you want me to do what?

Imagine if you will: You're in a serious funk, and for good reason. Your father has died (the circumstances? Mysterious!), and his death should have made you king, but your creepy uncle swooped in and married your mother and now it's creepy uncle who's king, not you. 

And now your best friend, your ride-or-die, has come to you with a wild tale: A ghost has been spotted by the guards, not once, not twice, but three nights in a row, wandering the ramparts of the castle. Your pal (we’ll call him Horatio) has seen it with his own eyes. 

Dude, says Horatio. I'm serious. It looks like your Dad. You need to come talk to the ghost.

Who wouldn't want to keep reading a story that starts like that? Our hero Hamlet is in a pickle for sure, but good storytelling demands that he DO something about it. 

You need to come talk to the ghost. Hamlet does so, only to have the ghost challenge him to even bigger task: I was murdered, the ghost tells him, and you, my son, must avenge my death. 

You want me to do what?

And five acts later, he's done it.

TIP: Drop a scary-big, deeply personal, and wildly ambitious adventure in your hero's lap quite near the beginning of the tale.