Yes, I’ve been there too, with my wild dreams of becoming a writer and not having the slightest idea about the technical aspects to it. I didn’t even know what the inciting incident was. With time and study, I still have those dreams, but now I know how the process works and what all the technical jibber-jabber means. So, don’t worry, I can get you there.
A good starting point and one of the technical elements that are fundamental to a novel is the inciting incident. It is a powerful point in any story, so it’s natural that writers want to get it right and make it powerful.
A well-written inciting incident will make your readers ask for more, and turn your pages non-stop, just to know what comes next and how our hero is going to make it out of this.
Well, in this blog post we are going to analyze what elements make an inciting incident… well inciting… but also so captivating for your reader and your character, they won’t have any other choice but to keep reading the damn story.
First things first…
What is the inciting incident?
The inciting incident is a plot point (or beat) and damn it… a very important part of the structure of your novel (If you want to know more about the Three-Act plot structure, click here).
The thing is that the inciting incident is basically the reason why your whole novel happens. Most novels start with a first chapter full of exposition and everyday life. Then the inciting incident will come and disrupt that apparent calm. It will get your protagonist out of their comfort zone, their everyday boring life, pull them forward, forcing them to take action, in other words, sending them to the adventure they will be facing, aka, your novel.
Some Examples… wink wink
Think of this: What would have happened if…
- …certain teenager living in a post-apocalyptic world would not have seen the name of her sister pulled out in the choosing ceremony for the most dangerous tournament ever?
- …the Chinese empire wouldn’t have asked one man from each family to join the ranks and fight against the Unos…?
- … the prince wouldn’t have announced a ball to find his future wife?
- … Erick’s ship wouldn’t have sunk, allowing him to be saved by certain kind-of-spoiled mermaid?
I know what you are thinking, yes, I like my cartoons. sorry, not sorry… and I guess what you are also thinking is that none of those stories could have happened the way they did, without their inciting incidents.
Then, we could say that without the inciting incident, the story could not happen. The story depends on it, the way you present it, and the way in which it affects your protagonist.
Think of your favorite books or movies and try to find what is the event that gets the story ignited.
Now let get into the tips and tricks
1. Write the inciting incident sooner, rather than later
Most authors agree that the inciting incident should happen around the 10 percent mark of your novel. For taking this into account, you should always bear in mind what is your word count objective.
For a novel to be considered as such, it should have more than 80 000 words. Each genre has its specifications. Therefore, the average word count from genre to genre, and from one age group, the other varies.
So, take into account the final word count of your novel and try to include it around the 10 percent mark. So, if you have 80 000 as your final word count in mind, the inciting incident should happen before or around the 8k mark.
Nevertheless, when in doubt, it is always a good practice to write as soon as possible. This doesn’t mean that it should happen in your first line or first chapter. Remember the reader needs time to create empathy for your hero and understand how this inciting incident affects him.
Writing the inciting incident as soon as possible means that you cannot wait too much, or you’ll drag your pace and lose your readers. Can you imagine having to read through 5, 10, 20 chapters until the good stuff begins?
My personal recommendation is to write it in the second chapter, not later than the third. This way, your readers will have enough information to understand what’s going on and you don’t risk having your book put down because you waited too long.
2. Give your hero a decision to make
To illustrate this, let’s use some of the examples we had before:
- what will the daughter do to protect her father from going to war?
- what will the girl do to protect her sister from entering the deadly contest?
Will they sit down and wait to see what happens? or will they take action?
Of course, the second option. But they still need to process the situation and decide to act in consequence, allowing the plot to come to life with it.
3. Make your hero (and your reader) care
There’s one element common to all the decisions made by good characters in good books. They care. Why do you think those protagonists analyzed above made those choices? It’s simple: because they care, and if your hero cares, then your readers care.
This is something that is important to establish in the first chapter(s). Why are they going to take that decision? Try to anticipate what’s coming. Pave the way for the big disruption of their inner peace.
Katniss spends the whole day getting ready for the tournament and from the first few paragraphs is clear that she loves her sister and would do anything to protect her.
Make it clear for your readers that your hero cares, so when the point comes that the world is turned upside down, they will have a decision to make.
4. Add urgency
Urgency is a great resource to add to your inciting incident. Add a ticking clock. what will happen if your hero doesn’t act on it? how soon will that happen? how long can your protagonist wait before taking action? Make that time little.
Reduce it to the minimum possible. This will have your readers at the edge of their seats. Saying: Just do it!!
5. Make your inciting incident external
The inciting incident is something that happens to your hero. It comes from outside. It’s an external force that comes to affect the life and status quo of your protagonist. Your hero needs to react to it, not cause it in any way:
War in China and the fact that a man of each family has to be recruited to take part in it is an excellent example of how an inciting incident should be external.
6. Give your hero an objective
The whole plot of the novel will be defined from the inciting incident. Every subsequent chapter and scene depends on it. So, in order to give your novel direction, purpose, your hero needs to come out of this one with an objective. Maybe he has not decided on it yet, but he eventually will move towards it.
This will move your plot forward and you’ll build on it step by step until the final resolution of the climax.
7. Create questions for your readers
Each chapter in your novel should answer some questions posed previously and create some others. But the chapter with the inciting incident is one where you have to create some of the questions that will remain unanswered for most of the book.
The questions will of course depend on the nature of the story: the genre, the characteristics of the hero, the situation the hero is now facing, the conditions that were previous to the inciting incident. However, some questions are universal and can apply to nearly every story:
- What will the hero do about it?
- When will he make a decision?
- What’s the best course of action?
- Will the hero accomplish this new objective he has ahead?
- How will he solve this situation he is in?
Summing up
The inciting incident is a very important point in your plot. It’s what marks a rupture of the “ordinary world” of your hero and will make him embark on the adventure of your story.
Try to identify this plot point in some of the stories you like (books or movies), so you get better at identifying them, and knowing how they could work.
- Don’t delay it too much. Your readers will get tired
- Give your hero a decision to make: make it urgent
- The inciting incident is something that happens to your hero. It comes from outside. It is totally out of his control.
- Show that your hero cares about the consequences of him acting or not on it
- Raise questions about the future of the story, make your reader doubt.
- Make sure your inciting incident creates an objective for your hero. It will give him a goal, something to fight, and risk everything for.
So, now that we are clear on the technical aspects to the inciting incident, analize the elements you already have for your story and create a powerful event that can make all the tables turn for your hero.
Do you have any good examples of inciting incidents in other books or movies? Leave them in the comments.
See you soon.
