Abbie Emmons:
What's up my friend?
Abbie here and welcome back to WritersLife
Wednesdays, where we come together to help
you make your story matter and make your author
dreams come true.
Today we are kicking off a new series on this
channel.
It's the series that I mentioned at the beginning
of the year.
It's an ongoing series breaking down each
story beat of the three-act story structure.
So this is the first video in a 12 video series
and I'll be posting a new installment in this
series pretty much every other week, so that
I can continue to post other videos too.
So I'm not going to unload all of the reasons
why I think the three-act story structure
is amazing and I recommend every single author
use it because I did that in so many other
videos and you should just go watch those
videos if you want more of an explanation
on why I love this story structure so much.
Abbie Emmons:
But today I don't want to waste any of your
time so we're just going to dive right in
at the beginning.
Act one beat one also popularly known as The
Hook.
The hook is just what it sounds like, okay?
It's the first and only thing that is going
to grab a total stranger's attention and pull
them through the first few pages or first
chapter of your book.
Every single story needs a hook, okay?
Whether it's a novel, a short story, a TV
series, a movie, it's not a question of, "Do
I need a hook?"
It's a question of, "How the hell do I write?
A riveting, amazing gripping hook that pulls
readers into my story?"
If you're asking yourself that question right
now, you clicked on the right video.
Abbie Emmons:
Why does your story matter?
Good question.
What if I told you that there's a science
behind every great story?
I don't just teach you how to write.
I teach you how to change the world with your
story and make your author dreams come true.
Abbie Emmons:
The first few pages of a story are definitely
the scariest and most difficult pages you
will ever write, so if you're intimidated
by the thought of writing that first chapter,
you are not alone, okay?
I am right here with you.
Every single writer on the face of the earth
is right here with you.
But just because it's scary does not mean
it's impossible, okay?
You are 100% capable of writing an incredible
hook for the opening of your story.
And it's not even something that you have
to make up or muscle into existence.
I believe that your story hook is lying dormant
just beneath the surface right now and all
you have to do is ask yourself the right questions
to uncover it.
So I'm just going to come right out and tell
you, all the hook really is, is internal conflict
and all internal conflict really is, is desire
versus fear, your character's desire versus
their fear.
Abbie Emmons:
A lot of writers think that the hook is just
the crazy twisty turn of events that gets
the plot moving forward.
But that is not true, okay?
That's part of it, but that's not all of it.
Last week we talked about character driven
stories versus plot driven stories and how
you have to find the equilibrium between these
two things in order to really craft a beautiful,
riveting story.
Check out that video by the way because it's
probably one of my favorite videos that I've
ever made.
But it's a balance.
Okay?
So I'm not saying you don't need a great plot
to kick things off.
You do.
Abbie Emmons:
But think of it this way, the plot is the
fist and the internal conflict is the punch.
Without the internal conflict, you don't have
the punch.
But the internal conflict needs the plot needs
the vehicle to deliver that punch.
And internal conflict is the only thing, the
only thing that makes your characters relatable
to everyone.
Readers have no reason to care about your
protagonist's favorite food or weather or
time of day or even their jobs and their interests.
Because all of these things are only relatable
to some people.
But you want anyone to be able to pick up
your book and relate to your protagonist,
right?
So what is the one thing that every single
person can relate to?
That's right, internal conflict.
Desire clashing with fear.
Every single person on the earth has internal
conflict that they struggle with.
Okay?
You have internal conflict that you struggle
with.
There's something you want, something you
desire in life, but there's also that little
voice in the back of your head that holds
you back and that voice is fear.
Okay?
Limiting beliefs.
Things that you've told yourself over time
are true, but they're not actually true.
Abbie Emmons:
This is just part of the human condition,
which means if you want your characters to
seem human, they have to struggle with this
as well.
And it's also important to remember that the
protagonist's internal conflict begins long
before the inciting incident shows up to destroy
their life.
It has to because otherwise you're inciting
incident wouldn't matter.
It might matter to the universe or to the
government or some higher power, but who cares
about that?
Nobody.
We, the readers, care about the characters
and if we don't care about the characters,
we will not be hooked.
