Setups and Payoffs: What are they?

writeswithtools.com/2015/04/13/setups-and-payoffs-what-are-they

April 13,
2015

Here’s how Robert McKee sums ’em up: “To set up means to layer in knowledge; to pay off
means to close the gap by delivering that knowledge to the audience. When the gap
between expectation and result propels the audience back through the story seeking
answers, it can only find them if the writer has planted these insights in the work.”

Let’s dig deeper into what this all means, and how we can do it ourselves.

SETUP: WHAT IS IT?

Other words for “setup” include foreshadowing, plants, hints, clues, tells…

Sure, we could distinguish these terms, but, to me, the distinctions boil down to a matter of
degree, as in, Where does the piece of information fall on the Reader Awareness
Continuum, which ranges from Totally Obscured to “Look at Me! I’m Foreshadowing!”

Hitting all points on the awareness continuum is fine, great even; as Dwight Swain says,
“You can be as crude or subtle as your story and your editor permit.” But I don’t think it
matters so much what we call each point on the continuum… it just matters that we hit each
point (or not, whatever’s best for your story).

Anyway, here’s what the masters have to say about Setups (using its many synonyms):

SETUP: DEFINED

“Foreshadowing is hinting at the action or obstacles to come,” says Les Edgerton.

Karl Iglesias agrees: “Foreshadowing is … a hint of future danger or the promise of things to
come through a twist, a clue, or character nuance.”

“The definition of foreshadowing,” says Larry Brooks, is “anything that links to, or reveals a
glimpse or hint of a forthcoming story point or issue of characterization, but that is not yet
recognized by the reader as a salient story point itself at the moment of its revelation.”

“Foreshadowing suggests, whispers, or plants information, and deepens the reader’s sense
of anticipation by laying down traces of what will happen later in the story,” says Jessica
Page Morrell.

“Foreshadowing lays the groundwork; it provides an early sign,” says William Noble.

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“Planting means preparing the ground for something that comes later, usually to make the
later action credible,” says Sol Stein.

“Foreshadowing legitimizes future events by planting early clues,” says Chris Roerden.

“I define foreshadowing as giving greater credibility to a character’s actions and abilities by

“Foreshadowing,” says Mr. McKee is “the arrangement of early events to prepare for later
events.”

“To plant something means to stick that something into your story early in the game
because you know you’re going to need it later,” says Mr. Swain.

And for James N. Frey, “Foreshadowing is the art of raising story questions. If the story
questions are slight, the reader is mildly interested. If the story questions are great, the
reader is gripped.”

WHEN SHOULD YOU USE SETUPS?

1. To create credibility for future story events.

As Mr. Stein says, “Some obstacles need to be planted ahead of time so as not to seem
arbitrary devices of the author.”

For example, setups can

lay the groundwork (and create reader anticipation) for major scenes
lay the groundwork for (and create reader curiosity about) withheld information or
secrets you’ll eventually reveal
lead the reader and/or character astray so that you can create a twist (see below),
lay the groundwork for extreme weather or other “coincidences” that eventually affect
the plot
basically bolster any event in your plot that, without setup, readers would roll
their eyes at.

2. To bolster the credibility of your characters.

“There’s absolutely nothing your protagonist can’t do–be it fly, walk through walls, or recite
the dictionary backward–provided you’ve foreshadowed this unusual talent long before it
becomes the only way out of a sticky situation,” says Lisa Cron.

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Karen S. Wiesner agrees. “For a character to succeed, you must set the stage from the
beginning so your main character can believably use what’s in his bag of skills to rescue,
escape, defeat, and fight (in whatever way makes sense in your story).”

“The same is true when you want your characters to deviate from the norm,” says Ms. Cron,
be that society’s norm, a particular group’s norm, or the character’s personal norm. Your
characters can deviate from those norms, but you should probably show why they choose
to do so.

It’s also good to provide some set up for the Hero’s transformation (more next week).

3. To increase tension and suspense.

“For all its subtlety, foreshadowing serves a powerful purpose,” says Ms. Morrell. “It makes
the important moments in fiction more potent because of the anticipation that came
before.”

4. To tell jokes.

A joke is “a moment of humor in a longer piece of writing,” says Brad Schreiber. “In joke
writing, often the Rule of Threes is invoked. That is, setup, repetition, and joke. In other
words, here’s a situation, here’s more of the same, and now a twist.”

Doing jokes justice is beyond the scope of this post, but still… Jokes. Something fun to think
about.

5. To build unity into a story.

To do this, plant things that have thematic and symbolic relevance.

What kind of things? Good question…

WHAT DO YOU USE AS SETUPS?

