Inciting Incidents

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In the introduction to my post on protagonists on Monday, I included what I remembered of the root action statements we used to write in my Shakespeare classes: “(Protagonist) wants (thing) but (antagonist) prevents that by (action), resulting in (climax and denouement).”

BUT–I forgot something really important! The inciting incident!

The inciting incident goes somewhere near the beginning of the statement. It could be something he does, a choice he makes, or an action by some other party (the antagonist, perhaps), but it’s the initial action that sets the rest of the plot in motion. I don’t recall exactly how we had to phrase those root action statements, but I do remember that we had to identify our inciting incidents in the paper and defend our choices.

In Macbeth, the inciting incident occurs in the third scene. Macbeth, fresh off the battlefield, encounters the three hags who give him the prophecy that he will rise to become king of Scotland. The rest of the play revolves around Macbeth attempting to make sure the prophecy comes true. Everything arises from that one incident.

I considered glossing over my bad memory and going back to Monday’s post to correct my mistake, but I decided there’s a teachable moment here (I sure sound like a mom when I say stuff like that!). I think a lot of writers overlook the inciting incident, or we perhaps gloss over it, or put it too late in the story. The inciting incident should come very early in the book–within the first “act,” or somewhere in about the first third of the book.

I think a huge stumbling block for many writers is the temptation to fill up several early chapters with backstory and exposition. This is especially problematic for authors of speculative fiction, I think, because we love our worlds so much that we want to draw them in explicit detail for our readers. We spend the first hundred pages defining magic and science and kingdoms and what have you when the reader just really wants to know what’s going to happen.

Take a cue from writers of thrillers and crime novels and mysteries: Start with the Latin phrase “in media res.” Drop your reader into the action in the middle of the story. The TV franchise “CSI:” does this brilliantly. Before the theme music even starts you see a dead body. The inciting incident is there right away–someone is dead and the team has to solve the crime.

The inciting incident doesn’t have to be exciting or on the opening pages, either. It might be a conversation or a dramatic turn, but it sets the wheels in motion for the action of the rest of the book. It’s the event that sets the protagonist’s world crumbling and upsets the balance of his life. He has to spend the rest of the story rebalancing himself.

It took me a while to figure out my inciting incident, but since “Ravenmarked” is very character-driven, I finally figured it out when I realized that Connor Mac Niall was my true main character. For months, I had the second chapter of the book as my first chapter. It started in the middle of the action with an exciting escape, but something didn’t ring true. When I figured out that “Ravenmarked” is really Connor’s story, I went back and wrote what is now my first chapter.

Now, it could be argued that the inciting incident of my book is the coup that happens mostly off-stage. If it weren’t for that event, Connor wouldn’t need to help Mairead escape her country. But for Connor, the inciting incident is a visit from his mother, Maeve, where she promises to remove a magical bond she has on him if he takes Mairead somewhere else. I would argue that the inciting incident for the subplots is the coup, but the inciting incident for Connor is the choice to do a task he doesn’t want to do in exchange for freedom from his mother. It’s that choice that unbalances him, and he has to spend the rest of he book righting himself.

I don’t know if that’s very literary of me… Maybe I’m still doing something wrong. All I know is that now the story feels a lot more true, Connor is more developed, and the path he takes flows a lot more naturally from his character.

What’s the inciting incident of your story?