Your characters are the skin in which the
reader lives while they're experiencing your
story, your reader becomes the characters.
And if you don't develop your characters to
have internal conflict that's unique to them,
then your characters just kind of become the
reader.
In other words, your reader's just asking
themselves, "What would I do in this situation?
How would I feel in this situation?
How would I react in this situation?"
Versus being immersed in someone else's story
and empathizing with them.
Abbie Emmons:
You don't want your reader thinking, "How
would I feel if that was me?"
Rather you want them thinking, "How would
I feel if I was them?"
What makes us really care about the inciting
incident of your story is knowing why it matters
to the protagonist.
If we don't know why it matters specifically
to them, then it might as well just be happening
to anyone.
Okay, so we talked about this super in depth
last week.
It's an actual reaction going on in your brain
with mirror neurons.
Super fascinating.
Check that out if you haven't seen it already.
It's a great companion to this video.
For now let's just talk about writing the
hook.
Stay on topic, Abbie.
Abbie Emmons:
This is the official description of the hook
story beat taken from my three act story structure
template and by the way, I have that template
linked down below.
You can grab the link and download it for
free and then follow along with me throughout
this whole series.
The hook.
The hook is internal conflict, which is simple
desire versus fear.
Despite popular belief, the internal conflict
starts long before the inciting incident shows
up to destroy your protagonist life.
In fact, that conflict has been boiling just
below the surface this whole time.
Otherwise, your inciting incident wouldn't
matter.
See external conflict, the plot, is all about
what happens, but internal conflict, the story,
is about why it matters.
Abbie Emmons:
Prompt: "Ask yourself, what does my protagonist
think will bring her true happiness or contentment?
And how is her fear stopping her from going
after it?"
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm a super
visual learner.
So throughout this entire series we are going
to be using story examples so that I can actually
show you and demonstrate what these story
beats look like in actual stories.
And I'm going to try to be super diverse with
my genre selections here.
So if you know me, you know that I love contemporary
and period dramas and historical fiction,
so I tend to stay within that genre.
But I'm going to branch out more and show
you examples from a variety of genres to prove
to you that this story structure does work
with your genre.
Abbie Emmons:
To start off, let's talk about everyone's
favorite, Disney movies.
Ever wonder why every Disney movie makes you
care about the characters like five minutes
into the film?
Seriously, think about it.
I've mentioned this before, but there is a
secret ingredient in the opening of every
single Disney movie and you might not know
what it is until you think about it.
I'll give you a hint.
We're talking about it a lot in this video.
Internal conflict.
Disney writers understand the importance of
internal conflict and they reveal the protagonist's
internal conflict at the very beginning of
every one of their films, usually in a song.
Moana:
(singing) "See the light as it shines on the
sea, it calls me..."
Belle:
(singing) "I want adventure in the great wide
somewhere / I want it more than I can tell..."
Mulan:
(singing) "When will my reflection show / who
I am inside?"
Rapunzel:
(singing) "What is it like / out there where
they glow?"
Ariel:
(singing) "Wish I could be / part of that
world..."
Anna:
(singing) "Please, I know you're in there
/ people are asking where you've been..."
Abbie Emmons:
For example, imagine Frozen without, Do You
Want to Build a Snowman?
We would have no idea what Anna wants in life,
what Elsa wants in life, and the obstacles
that are holding both of them back.
We would have no understanding of why anything
matters to these characters if we didn't see
their backstory, which clues us into their
unique internal conflict.
Abbie Emmons:
Wait, Abbie, are you saying that it's okay
to include backstory in the beginning of your
novel?
Hell yes.
I understand that it won't be suitable to
open every single story with backstory, but
I do recommend including flashbacks in your
novel, preferably sooner rather than later
because it builds the foundation of why these
characters are the way they are.
If you want to learn more about inserting
flashbacks into your story without interrupting
the flow, check out this video right here.
It will help you a lot.
Abbie Emmons:
I know it's kind of taboo, this idea of using
backstory in your novel and also the idea
of opening your novel with a prologue.
But I disagree.
I think you can do anything you freaking want
in your story.
