Thank you for this. I have been wracking my brain, trying to figure out what my memoir is about, and now that I realize what the inciting incident is, it tells me everything that follows. Suddenly I have the outline of the book! This is amazing.
Add to the list of types: "Support system collapses"-- protagonist's 'normal life' depends on some support, income, resources, or plans, but then that support collapses. E.g. they get fired from a job. They lose their inheritance or retirement income. Their breadwinner spouse dies. Their "support" turns out to be a scam get-rich-quick-scheme. Many possibilities for this in fantasy and romance, too.
Ooh good one. Are you familiar with our 9 plot types? What plot type do you think this type of inciting incident usually falls under ruclips.net/video/NUAFc3k_BC4/видео.html
@@TheWritePracticeTV TBH, I think that the "Loss of Support System" inciting incident could apply to any of the 9 plot types, depending on 1) the nature of the support system and what the MC gets out of it; 2) the consequences of loss of support (physical, emotional, psychological, etc) and 3) what the MC needs to do to recover from this loss of support, including substitutes, drop/change their identity, solve problems/mysteries, face their core wounds, manipulate others, or rise to a new/higher level of maturity and morality. In my WIP historical novel, the MC loses financial support in 2 ways -- First, his "mentor" turns out to be a fraud, and is murdered (with MC complicit in coverup). Second, MC is denied inheritance because he can't prove that his father really died (there are rumors of suicide = non-christian burial + shame for MC). (MC's family lived in debtor's prison for a couple of years, so there is very strong shame memories tied to poverty.) So this loss of support threatens the bottom four layers of the Hierarchy of Needs to varying degrees, and the MC has to eventually learn/grow/mature to "Self-actualization" to transcend it all. By the way, this novel is based on real people and real events. Fiction picks up where the documented history leaves off. 1694 London.
@@russellcameronthomas2116 Your story piques my interest, but I won't ask you to share anything before it's written. I was just wondering if one could have the irony of self-actualization with the bottom tiers of Maslow's hierarchy ripped out. Like I would imagine has happened to many famous writers, scientists etc from the past. There's an interesting book that looks at Maslow's pyramid from a new model. The book is called Transcend, written by Scott Barry Kaufman. All the best for your Novel writing.
@@passage2enBleu Thanks so much. I will look up the book "Transcend". Yes, I think there are definitely cases and situations where needs are met higher on Maslow's hierarchy at the same time that there are deficits or losses lower down. A common example is the "Ascetic" archetype in spiritual traditions, which involves depriving yourself on a physical level, and sometimes isolating yourself (removing "belonging and love" and social "esteem"), all with an aim of spiritual self-actualization and transcendence. I have my own conceptual framework for the Hierarchy of Needs, drawing on Computer Engineering. Briefly, in any operating system, there is an "interrupt stack" which is a prioritized list of events that the operating system needs to deal with. When your laptop computer is recalculating a spreadsheet, it needs to briefly interrupt that process to update the mouse cursor position on the screen, because having a responsive mouse cursor is VERY important to the user experience. Applying this to the Hierarchy of Needs -- imagine a person who has 3 needs arising at the same time: 1) a physiological need ("too cold"); 2) a safety need ("lost in the wrong part of town") and 3) a cognitive need ("where is the next clue so I can solve this murder?"). The highest priority "interrupt" would be 1) being too cold. Second priority interrupt would be 2), and lowest would be 3). That person's body will start shivering to fight off the cold, or maybe the person will automatically hunch over or blow hot air on his/her hands. Or maybe they will just over-rule the need to be warmer, to then focus on 2) and 3). Just like the computer + mouse cursor example, each personality type and character situation will have its own "rules" for handling generic needs, priorities, and "interrupts". The more distinct and idiosyncratic their "rules/norms" are, the more distinct that character will be. Taken to an extreme, a person becomes "an odd ball" or "an odd duck" or "an excentric". A popular idiom captures this relationship: "My grandpa Bob -- now *he* was a real *character*."
