Setup (storytelling)

{{more citations needed|date=June 2025}} A '''setup''', in storytelling, is the introduction in a plot of an element that will be useful to the story only later, when the payoff comes.<ref>{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Brad |title=Specs & The City: Plot Setup, Payoff, and 'Jaws' |url=https://scriptmag.com/features/specs-the-city-setups-plot-setup-payoff-and-jaws?_gl=1*11xc0ek*_gcl_au*MTkwNzc1NzI1Mi4xNzUwMDgwODkz*_ga*OTU2OTAzNzIxLjE3NTAwODA4OTM.*_ga_R81J1VHEP7*czE3NTAwODA4OTIkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTAwODA4OTIkajYwJGwwJGgw |website=Script Magazine |date=13 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Yanno |first=Drew |title=COLUMN D: Setup and Payoff - Writing Foreshadowing in Your Script |url=https://scriptmag.com/features/column-d-setup-and-payoff-writing-foreshadowing-script |website=Script Magazine |date=13 April 2016}}</ref>

Most of the important elements that are part of the setup are usually introduced during the exposition,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cutting |first1=James E. |title=Narrative theory and the dynamics of popular movies |journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |date=December 2016 |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=1713–1743 |doi=10.3758/s13423-016-1051-4|pmc=5133278 }}</ref> with which it is sometimes confused. But there can be a setup within a specific scene late in the story, with a character, object or concept appearing only to be used paragraphs or seconds later.

== References == {{Reflist}}

Category:Storytelling

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