Scene One: THE GHOST STORY BEAT
6 Scenes in 6 Weeks: A Structure Guide to Writing Your First SIX SCENES
In the next six posts, we'll focus on story structure, and you'll learn how to PLOT the first six scenes of your story—in order, starting with the Ghost Story Beat.
Does your story start with a Ghost Story Beat?
What You Should Know About the GHOST STORY BEAT.
The GHOST STORY BEAT should happen in the very first scene of your story.
Or it can launch the first scene of your B storyline, ex., the romance genre.
The GHOST STORY BEAT is crucial to your story’s narrative drive.
How should we define a story beat?
A story beat in a scene represents a pivotal shift in the narrative, encompassing physical, emotional, mental, or moral changes that impact the character's journey.
These story beats can manifest as emotional turns, significant incidents or events, decisive actions, reactions, or profound realizations that alter the main character's inner and outer desire lines or create new revelations and equilibrium, driving the story forward.
Q: If story beats create the sum total of the story's narrative drive, which story beat should you begin with?
A: Start with the Ghost Story Beat, a primary beat that opens up a story or a B Story Line and illustrates the core motivation of what the charact must make right.
The Power of the GHOST STORY BEAT
Entwine your Ghost Story Beat with your main character's flaw or flawed past that they now wish to make right.
This "wanting to make it right" will drive the story forward.
In Hamlet, a ghost is revealed as a backstory:
"Woe was I who was born to set this right,"
and shows Hamlet’s sense of burden and destiny.
Set this right. The character’s motivation of “setting this right” is the foundational power of a good story; it's the superpower of the Ghost Story Beat.
What must your main character set right?
SCENE ONE: How to Craft the Ghost Story Beat
Before jumping into the structure directions, understand the power of the intention behind revealing the haunt that drives your character to set things right.
As mentioned, the GHOST STORY BEAT serves as a crucial element in storytelling, providing a compelling backstory that propels the narrative forward.
This beat revolves around an event from the past that continues to torment the protagonist, shaping their current motivation, behavior, beliefs, and decisions.
It's the origin of the hero or heroine's great flaw that has created a psychological “weakness need”—a wound that remains unhealed and festers as an internal opponent throughout the story.
This "weakness need" created from the GHOST STORY BEAT motivates the main character to "set things right."
Most importantly, this internal struggle should be mirrored by an external opponent (antagonist), creating a dual conflict and the necessary outer tension that adds depth to the narrative drive.
In an earlier post, I talked about how every story’s narrative drive can be described as having one of the FOUR STORY ACTIONS:
The Ghost Story Beat is connected to and fuels your Main Story Action.
Benefits of using the GHOST STORY BEAT
THE GHOST STORY BEAT
offers a running start by telling the whole story on page one
sets the stage (glimpse of the story world) for the protagonist's journey
reveals the genre stakes
foreshadows the obstacles and opponents they will face
helps the audience relate to your main character's universal wound
maneuvers the audience to empathize and root for your hero or heroine
TO RECAP: The ghost is not only a backstory; it's the root of the hero's internal conflict that causes the “weakness need” and desire to "make things right." It is the motivation behind their actions and decisions, often leading to the central crisis of the story.
Whether your GHOST STORY BEAT is your very first scene or launches your B genre storyline, below is a guide to help you craft your SCENE ONE.
Example - INDIANA JONES: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
Using INDIANA JONES: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), the GHOST STORY BEAT launches the B Story using the romance genre, set at the beginning of Act II.
Therefore, I use the action/adventure and romance genres to give you a general story outline below to craft SCENE ONE using the GHOST STORY BEAT.
General Story Outline: Crafting a Ghost Backstory as a Love Story in an Action-Adventure Genre
Respond to the following writing prompts/directions (#1-5) below to develop your SCENE ONE: The Ghost Story Beat.
Use the remaining prompts and directions (#6-8) to flesh out and support the crafting of your entire story’s beat sheet, outline, or rewrite.
Employing your imagination, you can use the following structure and prompts to craft your ghost/backstory, regardless of the multiple genres you are writing.
Write the GHOST STORY BEAT using Indiana Jones
1. Establish the Protagonist's Past Relationship (Backstory)
Writing Prompt: After you show the OPENING IMAGE, STATE THE THEME, and TELL THE WHOLE STORY ON PAGE ONE, which is all part of your SET-UP, create a backstory for your protagonist and their former lover (or former antagonist). What was the nature of their relationship? What led to its downfall? Is there an “object” or a “person” that binds their past relationship to the present events?
