#1 Tell the Whole Story on Page One

Make sure the 1st page tells the story.

Story Waves 1 lesson is a potent writing tool. If you apply it, you will instantly increase the clarity of your story. Clarity increases likeability. Likeability increases page turns.

CLARITY = LIKEABILITY

5 Story Building Blocks for Page One

Understand the main components of a story. Incorporate them into your page one. This storytelling technique will make people want to read your script within the first two pages.

Beyond your page one’s function of grabbing the viewer's attention with a hook, your opening must illustrate the story's central conflict, theme, and character dynamics. Your audience must know what your story is about. Strive for clarity in your first drafts.

Include the following on your page one (screenplay, novel, book, or project):

• Main Character

• Main Character's weakness/need + motivation

• Main Character's goal

• The Story's theme/tone

• Antagonist's plan (main opponent and opponent’s goal)

Once you know and have defined the five story building blocks for your page one, make sure you put them on page one (or very close to page one), especially if you aim to pitch and sell your project.

Your story’s “understandability” will hook the audience from the beginning and greatly add to the likeability. Likeability will create page turns. 

Most importantly, telling the story on page one will force you to know exactly what your story is about. If you know your story, you can make it crystal clear for your audience.

Dicken’s A Christmas Carol tells the story on page one

Take Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. I’ve recently read two Substack's about Dickens and his timeless tale. Substack writers are obsessed with Dickens. But one post was from Sarah Fay’s Writers at Work called 6 Elements a Successful Serial Novel Needs, a.k.a. the Dickens formula, and the other was from Lit With Amy Makechnie, and both made me subscribe to their Substack’s.

That’s because CD’s story rocks. Yet, the book version of A Christmas Carol doesn’t include all five story components on page one. Still, within two or three pages, Dickens clearly and masterfully establishes all the story components for his audience.

Dicken’s first sentence reads: "Marley was dead, to begin with." He begins with Marley, the dead antagonist's ghostly plan, the ghost genre, and stakes of life and death. A few paragraphs later, Scrooge's hardened and miserly character is described with voluminous verbiage until our skin shrivels off our bones. Dickens sets the story’s dreary tone while simply juxtaposing it with the spirit of Christmas (the story's theme) in a line about Scrooge's preference for iced coffee in winter.

In a few pages, we know Scrooge wants to hold onto his money in his counting house no matter what (main character’s goal). If we were new to the story, we’d wonder if Scrooge's enormous greed will be his downfall (main character’s weakness/need).

However, one of the story aspects not revealed in the first few pages of Dicken's ghost tale is Scrooge's backstory, which is connected to and reveals his motivation for being a greedy man—for that comes with the visitations of Marley’s ghost and the three ghosts of Christmas.

As storytellers, we must raise questions in the audience's mind about why our characters act the way they do. If you achieve that on page one, you have succeeded, like Dickens did. It's highly challenging to reveal the main character’s backstory on page one, but you must at least raise the question.

Disney’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL tells the story on page one

Disney's film version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2009) starring Jim Carey, the opening scene zooms onto page one of Dicken's book, revealing his first sentence: “Marley was dead: to begin with.” Why did Robert Zemeckis do this? Because it encapsulates the premise of the ghost tale, launching the story immediately.

Cut to Marley lying in a wooden coffin. The dead man sets the tone for the ghost story. Before the opening credits, Scrooge signs Marley's death certificate, swipes two coins from the eyes of Marley's corpse, and frightens a group of Christmas carolers into silence with his humbugness.

On page one, we’re given the same story components as Dickens included in his first three pages and MORE:

• Character

• Character's weakness/need

• Character's goal

• The Story's theme

• Antagonist's plan

Robert Zemeckis varied from the book and changed the opening sequence, with Scrooge intimidating the Christmas carolers right after the morgue. This spiritless act shows Ebenezer’s cold heart and how that character trait feeds his greedy hands. Moving the singing carolers to the opening pages also succinctly captures the theme and title of the story.

The singing carolers are used as a bookend, too. We see them once in the beginning and a second at the end of the film, referring to Scrooge’s transformation from a greedy man to giving when he joyfully sings with the carolers.

TIP: Use bookends strategically on page and throughout the story to show character transformation.

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Clarity increases likeability. Does your page one tell the story?

Story Waves 1 is the first key to put your writing practice on the right track.

Recommended reads on Story Waves

To get the most from Story Waves, read: The Definitive Guide to Story Waves: How to Use the Story Waves Screenwriting Lessons.

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I look forward to reading your stories and connecting in 2024!

Best wishes,

Kelly E. Keough