Just as long as it always clearly shows us
why what's happening matters to the characters.
Yeah, there are rules to writing, but like
I always say, those rules don't have to be
constricting.
Instead, they should free you to be more creative.
So I'm not going to tell you how to write
your story's hook.
I'm just going to tell you to make it matter.
Please make it matter.
That exciting external conflict can still
happen at the opening of your story, but ask
yourself, "How can I make this matter even
more to my characters?
And how can I show the reader that?
How can I show my reader why this turn of
events is especially important and meaningful
to this character because of their desire,
fear and misbelief?"
Abbie Emmons:
Actually, I talked about this a little bit
in my video about how to break your characters,
how even though you might plan some disastrous
thing for this character to go through, that
might very well be a disastrous thing for
them to go through, but even better if you
can make it especially meaningful to them
because of who they are as a character.
Okay?
So somebody breaking their leg in a car accident,
that's bad.
Nobody would want to have that happen to them,
but it would be even worse if you were an
Olympic runner and you were on your way to
the Olympics and you broke your leg.
See what I mean?
Abbie Emmons:
That's another super power that backstory
has.
It allows you to showcase this pivotal moment
in your character's past where they started
to believe a lie about themselves, but I don't
want to derail too much into character creation
because that's really something that you should
figure out before you even start outlining
or writing your book.
So check out my videos on character creation
and get my free character profile template
that will really help you to clarify what
I'm talking about with all this desire, fear,
misbelief stuff.
After you create your character profile for
your protagonist, it will become so obvious
what their desire is, what their fear is,
what their misbelief is, and how you can all
of that in the first five minutes of your
story.
So let's pause here for a minute to sit-rep
and make sure we're all tracking.
Abbie Emmons:
In your hook focus on who this story is about
and why what's happening matters to them.
Do not focus on what's happening (external
events only) and the world the character lives
in.
Obviously you're going to have to build the
world at some point, but don't do that right
out of the gate because that's a sure fire
way to lose your reader's attention.
Why?
Because nobody cares.
Literally nobody cares about a world or a
setting, no matter how unique it is because
we care about the characters and why what's
happening matters to them, so only build the
world when it matters to the characters.
I actually made a whole video on world-building
as well, so check that out if you want a better
explanation and also good and bad story examples
of world-building.
Most writers default to a very external hook
to open their story with, which is fine to
make something purely external happen right
out of the gate, but you better show me why
it matters and fast or else I'm just in survival
mode with this character.
Abbie Emmons:
An example of this is in the film Passengers.
I actually really like a lot of things about
this film, particularly the way that it creatively
uses a cast of only two characters to tell
pretty much the entire story, but the internal
conflict shows up too late.
The hook also shows up too late and it's entirely
plot-driven.
In a nutshell, here's what happens.
Chris Pratt wakes up on a space ship somewhere
in the universe, bound for an Earth-like planet
with 5,000 other people.
One small problem.
He wakes up 90 years too early and he's the
only one awake.
So is this a good hook?
Yes, it is.
The external part is anyway because it's an
inescapable, uncomfortable trap that nobody
would want to fall into.
Exciting, interesting.
Yikes.
But it's entirely plot-driven.
For pretty much the first quarter of the film
we don't learn why this turn of events specifically
matters to Chris Pratt.
Eventually we see a tiny bit of his internal
conflict, but it's really not enough to paint
a clear picture of who he is.
We don't know why anything is especially meaningful
to him.
We just know that if we found ourselves in
this situation, we would be pretty depressed
too, because who wants to live their entire
life alone on a spaceship?
Abbie Emmons:
But see that's what I mean about balancing
your character's internal conflict with what's
happening to them, showing the reader why
it's especially bad for this character because
of their desire, fear and belief.
Okay, I'm not telling you that you don't need
a plot.
I don't ever say that you don't need a plot,
but I'm saying that you need that other element.
The third rail, as Lisa Cron calls it in her
book Story Genius, which by the way, you all
should read if you haven't already.
You need that internal conflict in your story
to make it truly memorable and riveting.
Otherwise, we're just in survival mode with
characters and survival mode may be entertaining
for a while, after all survival is an entire
genre in and of itself.
