn't even realized could be foreshadowing it makes the story seem very

intentional which is you know always a great reading experience okay so the last couple things I want to talk about are just techniques for opening your story things that you can use to take all of these elements that you've made sure in your beginning and that are laying the found ation for the story that will follow and giving it this really strong these really strong roots right from which it can grow this amazing story then how do you take that and then apply it you know to the actual story and bring those techniques to life

in a way that works for readers you know because it's one thing for you to say you know this and this and this happens and another thing to dramatize it in you know through words in a way that readers really do enjoy and relate to that you've shown it to them rather than told them right so again the hook is the primary thing that you're trying to accomplish as far as just pulling readers in with all of the great stuff you know that you're trying to share with them in the story and there are many

many different ways to do this the simp I think the simplest like the bottom line of what a hook is and how to think about it is to think of it as a question right you're trying to get you're trying to Peak readers curiosity and you're not necessarily necessarily trying to get them to ask an explicit question but you do want to just Peak their curiosity and make them wonder what's going to happen with this Dynamic you know what's going to happen you know what are the consequences of what just happened in this story or

or asking what would make someone do this you know we've talked about backstory in previous videos and how that can create this whole uh layer of subtext in which it makes readers wonder you know why would someone do this what's the motivation so whatever it is you know thinking about how you can sew these little hooks that get readers curious and if they're curious they keep reading so you know there can be lots of things part of it is just I want to know what's going to happen in the plot but some of it too

can be these little things like backstory and motive and stuff like that that is just enough of a little hook to pull them along until you can start planning bigger and bigger hooks as you continue to develop the main plot now one um relatively popular way of trying to hook readers and beginning a story is um in Mia's race which I'm always pronouncing wrong so that's probably wrong um but it means it's Latin it means in the middle of things and basically it means opening the story in the middle of the action so very often

we'd see this in you know like say action stories that again like there there's already a battle going on right there's already something you know a car chase or a battle or whatever and we're just plunged right in the middle of it and we don't know what's going on we don't know why these characters are doing this or you know what's at stake necessarily it's just action and and again it doesn't have to be like action action depending on the context of your story maybe it's relational maybe you open you know right smack in the

middle of characters breaking up or you know something like that but regardless the idea is that you're kind of cutting out the throat clearing and all the stuff the explanation of what's happening and just getting readers right into the good stuff and this can be very effective but it's also quite tricky because particularly in written Fiction it's different in visual fiction like movies but particularly in written fiction readers need a reason to invest in reading about action because very often action is quite dense it's not something that is the easiest thing to just immediately jump

in and be interested in and readers need a reason to care they need a reason to know why your character is running through the streets or you know whatever so very often it's better to pull that back until at least later in the first ch if not later altogether um however the exception here is understanding what it means to open in the middle of the action so can't remember if I talked about this in this video or the previous one but I mentioned how valuable it can be to open with your your character in motion

right that they are moving toward something and it doesn't necessarily mean like they're running through the streets or they're shooting it out or some big action moment it just means that there's a sense of movement right they're moving toward toward something there's momentum there's a sense that they want something and therefore there's a sense that there's there's plot right there's a goal and there's opportunity for that goal to be obstructed which is conflict if you can just impart that that is often enough to allow your story to open in a way that cuts through the

throat clearing gets straight to the point of what the character is doing in this first chapter in this first scene without asking readers to invest themselves in a story that they don't know anything about in a really intense scene where they don't yet know who they're sympathizing with who they're identified with that kind of thing and again I think I talked about this in the last video as well very often opening with dialogue is one of the best ways to begin in the action because dialogue actually is action it is I like to say the

purest form of showing rather than telling because it literally you don't have to describe it you don't have to explain it it just is straight from the horse's mouth right straight from the character's mouth M so not to say necessarily you want your first align to be dialogue and you probably do not want a dialogue conversation without contacts without you know giving dialogue tags and pointing out Who characters are but the back and forth of dialogue does give you the opportunity to get readers into the action of the story while also sewing in little bits

of information about the characters who are speaking and whatever they're doing their action beats as they go so that's not appropriate for every story obviously the situation that you're trying to convey in your opening chapter will have a lot to do with that decision but it is um generally speaking a very effective technique for grabbing readers for you know creating that perfect balance between action and forward momentum with also you know giving readers an opportunity to invest in characters to understand what's going on who's talking what they're doing what they want that kind of thing

I hope that's helpful again Beginnings have so much ground to cover so many things that we could talk about um but that um between last last time's video and this one hopefully that's a good overview of all of the basic elements and considerations for crafting a really solid beginning that both sets the groundwork for the plot and the whole story to come and hooks readers and gives them a reason to be interested in the story that you have to tell them so if you'd like to stay in touch with me and all of the content

that I produce um and in addition to these videos um I also do a weekly post and podcast on my website at helping writers become author.com and the best way to stay in touch with all of that and all of the other resources that I produce is to sign up for my mailing list at helping writers author.com mailinglist and if you're interested you can also connect with me on Instagram at author km Wildland where I post um lots of good stuff including um just aming about life and that sort of thing that I don't post

anywhere else so I hope to see you around and if not I will see you in the next video till then Happy writing