Personal favorite inciting incidents from movies in every category (to the best of my comparison) 💛 1. Monty Python and the holy grail 2. John wick 3. Murder mystery 4. The barbarian 5. Penelope 6. Michels vs Machines 7. Leap 8. The Croods 9. Hunt for the wilderpeople 10. LOTR
I do love this video. Great for a variety of inciting incident types in a series. Keeps it fresh.. Although I do love a somewhat later inciting incident after clues leading to it (Hunger Games after we know Katniss status quo/normal world and why she would respond the way she does when the inciting incident finally happens. HP & Sorcerer Stone. All the hints that there is something different about Harry only to find out in Chapter 4 that he is a wizard and invited to where we will become attached to for 7 books-HOGWARTS.).
I hear you! In those cases I wonder if we're just not picking the right inciting incident, which can often be sooner and much more subtle than we expect. For example, it would be easy to say the reaping in scene 3 is the inciting incident of the Hunger Games, but you could also make an argument that it's Prim's dream about being chosen which happens right in scene 1, foreshadowing her actually being chosen and the choice Katniss is going to have to make. I think you could make an argument either way, but the conflict and tension is definitely building toward in scene 1, which makes me think the movement of the story has started even then. You could even argue that the upcoming reaping itself is the inciting incident. My point is that it's often just more subtle than you'd expect. And for HP, I would argue that scene 2 where he accidentally frees the snake is the inciting incident of the first book. You could say that when he receives the first letter (which he isn't allowed to read) is the inciting incident, but to me the snake is where he begins to come around to the idea that he isn't "normal." (Also, in scene 1 we get the inciting incident for the whole series, which is of course that he lived as no one else did after Voldemort attempted to kill him. It's not really the inciting incident for the book but it's what begins the action of the entire series, climaxing in the battle of Hogwarts and final duel with V.) I could certainly be a little off on those, but as writers, I think we need to be getting these pieces (and the core action) in place sooner than many of us want to!
What about a "rush for survival"? Thrillers often have this. A threat to the protagonist appears, and they have to escape to survive. Perhaps after the midpoint they regroup and face the threat, but the first half is a rush to survive. It's not "A Great Crime Against Me" because there's no righteous seeking justice. It's just straight-up, "That person or think wants to kill me, I need to react quickly and figure out how to survive." An example would be something like Cujo or Three Days of the Condor.
I like that. That's definitely part of the rising action of some stories. An inciting incident would be the emergence of that threat though (which is usually a type of inciting incident in an action story).
Different story structure frameworks call it different things. Personally I don't find the "hook" a very useful term, but some people do indeed define it in the same way as an inciting incident. That being said, I agree with you that they're distinct.
This is fantastic. Your explanation makes it easy to understand and execute an inciting incident. I hope you upload more videos soon. Thank you. Btw, I would subscribe but it has been one year since you uploaded a video. God bless-I hope all is well with you.
hello, nice list, may i know where you got this list? must be you collected it by def source but may i? interested enough to find another cuz inciting incident can happen interweavenly plus it got a heavy gravity to suck us up, a very decent tool to have... or you could add up more inciting incident types.. thank you for the list. ive read the mckee book and things, but i say we should expand it a little more... in your channel? thanks for the list gagan, God bless!
yow, II can be tactic or strategic, it can help us figure out things, or complexes things up a little hehe but! lets expand this topic mr. lets make a wiki of some sort out of this
This is a combination of many different sources including Save the Cat, Robert McKee, Gustav Freytag, Story Grid/Shawn Coyne, and our own observations. Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for these. I knew you would mention the Count of Monty Cristo when you said A great crime against me. I’m working on a novel. The prequel is the backstory and I knew how to begin it but I was wondering if my first chapter is the inciting incident and yes it is.
Glad you're here, Paul. If you liked this one, check out the full story structure playlist. Lots of great info in it! ruclips.net/video/f4RZ8-adZbw/видео.html
Confused-How can an inciting incident be an interruption to anything if it has to appear at the beginning--basically before anything even starts? How would one structure a novel if considerable development is required before the inciting incident eg. chronicling a biography of sorts when the inciting incident occurs late in life? Is one forced to tell the novel backwards chronologically simply because the inciting incident 'has' to appear at the beginning?
