Let's go together

Sam, again, gets to show why he’s the leader.

“We have to check it out,” Sam said.

Quinn let loose a sort of sobbing breath. He was already moving, turning away. Sam grabbed his shoulder.

“Get off me, brah,” Quinn snapped. “I have to go home. I have to see.”

“We all have to go see,” Sam said. “But let’s go together.”

Gone(2008)

An interesting thing about this passage is that, while it’s the emotional high point of the chapter, nothing happens. It’s all thinking and reacting to that thinking. It’s all unproven - we don’t know if Astrid’s theory is correct. We don’t know if there’s any reason to panic at all.

But the combination of some small, strange occurrences, some theories about what caused them, the consequences if those theories are correct, and the emotion of the crowd in the background has built the feeling of tension and dread to a peak.

Sam, the leader, team builder, decision maker that he is, tries to bring the team together and suggest a course of action that kicks off the story.

Can you find the same pattern in these examples?

“Let’s go outside,” Noah said.

Eve kept hitting the torch switch, muttering and sobbing. Noah shuffled to where he could hear her, reaching out and fumbling for her hand.

“Can’t be blind...” Eve said quietly. “So stupid…”

“Maybe,” Noah said. “But leaving the shopping centre should prove the theory.”

“We need to get organised,” said Trix. “We need to get our families together.”

Bron looked at her like she was nuts. “How are we going to get home? There are dinosaurs everywhere! We’ll get eaten!”

“The dinosaurs don’t know what’s going on either, Bron. We need to move now, while we still can.”

Write your own variation.

High-concept storytelling in Gone 5: Revealing the big picture