Somewhere in Act 1 (usually within the Setup beat), a character (usually not the hero) will make a statement or pose a question to your hero that somehow relates to what the hero needs to learn by the end of the story. Like this: “Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of,” stated by Preacher Casy to Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (page 24). Or “Mom is always saying I’m a smart kid but that I just don’t ‘apply’ myself,” written in Greg Heffley’s journal in The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (page 14). Or even something as simple as, “What exactly do you want
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