But what separates an okay survival story
from a great survival story is internal conflict.
Yes, the character wants to survive because
we all want to survive, but what does survival
mean to them?
What will they do if they survive?
Why is it so important that they survive other
than the fact that they don't want to die?
In other words, why the heck does it matter?
If you don't know, your reader will never
know.
Abbie Emmons:
Okay, so I really don't like using my own
writing as an example, and I'm not really
using it as an example here, but I think it
would be worth mentioning because I know a
lot of you have read the book 100 Days of
Sunlight and for some reason I don't have
a copy to hold up right now.
That's what it looks like.
100 Days of Sunlight, my debut novel.
The book opens, the opening hook is Tessa,
my main character, getting in a car accident,
which renders her blind for 100 days.
That seems like a super external hook, doesn't
it?
And it is because it would be terrible to
happen to anyone, right?
Nobody would want that to happen to them.
So yes, I opened the book with that external
hook, that premise, that plot driven thing
happening right out of the gate, the car accident.
But quickly turn it into why it's specifically
matters to Tessa.
Because she's a writer, she's a blogger, she's
used to doing everything herself.
She's a fiercely independent person.
And so now she has to rely upon other people
for certain things.
She's unused to that.
It's all uncomfortable and hard for her, not
just because it would be hard for anybody,
but because it has this extra layer of Tessa
being who she is.
Abbie Emmons:
So you kind of have to read the book to know
what I'm talking about and I definitely recommend
that.
Yeah, please do.
Please go read my book.
But if you look for this, you will find this
in so many stories that you find are gripping
like right from the start, whether they're
movies, TV shows, books, whatever.
If you find that you're like really just sucked
into a book or a movie like right out of the
gate, stop and notice that.
Observe that, study that.
Ask yourself, "What is that about that hook?"
Because that's what it really was, "What is
it about that hook that grabbed my attention
and pulled me in right away?"
Abbie Emmons:
So let's recap what we learned today about
writing the hook.
The hook is internal conflict and internal
conflict is desire versus fear.
Your hook can be an external event, but you
need to quickly show the reader why it matters
to the characters.
Remember, your plot is the fist.
Internal conflict is the punch.
Take the time to develop your characters before
your plot steps in.
You don't want your reader thinking, "How
would I feel if that was me?"
As much as you want them thinking, "How would
I feel if I was them?"
Avoid world-building until it matters to the
characters.
Nobody cares about a world, however unique
it is.
What makes us care is understanding why this
world matters to the characters.
So ask yourself, "What does my protagonist
think will bring her true happiness or contentment?
And how is her fear stopping her from going
after it?
What is my character's misbelief and what
happened in their past to create this misbelief?
How can I show my audience in the first five
minutes why what's happening matters to my
protagonist given their desire, fear, and
misbelief?"
Abbie Emmons:
So boom, that's it for this story beat this
week and stick around because next week we
are going to be breaking down everybody's
favorite, the inciting incident.
Also be sure to grab the three act story structure
template.
It is linked in the description box below
and includes all of the story beats for the
whole story structure, plus all of the prompts
and the questions that you can ask yourself
to get the creative juices flowing about your
story.
Abbie Emmons:
Smash that like button if you liked this video
and be sure to subscribe to this channel if
you haven't already because I post writing
videos and publishing videos every single
Wednesday and I would love to have you here
in the community.
Also, be sure to check out my Patreon because
that's where we go beyond videos and take
storytelling to the next level.
The patreon community is not only the best
way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube,
but it's also the only way to connect one-on-one
with me and get better guidance on your story.
So go to patreon.com/AbbieEmmons and check
out all the awesome exclusive content that
I have over there for you.
Until next week, my friend, rock on.
Abbie Emmons:
Is internal conflict.
Wow, that's surprising, Abbie.
We totally weren't expecting you to say that.
It got really bright in here all of a sudden.
Is the sun going to stay out?
See, this is the difficulty.
I was just thinking about how terrible it
would be if I didn't have my mic plugged in
all the way and it wasn't recording my audio.
I would cry I think.