Important question. Here are a couple of opening lines of novels that might help: The Metamorphosis by Kafka. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” 1984 by Orwell: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. The Martian by Andy Weir. “I’m pretty much f***ed.” And Harry Potter: “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Within a few paragraphs of course very not normal things are happening. Does that help?
On the tournament part of the inciting incident,I would like to think of the movie Major League starrring Tom Berenger,Charlie Sheen and Corbin Bernsen and also the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon.
New sub here. Great breakdown of inciting incident types. As for the Save the Cat method you describe...what about tragedies? Do you have any detailed content about that? Because you''re basically putting them up a different tree in which a rabid dog is waiting to greet them. 😂
Tragedies begin with the same ingredients. What makes them tragedies is the arc and often the tone of the writing. More on arcs here: ruclips.net/video/f4RZ8-adZbw/видео.html
I'd like to hear someone discuss books in which the inciting incident has happened before the beginning of the book, as in the books The Time Traveler's Wife and The Sparrow..
The thing is, the inciting incident is what's supposed to start your book, because that conflict changes the course of the character's life and makes them have to readjust and learn, but if you don't show how everything was before the incident, the reader can't be engaged in a change (and want to see how It's solved) if they see no change I have a bit of an idea of the traveler's wife, and even if the incident happens "before the story begins" they show it at some point, it doesn't happen off page/outside the film
hi, I have written my inciting incident scene as you said for practice but when I'm trying to send it the website is showing me an internal error every time I try to join the write practice pro through a new account or log in through my existing account, I tried to log in again after 1 hour but I'm still facing this issue. I hope you can help me out with this
Regarding the inciting incident, a gentleman by the name 'Shawn Coyne' suggests that there two different types: a. Causal This happens from an active choice for example, a wife leaving her husband. b. Coincidental This happens from a coincidence, such as a plane crashing and forcing the protagonist to survive in the wilderness.
Much love and respect to Shawn. In the case of a "causal" inciting incident, I would argue that real inciting incident would happen much earlier, for example when the wife realized their marriage was broken or when he did something to her that caused her to begin to question their relationship. Inciting incidents happen TO the character. They are not a choice the character makes. That being said, the wife leaving her husband might very much be an inciting incident to the HUSBAND! Thanks for your comment and for sharing this!
@@TheWritePracticeTV Very well said. Perhaps the wife example wasn't a great one 😂😂. I still think there are times when the incident incident can be 'causal'. For instance, I recently re-watched Doctor Strange, in which the title character 'causes' an accident because he was on not paying attention. It is this event that kick-starts his journey for healing. The accident happened to him, but he caused it.
@@buntumedia I agree with you there, that certain inciting incidents can be pretty close to "happening to" vs. "caused by." Lots of gray areas in story structure and it's pointless to get too persnickety about things (that won't stop me from trying, but still).
Well the tournament is a hallmark of the performance genre, which is the Karate Kid's main story type. But you're right in that Coming of Age is the internal story type!
ive found that this is not always so important, you dont need some big tragic moment to hook a reader. take for example Naamahs kiss by Jaqueline carey. nothing really tragic happens out of nowhere until chapter 10 or 11. even then as tragic the event was it, it only sets the stage for a big moment that changes the direction of the story in the next couple chapters. but its not some grande upheaval. yet in spite, im still hooked on the book.
What about stories in which the protagonist is ripped away from their familiar environment, either literally or figuratively, by forces beyond their control? For example, in The Wizard of Oz, a tornado whisks Dorothy from Kansas to Oz. That incident doesn't seem to fit any of the ten types of incidents in your video.
I don't agree with the rule that it must happen outside the protagonists control. In Noir style stories, the inciting incident is usually caused by the protagonists actions. Why can't the inciting incident be caused by the main character? Let's say they want money for something, so they steal it. Now the police are after them. Is that not an inciting incident?
Example from a book/film you like? In your example here, the inciting incident would be the police coming after them. Because if they just got away with it, it wouldn’t be a story. The police coming after them is outside of their control.