As Mr. Swain says, “Planting is by no means limited to objects.” Here are some examples
from the masters of the kinds of things you can–and should–use as setup plants:

Secondary Characters
Unexplained Absences
Unexplained Presences
Actions
Physical Habits
Dialogue
Out-of-Place Remarks
Symbols
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 Objects
Misplaced Items
Weird Physical Reactions to Inanimate Objects
Places, Setting, Weather and Seasons
Mood
Description
Premonitions, Warnings
Secrets
Evidence, Weapons, Clues

“In fact, every choice you make–genre, setting, character, mood–foreshadows,” says
Mr. McKee. “With each line of dialogue or image of action you guide the audience to
anticipate certain possibilities, so that when events arrive, they somehow satisfy the
expectations you’ve created.”

SETUPS: THINGS TO CONSIDER

1. To set up means to show.

“Plant to a large degree means show. It’s hard to plant something that can’t be seen or
heard or whatever,” says Mr. Swain. “You don’t make an issue of it, you understand; you
simply make it obvious that it’s there.”

Mr. McKee agrees: “Setups must be planted firmly enough so that when the audience’s
mind hurls back, they’re remembered. If setups are too subtle, the audience will miss the
point. If too heavy-handed, the audience will see the Turning Point coming a mile away.”

2. Setups need to make sense in the moment they are shown.

“’Hints’ and ‘tells’ need to stand out (and make sense) in their own right before the reveal,”
says Ms. Cron.

Mr. McKee agrees: Setups “must be planted in such a way that when the audience first sees
them, they have one meaning, but with a rush of insight, they take on a second, more
important meaning.”

3. Setups should be doled out at a steady pace .

“There is nothing readers hate more than amazing story turns that aren’t adequately
explained. Or, on the other hand, require pages of explanation by some character at the
end,” says James Scott Bell. “The best way to get the loose ends tied up is by layering in the
answers as you move toward the end. That is, if you can avoid it, don’t wait until the last
chapter to dump all the answers in one spot.”

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4. And setups need to make sense in hindsight.

As Mr. Swain says, “When you plant something, … bear in mind that you’re obligated to pay
off said plant.”

In other words, for the payoff to land with the reader, “there must have been a pattern of
specific ‘hints’ or ‘tells’ along the way, alerting us that all was not as it seems, which the new
twist now illuminates and explains,” says Ms. Cron.

“A big reveal is most effective when it provokes not only, ‘oh, wow!’ but also ‘Of course!'” says
Donald Maass. “Make readers kick themselves for not seeing, you sly dog.”

Speaking of payoffs…

PAYOFFS: WHAT ARE THEY?

Other terms for “payoff” include reveals, discoveries, revelations, surprises, epiphanies,
twists, reversals….

Here, I think there are some distinctions among the terms worth making because they allow
us to consciously vary how payoffs are revealed to the reader and keep things interesting.
Can you mix and match techniques? Sure, go for it.

1. Payoff: The umbrella term for anything that has been set up and is now fully realized .

“Imagine a revelation as a hidden gem buried deep in your story,” says Ms. Morrell. “If you
don’t have a murder investigation, the discovery of a valuable object, or a long-buried secret
at the heart of your story, ask yourself if there is some valuable information that can be
withheld for as long as possible.”

That said, before deciding to withhold information for a payoff, Ms. Cron would have you
ask yourself “this crucial question: What does holding back this information gain me, story-
wise? How does it make the story better?”

Raymond Obstfeld cautions that “(1) the longer you suspend the payoff, the greater the risk
of losing reader interest; and (2) the longer you suspend the payoff, the more satisfying the
payoff must be. There’s no magic formula for avoiding those dangers, but being aware of
them and rereading suspense scenes with them in mind will help.”

And Mr. Iglesias notes “that although a setup can be cliched, its consequences or payoff
should be unique enough to be surprising.”

2. Discovery: A payoff that occurs when Hero finds new physical information through his
own action.

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“A discovery is an active process, meaning that it’s the hero who finds the information,” says
Mr. Iglesias.

And, for a Discovery, that information is something the character can see, touch, hear, smell
or taste.

3. Epiphany: A payoff that occurs when Hero realizes a new informative insight through his
own introspection.

“An epiphany,” says Ms. Morrell, is that “luminous moment when a character, usually the
protagonist, realizes something she has not known previously.”

An epiphany, which Mr. Iglesias lumps with “discovery can occur when a significant fact
dawns on a character–that moment of realization, the light bulb, the Eureka moment when
the solution to the puzzle appears.”

