Ciao, SEers. We’ve been talking about Jill Chamberlain’s Nutshell method of story development. If you missed earlier posts, you can find them by clicking these links:

• introduction
• protagonist (strengths and flaws)
• the catch and point of no return

Last time, we ended by mentioning the catch is related to the desires of the protagonist. Today, we’re continuing this series by discussing the set-up want.

Honestly, the term is pretty much self-explanatory. A “set-up want” is something the protagonist desires that sets up the next part of the story.

Yes, that was obvious. I apologize. But this next part might not be. A set-up want is one thing the protagonist wants. And your protagonist may—and probably does—want a lot of things. So, whatever you choose, you need to be sure the set-up want leads to the catch. It doesn’t need to be the most-desired thing. It doesn’t need to…