Directions: Write a brief history of the romantic relationship. Consider including key moments solidifying their bond and the pivotal event that caused the relationship to end. Highlight the emotional wounds both characters carry from this past. How do these emotions connect to the present moment? Show the wound moment.
2. Define the Ghost Story Beat
Writing Prompt: What unresolved tension or guilt from the past still haunts your protagonist? What do they need to make right? What weakness within do they have to fix? How does it relate to what they truly love in this life? How does this "ghost" manifest in their current life? What do they fear or regret, and how does it make them act or behave in the present?
Directions: Detail the emotional and psychological impact of the failed relationship on the protagonist. Consider how this unresolved tension lingers and shapes the protagonist's actions, thoughts, and decisions in the present story. Use flashbacks, VO, reading of a letter, or other persuasive techniques to illustrate how the past impacts the present.
3. Introduce the External Adventure
Writing Prompt: What is the protagonist's current external quest or mission? How does it relate to the action-adventure genre? How does the love interest stop or help the protagonist’s current goal?
Directions: Outline the adventure or mission that the protagonist is undertaking. This could involve a quest for a valuable artifact, a battle against formidable enemies, or a race against time. Clearly define the genre stakes and the external goals the protagonist is striving to achieve. Is their former lover helping or hindering them? Engineer the delivery of this information using motifs that relate to the genre and theme of your story.
4. Reintroduce the Former Lover
Writing Prompt: How and when does the protagonist's former lover (or an antagonist) reenter their life? In what context do they meet again, and how does it affect the protagonist? Is there a sense of memory triggered, like a smell from the past that is in the present?
Directions: Write the scene where the former lover returns, either as an ally, rival, or someone caught in the middle of the protagonist's current mission. Show how their reunion reawakens old emotions and unresolved tensions. Focus on the initial reactions and how their past influences their present interactions.
5. Intertwine the Internal and External Conflicts
Writing Prompt: How does the protagonist's internal struggle with their past relationship affect their external quest? What decisions are influenced by this inner turmoil? Does the protagonist bring up the past or deny it?
Directions: Develop the narrative so that the protagonist's unresolved feelings from the past complicate their current mission. Perhaps their guilt or regret causes hesitation at a critical moment, or their unresolved tension with the former lover creates conflict or distraction. Show how the internal ghost is not just a background element but directly impacts the action-adventure storyline.
Later in the story…
6. Escalate the Tension
Writing Prompt: What challenges arise as the protagonist's internal and external conflicts come to a head? How do these challenges force the protagonist to confront their past? Do they run? Do they give up? At what point does the protagonist have to admit the truth?
Directions: Introduce a turning point where the protagonist must face both their external opponent and their internal ghost simultaneously. This could be a moment of crisis where the stakes are highest, and the protagonist's past choices or feelings directly influence the outcome of the external quest. Highlight the emotional and physical stakes in this sequence.
7. Resolve the Ghost Story Beat
Writing Prompt: How does the protagonist finally address the unresolved tension with their former lover? What is the time and location that makes this scene special? What is the outcome of their internal and external conflict?
Directions: Write the resolution of the ghost story beat. This could involve a reconciliation, a final goodbye, or a moment of personal growth where the protagonist lets go of their past. Show how this resolution impacts the protagonist's character and their ability to complete their external mission.
8. Conclude the External Adventure
Writing Prompt: After resolving the internal conflict, how does the protagonist succeed or fail in their external quest? What has changed in them as a result of confronting their ghost? What is revealed in their character arc because of it, and does it help them with their mission?
Directions: Bring the external adventure to its conclusion, influenced by the protagonist's internal resolution. Show how the protagonist's growth or change affects the outcome of their mission. Consider whether they achieve their external goal and how the story's events have shaped them moving forward.
BONUS: Add Your story’s SECRET SAUCE
Reflection: Add reflective moments throughout the hero/heroine's inner journey where the protagonist contemplates what they've learned from the adventure and the resolution of their past relationship. How have they changed? What have they gained or lost? What do they wish for now?
Next post: SCENE TWO - THE STORY WORLD BEAT
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I look forward to reading your stories and connecting in 2024!
Best wishes,
Kelly E. Keough