According to Ms. Morrell, there are three parts to an epiphany:

The setup, which can vary in length, shows readers who the protagonist is before the
epiphany.
The trigger is the catalyst that applies pressure to the protagonist’s old way of thinking
and causes it to crumble. Triggers should be visual and easily imagined.
The realization, then, is when the protagonist consciously recognizes something she
had not previously understood and, as a result, undergoes profound change.

4. Revelation: A payoff that occurs when Hero receives new information, tangible or verbal,
from another character.

“A revelation is revealed to the hero–a passive process where the hero learns the
information from another source. The hero is given that information,” says Mr. Iglesias.

Revelations should be used early in the story, limited to the first seventy-five percent, if not
earlier, because they’re not nearly as satisfying as the hero earning the payoff himself.

5. Punchline: A Payoff that’s funny.

“Remember, that, to be funny, the final line of the story or joke must be a surprise,” says Mel
Helitzer.

“But the ne plus ultra of writing is not just ending with a laugh but topping one joke with
another,” says Mr. Schreiber. And each laugh is another payoff.

Yup: No Justice. Maybe we’ll look at jokes more someday.

6. Twist: Writer leads Reader to expect one thing and–PAYOFF!–it’s something different .
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“By now, you should be aware that surprises come from the audience expecting one thing
and the writer delivering another,” says Mr. Iglesias. “This is done through setups and
payoffs.”

“A twist can be defined as a surprise that is unanticipated but justifiable,” says Mr. Bell.
“That means the reader can’t see it coming, but once it does come it makes sense. At least,
once all the information is revealed.”

For Ms. Cron, “A reveal [twist] is a fact that, when it finally comes to light, changes (and in so
doing, explains) something–often, that something is ‘everything.’ A major reveal is the
surprise near the end that twists the meaning of everything that came before it.”

Now, if you want to, you can pare off the Reversal, which is a specific kind of twist in which
the writer leads the character and/or reader to believe one thing and–PAYOFF!–it’s actually
the exact opposite.

And, of course, these aren’t the only kinds of payoffs; there are many more. For example,
there’s the kind of payoff where you set up a unique character ability and–PAYOFF!–the plot
demands he use it. This list is just a brainstorming starting point.

CREATING TWISTS

“Surprises are not difficult to create,” says Mr. Stein. “Look at each important incident in
your plot and see what you would normally expect to happen next. Then have the exact
opposite happen. At least half the time an idea will suggest itself that will surprise your
characters as well as yourself.”

“Make a list of all the things a reader might expect to happen,” says Mr. Bell. “Playing off that
list, what are some things that a reader would not anticipate? … Play around and you’ll come
up with the new development you like best. Make lists. That’s how you get material to
choose from.”

I’ll let Mr. Bell further explain what he does with his lists:

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 I do believe there are some things you can do that will help your own inner writer generate
possible twists for the ending.

First, you probably already have an ending in mind. … And that’s okay. Keep writing.

But as you get closer to the end of your first draft, pause and come up with ten alternative
endings. Yes, I said ten.

And I don’t mean take four weeks to do this. I should take less than thirty minutes.
Brainstorm. The quicker the better. Let yourself go, and don’t worry about justifying every
one of them.

Once you’ve got your list, let your imagination cook the possibilities for a day or two.

Come back to your list and take the top four. Deepen them a little bit. Let them cook some
more.

Finally, choose the one alternative ending that seems to work best as a twist–not an
alternative ending at all, but an added surprise.

Figure out how to work that into your ending, and then go back into your novel and justify it
somehow by planting little clues here and there.

There is your twist ending.

And here’s another approach:

“Subtleties and misdirection [come], not from obfuscation or vagueness, but from
knowledge of the way we tend to think,” says Mr. Noble.

For example, let’s say that when X occurs people tend to think that Y must be true, but it’s
possible that Z could be true instead. To create a twist, we, as writers, manipulate this XYZ
scenario as follows:

1. We show X and
2. we allow Y to float in the ether of possibility in the characters’ and readers’ minds–
riddling it with doubt, maybe, but leaving it uncontradicted. Meanwhile,
3. we set up Z (the payoff) using some of our setup methods (see above), and
4. when the optimal moment in the story arises–BOOM!–we reveal Z using one of our
payoff methods (also above).

LAST BITS OF ADVICE

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Ms. Cron would have you keep in mind that if you’re going to twist the ending, “you must
make sure that what your characters intend to do is plausible, even if you already know that
something unforeseen will thwart them before they actually do it.”

Ms. Cron would also advise that, during revision, your look for “any inadvertent setups
lurking in your story” and get rid of anything that “whispers, implies, or suggests ‘setup’
without actually meaning it.”

And last, remember that Setups and Payoffs can and should happen at the story level, the
act/part/sequence level, and the scene level.

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