As writers, we’ve all likely heard of the Ibsen example that if you show us a gun in Act one, you need to use it in Act 3. But what does this actually mean? In this blog, I’m going to break down what setting up and paying off means for your stories. Beware I will use spoilers to the film Knives Out and the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck in this blog.
What Is “Set Up” and “Pay Off”?
Setting up and paying off means exactly what it sounds like. If you set something up, you need it to be paid off later. I’ll use the example of Knives Out. If you watch the film, you’ll see there’s the setting up of the wheel of knives in the background of one of the rooms of a crime writer’s house. There’s a running theme of some of the knives being real and some aren’t and whether people can really figure out which are real and which are props.
This then comes to fruition when the murderer, Ransom, grabs a knife off the wheel to try and kill the nurse, Marta. This doesn’t quite go to plan when he pulls the blade away after trying to plunge it into her chest to reveal it was a stage one where the blade retracts. So here, the knives were set up in act one and paid off in act three.
How To Pull It Off Properly
I will say that it doesn’t have to be set up in act one. You could set it up later, but you need to ensure you pay it off. This is where some writers get caught out. They set something up and don’t pay it off or they use something towards the climax but it’s not set up properly so we don’t know it’s coming. It upsets the audience because they feel cheated. Cheating your audience is the last thing you want to do.
So, to ensure this works properly in your work, this is what you need to do. Look at the start of your project. Is there something you have put in that is likely to be used later on? Make sure the set up and significance of this is clear to then be linked to the pay off later on, whether it’s in the climax, part way through act two or wherever you want it to pay off. Make sure it’s there and it really works.
What About “Foreshadowing”?
There is another setting up and paying off thought that writers may or may not be aware of. A lot of Brits may recognise this word from their English classes. Foreshadowing. Now, foreshadowing is fairly similar to set up and pay off. Foreshadowing is when you mark something that you come back to later. For this example, I’m going to use Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
This was the book I had taught to me during my GCSE classes and where they taught us about foreshadowing. If you read the start of the book, the two male protagonists are by a lake. At the end of the book, this is where the events of the book conclude. Lenny has come here to hide after he has accidentally killed Curly’s wife. This was a subtle set up of the location that will be important at the end of the book.
So whichever way you think about set up and pay off or foreshadowing, make sure whatever you put in to be paid off at the end is set up correctly. There’s nothing more fun as a reader, at least it is for me, is when I remember a detail a writer has set up that I’m clicking into place is about to be paid off further in. It makes me want to know what happens next and what the pay off now leads onto. You can do it in stages, bringing it up as a clue a couple of times before it pays off. If nothing else, it’ll keep it fresh in the reader’s mind as they begin to put together the pieces you give them at the start.
So good luck setting up and paying off or even setting up a foreshadowing event for your project. Happy writing!