You kinda ignored the entire isekai Genre, one of the biggest genres in human history, when you didnt mention the kind of inciting incident where the protagonist is transported to another setting entirely, be it to a game, to the spirit world, as often happens in folklore such as the story of Røskva & Tjalfe from nordic mythology, the bride of the dead story from north american mythology, the wizard of oz, most of the Narnia books, or more recently something like spirited away. While you can stretch the haunted house incident out to claim it covers this scenario, often these stories are not about escaping the new setting, but instead finding a way to adapt and survive in it, and the new setting may not actually be hostile as such.
Entering into a second world is an extremely common convention that can be present in any story type (and something we've been teaching for years because it's so great! thewritepractice.com/sell-100-million-book/) Entering the second world is not always an inciting incident in and of itself, but it can be. For Wizard of Oz, Dorothy being swept into the new world becomes the inciting incident for her quest for the macguffin, the macguffin being the wizard who can help her return home. For the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrob, which begins as a temptation plot, the inciting incident is when Edward is tempted to eat the queen's food. I'm less familiar with the other stories you mentioned, but Spirited Away seems like Adventure and the quest for the macguffin, the macguffin being her parents and escape from the spirit world. Another you didn't mention is The Matrix, a coming of age plot with what we're calling in this video a "here there be dragons" inciting incident, the new thing outside of his worldview being the fact that the world he lives in might not be as it seems. (My guess, without knowing the story too well, is that's the inciting incident for Røskva & Tjalfe too?) Thanks for your comment and for wrestling with these ideas with us. Happy writing. :)
I wonder how this works for sequels/series. Does one Inciting Incident cover an entite series, in your opinion? Or does each *need* a new Incident? In my Dark Dayz series I feel like the Inciting incident for book 2 happens in the epilogue of book one.
From what I have read about it, there can be an inciting event that happens off screen or before the start of the story BUT there still has to be an inciting incident where the protagonist is pulled into the story. For a series each book should still have their own inciting incident as this moment should ask a question (will they fall in love, will they survive the trials) which is answered in the climax of that book.
I like to think about it in terms of arcs, which is especially helpful in longer series. Because you might have an inciting incident that begins in book 1 or episode 1 season 1 that carries on throughout the entire series. Or an inciting incident that begins the action of book 1 but ends in the climax of book 1. the point is every arc has its own inciting incident. How long the arc last depends on the needs of the story.
Lol ok! As I mentioned, these ARE generalizations, but I think you'll find these patterns in nearly every story (and for the ones we missed, we're happy to add them to the list)! The main thing is to make sure your story is working, and if these help you do that, then great. If not, no sweat. Happy writing.
Thank you for this. I have been wracking my brain, trying to figure out what my memoir is about, and now that I realize what the inciting incident is, it tells me everything that follows. Suddenly I have the outline of the book! This is amazing.
Wow! I love it when it crystallizes like that. Now get writing!
Add to the list of types: "Support system collapses"-- protagonist's 'normal life' depends on some support, income, resources, or plans, but then that support collapses. E.g. they get fired from a job. They lose their inheritance or retirement income. Their breadwinner spouse dies. Their "support" turns out to be a scam get-rich-quick-scheme. Many possibilities for this in fantasy and romance, too.
Ooh good one. Are you familiar with our 9 plot types? What plot type do you think this type of inciting incident usually falls under ruclips.net/video/NUAFc3k_BC4/видео.html
@@TheWritePracticeTV TBH, I think that the "Loss of Support System" inciting incident could apply to any of the 9 plot types, depending on 1) the nature of the support system and what the MC gets out of it; 2) the consequences of loss of support (physical, emotional, psychological, etc) and 3) what the MC needs to do to recover from this loss of support, including substitutes, drop/change their identity, solve problems/mysteries, face their core wounds, manipulate others, or rise to a new/higher level of maturity and morality.
In my WIP historical novel, the MC loses financial support in 2 ways -- First, his "mentor" turns out to be a fraud, and is murdered (with MC complicit in coverup). Second, MC is denied inheritance because he can't prove that his father really died (there are rumors of suicide = non-christian burial + shame for MC). (MC's family lived in debtor's prison for a couple of years, so there is very strong shame memories tied to poverty.)
So this loss of support threatens the bottom four layers of the Hierarchy of Needs to varying degrees, and the MC has to eventually learn/grow/mature to "Self-actualization" to transcend it all.
