An inciting incident is an event that affects the protagonist in a novel and starts off a journey the protagonist will take throughout the duration of a book.
Are you working on a inciting incident for your novel? If you need some guidance, in the article we show you how to write an inciting incident.
1. Have it happen early
The inciting incident is what will start the chain of events that will make up the plot of the story. As such, it has to happen very early. If it’s a short story, it needs to happen within the first few paragraphs. If it’s a longer piece of work, like a novel or a novella, it needs to happen within the first chapter.
If it is delayed any longer than that, then the reader will lose interest in the story – because nothing important will be happening. The inciting incident is the first important thing that happens to the protagonist, as it presents the protagonist with a problem they need to resolve. It should make the reader become interested enough to read further and find out how the protagonist solves the problem.
Take a read of the following article:
How to Write the First Chapter of a Novel
2. Change the status quo
The inciting incident will divide the life of the protagonist in what was before the incident, and what came afterwards. The life of the protagonist will never be the same as it was before the inciting incident happened.
This is easy to recognize when the inciting incident is something that physically prevents the protagonist from going back to their old lives immediately – for example, the protagonist gets kidnapped, or they go on a flight and the flight crashes and they need to survive in a jungle.
Other examples include losing a job, getting a promotion with more responsibilities and tasks than the protagonist had before, or, the protagonist is a detective and is given a case that is more difficult than all the other cases they had before.
Moreover, the protagonist needs to be emotionally impacted by the inciting incident. This will start the inner journey of the protagonist which makes up the protagonist’s character arc within the course of the story.
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3. Another character should do it
Most of the events in the story, especially those that make up the major or main plot in the novel, must be done or driven by the protagonist – except for the inciting incident. While there are rare cases where the protagonist is the one that causes or does the inciting incident in some way, most often, someone else causes the inciting incident to happen.
This is because in a story, the one that causes the inciting incident doesn’t necessarily have to be the one who is most impacted by it. That’s why the protagonist needs to be carefully chosen in a story.
For example, let’s have a scientist develop a drug that miraculously cures cancer. The scientist manages to find a volunteer for the drug, and it cures the patient, but the person’s gender has been changed – a previously unknown side effect. In such a story, the scientist might be impacted by their actions, but it is the volunteer who is impacted by it the most (since they had their gender switched), and in that story, the protagonist will be the volunteer, and there are two possibilities for inciting incidents.
The first possibility is that the protagonist finds out they have cancer, and after that, they meet the scientist who offers them the drug. Or, it can be that all of that already happened (i.e. the protagonist has known for some time that they have cancer and it is in a late stage and there is nothing that can be done), and the inciting incident is the moment when the protagonist is given the drug by the scientist.
4. The protagonist should react
As previously mentioned, the inciting incident would ideally be done by another character, either to the protagonist specifically (for example, maybe the antagonist steals something from the protagonist, which starts off the chain of events), or the antagonist commits murder that the protagonist then needs to solve.
In both cases, it is the protagonist who reacts to the situation and decides to take care of the problem, which means the inciting incident needs to be something that affects them. For example, let’s take a look at The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
In the beginning of the story, we spend a brief time with Katniss, her friends and family, and learn of the situation that District 12 is in, but the story does not dwell on the daily life in District 12. The next day (in the story) is the day of the reaping, when the tributes for the Hunger Games are chosen, and the tributes will fight to the death until only one is left – the winner. In the choosing, the name that comes forward as a tribute is Primrose, Katniss’ younger sister.
That precise moment is the inciting incident for The Hunger Games. Then we have Katniss’ reaction to it – quickly volunteering to take her sister’s place. That is the moment when the protagonist decides to take care of the problem (i.e. prevent her baby sister from participating and possibly dying in the Games).
When the protagonist reacts to the inciting incident and makes a decision to take action to resolve the problem – that is when the plot of the story truly begins. And this moment is usually tied in with the inciting incident.
5. Story and genre specific inciting incidents
Some genres and types of stories have inciting incidents that are tied to the genre (or story type), and in most novels, they remain the same. This happens with romance novels, murder mysteries, crime novels (theft), family inheritance dramas (the death of a family matron or patron), and so forth.
For example, in a romance novel, the inciting incident is almost always a meet-cute, i.e. that moment when the hero and heroine of the romance novel meet and interact for the first time. Just looking at each other won’t work, they need to interact in some way. Since romance is accompanied by comedy and humor, something funny always happens when they meet, which is why it is called a meet-cute. It’s not just two people meeting at random, they meet and something funny happens that makes their meeting memorable.
If the hero and heroine have known each other from before, then the meet-cute is replaced by a new situation where they need to interact like they never had before. For example, in an enemies-to-lovers romance story, two coworkers were competing for a promotion, when suddenly, their boss demands they work together on a project.
In a murder mystery, the inciting incident can be considered the murder itself. However, a more correct way of identifying the inciting incident is to consider the moment when the protagonist (be it a detective or someone else who will be investigating the murder) finds out about the murder and decides to find the murderer and bring them to justice.
You might want to take a look at the following articles that provide guidance on writing in particular genres and subgenres:
How to Write a Locked-Room Mystery
How to Write a Cozy Mystery Novel
How to Write a Contemporary Romance Novel
How to Write a Psychological Thriller Story
How to Write a Crime Short Story
6. Make the incident enticing
Beyond inciting the chain of events of the story, the incident also needs to be enticing. Yes, even when the inciting incident is dramatic and scary, it should be enticing enough to engage the readers to keep reading. In that manner, the more dramatic the inciting incident, the better.
For example, that is the reason why the inciting incident in a romance novel is almost always a meet-cute, as mentioned before, where something funny happens as the hero and heroine meet. The more entertaining this moment is, the better, because that will make the readers wonder – what funny/entertaining thing will happen when these two meet again?
Or, in another example, let’s take a murder mystery with a detective protagonist. If the detective is called to the crime scene in the middle of the work day, that is a bit boring and predictable. But, let’s say the protagonist is sleeping, on vacation, or watching their son or daughter’s recital at school, and everything is normal until they get that call. And on top of that, the nature of the crime itself is so unusual (and most often, horrid) that it justifies the call to the detective while he is off duty.
Inciting incidents are not just about what happens, or what causes the protagonist to react and take a decision to act to solve a problem. The way in which the inciting incident is presented to the protagonist (and the reader) is an opportunity to add spice to the story and entice the readers to keep reading to find out how the protagonist solves the problem.