Set Up and Payoff: Impacting The Reader’s Emotions

You’re watching a new thriller in theaters, mildly enjoying the constant crashes and smashes on the screen. Suddenly, the main character figures out the real villain is his father! Whaaaaaaaaat?! Who could see that coming? What a great twist, right! Yet, you sit there blinking. There was no way to see it coming, so shouldn’t that impress you? Why don’t you care more?

They gave you a payoff with no setup.

The writers didn’t care to set up or foreshadow the father being a villain, so that’s why the twist meant nothing. They could have had unicorns rain down from the sky and gotten the same result. A twist without setup is meaningless. Sure, it’s a shock at first, but then the dopamine rush disperses and you’re left with confusion or disappointment.

Here’s an example of the opposite problem.

You’re curled up on the couch, watching a drama. The main character is always praying for his long-lost daughter ever since he gave her up for adoption. He doesn’t mention her to anyone, because his judgemental family would ostracize him if they knew about her. Halfway through the movie, the long-lost daughter barges into his office, demanding to speak to her father. You lean closer to the screen, anticipating the conflict and emotion they have set up. The father gives a half-hearted apology. The daughter simply forgives him and they laugh off the awkward moment. He takes her to his family’s Easter dinner and…not much happens. The daughter is more of a background character, while the main character gets caught up arguing about his work with the family.

You shut the movie off and never return to it. Why? The characters were dynamic, and the plot was intriguing. So what happened? Set up without payoff happened. They promised you conflict and drama as soon as that long-lost daughter entered the scene, but all you got was a balloon fart of a scene. The family should have been more negative and lost it as soon as they found out about the daughter. But the writers got caught up with the other, other subplot and you’re left with a dramatic but lifeless scene.

Don’t break a promise to your reader

Writers, you need to make certain to put as much effort into the payoff as much as the setup, or else you’re basically breaking a promise to your reader. Instead of getting a glowing review, you’ll get tons of bloggers talking about the book that “should have succeeded, but fell flat”. Ouchy…no one wants that. I certainly don’t.

Let me put this simply. In a story, a setup is when you foreshadow a situation, character, twist, lore, or other information for a specific purpose. The payoff is when you give the audience the answer to the question posed, the character revealed, the moral lesson learned, etc. It’s a promise given and then kept. It’s a twist earned. And that’s why the audience likes it. They like to earn what they enjoy. My mother loves gardening for this very reason. She claims the food tastes better when you grow it yourself. She’s right.

Miss Congeniality 2

I’ve got one more example, but it’s how you do a set up RIGHT. I’m going to analyze “Miss Congeniality 2”.

This isn’t the most amazing film brought to the screen, but it has some pretty good setups and hilarious scenes. If you haven’t seen the movie, here’s a summery. The main character, Gracie Hart, is an FBI agent who is hired to be the new face of the agency. When she argues how they are trying to change her and make her into some sort of diva, the agent says, “People only care about people who care about themselves” This is the lie she’ll have to overcome and part of the moral lesson of the story.

At first, Gracie rolls her eyes at this concept and just plays along, however after many morning shows and book signings, we see that lie take over her life. At one such book signing, a little fan girl begs Gracie to come to her class and prove to the other kids—who tease her for being different—that being an FBI agent is cool. Gracie flashes her a toothy smile, saying she’s too busy. Then she adds vinegar to the wound by saying, “People may like you better if you fix up that hair of yours. Remember honey, people only care about people who care about themselves.” The girl walks off, completely discouraged. That’s near the end of the first act. So what’s the setup?

The writer did a great job showing that Gracie now believes the lie completely by telling the little girl the same lie. In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to show a character’s flaw. Reflect it or teach it to someone else. Not only does this set up the main characters’ arc for the story, it sets up the ending too.

After this scene was done, I leaned over to my sister and said, “I bet Gracie goes to that school at the end”. Sure enough, I was right. Did this ruin the end for me and make the rest of the movie boring? Nope! Quite the opposite, actually. I was excited to see how well they could nail the payoff. I wanted to see how Gracie would have her realization moment and see her comfort the little girl she was mean to earlier.

Setting something up doesn’t detract from the end. We may not figure out what you’re doing, but even if we do, we’ll be excited to see how you pull off the payoff we are excitedly expecting. It’s like promising to give the reader a gift. Even if they sneak a peek at a piece of it, they’ll still be excited to get the gift in its entirety (But seriously, though, don’t peak at gifts. Not cool)

When a plot twist happens, this should be your readers’ response, “Ohhhh, I should have seen that coming! Wow!” If you do the work and aren’t lazy, there will be enough foreshadowing to satisfy your reader when the twist happens.

“So Megan,” you say, “what the heck are you saying? I have to set up every single thing that happens in my story to make it good?” No, cool your jets. I’m saying, the more you set up and payoff the better. Make certain it enhances the story, theme, and the journey of the character. No matter how good a plot twist you make, it won’t matter as much if it doesn’t matter to the main character. And if the main character doesn’t care, then neither will the reader.

If nothing else, make sure the plot twist, and any other significant plot points have some sort of setup. And with payoffs, please don’t break your reader’s heart. Give them what you promised. Oh yes, when you get someone excited about something, they expect big things. And when I say “big things”, I don’t mean you have to have the climax be end-of-the-world events in every book. That would be all kinds of foolish. I’ll hit on that more in a different blog.

In summary, if you make your reader work a little harder for that juicy payoff, they will be satisfied. Have a dang big payoff—big to the character and their story. Don’t give your reader canned green beans. They deserve better. And if you excel at pleasing your reader, maybe you’ll get that glowing review you’ve always dreamed about. God says in his word, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” If you work hard and do your best, you will write a better book than those who don’t. Do your best and forget the rest!

One of my favorite movies where they get this concept right is Prestige, starring C. Bale & H. Jackman. Gripping movie, let me tell you. And much of that has to do with how well they set things up in the movie. If you’ve watched it, tell me in the comments what you thought of it. Love it or hate it? And if you’ve never seen it, tell me your favorite movie or book that pulled off their setups and payoffs.