Writing The Inciting Incident...ing.
Starting Your Character's Journey With A Bang
Good morning, mate! Last week, we talked briefly about the placement of Inciting Incidents in the beginning of your book. Now we're breaking this element down even further to get an in-depth look at its purpose, construction, and results in the story. Inciting Incidents are so important - not just to the plot (external conflict), but also to the character's internal conflict. So let's get into it!
The Purpose of Inciting Incidents
This is the first 'event' you come to in a new project. We've already set up who the character is, what they want in life, and the fear that is keeping them from achieving their goal(s). That is the beginning of internal conflict. Now it's time to set the external conflict in motion, pushing your Main Character out of their comfort zone, and forcing them to choose whether to go after what they want - or risk never getting it at all.
Whether you're writing fantasy, sci-fi, rom-coms, historical fiction, or anything in between, you must have an inciting incident - and it MUST have a personal impact on your MC. A planetary explosion is a shock, yeah, but it doesn't really mean anything to your reader unless it means something to your character (if someone they love was on that planet, for example.)
No matter how subtle or catastrophic the external event may be, the only thing that will make it matter to your reader is making it matter to your character.
Creating The Incident
If you know the kind of journey you want your character to go on, and how you want them to develop and mature, the Inciting Incident will often take care of itself. This is especially true for pantsers; we like to follow our gut when creating anything.
This isn't always the case, though. Whether you know how the story ends or not, you might not have a clear idea of how to get the ball rolling. That's okay. Plotter or pantser, it all comes back to what matters to your character on a personal level.
- My Process
Consciously or not, I tend to form the inciting incident around two things: What my character wants the most, and what they fear the most. What is it they've always dreamed about, but never quite had the motivation to go after for real? And what do they fear more than death? Loss, abandonment, humiliation? Anything that clashes with their heart's desire.
Then I bring them face to face with both.
Executing The Incident
Ideally, by this point, you've already written your 'hook' (first chapter and setup) in such a way that your reader is at least somewhat invested in your MC. However, you are in no position to sit back and let the plot 'take care of the rest'. You must approach the inciting incident, and every story beat after, with the intention of creating a scenario where your character has to make a decision - not stumble through a doorway through which there is no return.
There is actually brain science behind this. People want to watch other people go through the agony of making painful decisions, so we can learn from them and avoid as much of our own pain as possible. This is just human nature.
As writers, we can hijack this and use it to our advantage.
Your character has an established comfort zone. The inciting incident pushes them outside of this comfort zone, resulting in lowkey (or not lowkey) panic. The MC is now faced with a choice: To retreat to safety and risk never getting what they want, or to reach for the golden carrot and risk pain in uncharted territory.
The reader wants to know: WHAT DOES MC DO?????
Moving Forward
I like to look at a story as a chain reaction of decisions, rather than a series of events. No catastrophe, no matter how destructive, can make your reader care about what happens next unless the event matters to your character on a personal level. This is crucial for every story beat, every chapter, and every scene between now and the end of your book.
So instead of trying to cook up a plot for your character to follow, approach each new chapter with two questions: What does the MC want? And how are they going to get it?
External conflict still plays a part, creating situations (or maybe they got themselves into this mess!) to which they must react - but HOW do they react? And why is their reaction different than another character's might be? That's what will make your characters and your story unique.
And that's it! I hope these building blocks help you create the perfect Inciting Incident for your own story. Remember to subscribe if you haven't already, so you're notified as soon as the next post goes up - and if you found this one helpful, share it with a friend!
Best of luck to you on your writing journey, mate!
- Lydia
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