By the way, this novel is based on real people and real events. Fiction picks up where the documented history leaves off. 1694 London.
@@russellcameronthomas2116 Your story piques my interest, but I won't ask you to share anything before it's written. I was just wondering if one could have the irony of self-actualization with the bottom tiers of Maslow's hierarchy ripped out. Like I would imagine has happened to many famous writers, scientists etc from the past.
There's an interesting book that looks at Maslow's pyramid from a new model. The book is called Transcend, written by Scott Barry Kaufman.
All the best for your Novel writing.
@@passage2enBleu Thanks so much. I will look up the book "Transcend". Yes, I think there are definitely cases and situations where needs are met higher on Maslow's hierarchy at the same time that there are deficits or losses lower down. A common example is the "Ascetic" archetype in spiritual traditions, which involves depriving yourself on a physical level, and sometimes isolating yourself (removing "belonging and love" and social "esteem"), all with an aim of spiritual self-actualization and transcendence.
I have my own conceptual framework for the Hierarchy of Needs, drawing on Computer Engineering. Briefly, in any operating system, there is an "interrupt stack" which is a prioritized list of events that the operating system needs to deal with. When your laptop computer is recalculating a spreadsheet, it needs to briefly interrupt that process to update the mouse cursor position on the screen, because having a responsive mouse cursor is VERY important to the user experience. Applying this to the Hierarchy of Needs -- imagine a person who has 3 needs arising at the same time: 1) a physiological need ("too cold"); 2) a safety need ("lost in the wrong part of town") and 3) a cognitive need ("where is the next clue so I can solve this murder?"). The highest priority "interrupt" would be 1) being too cold. Second priority interrupt would be 2), and lowest would be 3). That person's body will start shivering to fight off the cold, or maybe the person will automatically hunch over or blow hot air on his/her hands. Or maybe they will just over-rule the need to be warmer, to then focus on 2) and 3).
Just like the computer + mouse cursor example, each personality type and character situation will have its own "rules" for handling generic needs, priorities, and "interrupts". The more distinct and idiosyncratic their "rules/norms" are, the more distinct that character will be. Taken to an extreme, a person becomes "an odd ball" or "an odd duck" or "an excentric". A popular idiom captures this relationship: "My grandpa Bob -- now *he* was a real *character*."
Holy cow are you ever a good teacher! Thanks!
Happy to help!
Personal favorite inciting incidents from movies in every category (to the best of my comparison) 💛
1. Monty Python and the holy grail
2. John wick
3. Murder mystery
4. The barbarian
5. Penelope
6. Michels vs Machines
7. Leap
8. The Croods
9. Hunt for the wilderpeople
10. LOTR
Fun list!
I do love this video. Great for a variety of inciting incident types in a series. Keeps it fresh.. Although I do love a somewhat later inciting incident after clues leading to it (Hunger Games after we know Katniss status quo/normal world and why she would respond the way she does when the inciting incident finally happens. HP & Sorcerer Stone. All the hints that there is something different about Harry only to find out in Chapter 4 that he is a wizard and invited to where we will become attached to for 7 books-HOGWARTS.).
I hear you! In those cases I wonder if we're just not picking the right inciting incident, which can often be sooner and much more subtle than we expect. For example, it would be easy to say the reaping in scene 3 is the inciting incident of the Hunger Games, but you could also make an argument that it's Prim's dream about being chosen which happens right in scene 1, foreshadowing her actually being chosen and the choice Katniss is going to have to make. I think you could make an argument either way, but the conflict and tension is definitely building toward in scene 1, which makes me think the movement of the story has started even then. You could even argue that the upcoming reaping itself is the inciting incident. My point is that it's often just more subtle than you'd expect.
And for HP, I would argue that scene 2 where he accidentally frees the snake is the inciting incident of the first book. You could say that when he receives the first letter (which he isn't allowed to read) is the inciting incident, but to me the snake is where he begins to come around to the idea that he isn't "normal." (Also, in scene 1 we get the inciting incident for the whole series, which is of course that he lived as no one else did after Voldemort attempted to kill him. It's not really the inciting incident for the book but it's what begins the action of the entire series, climaxing in the battle of Hogwarts and final duel with V.) I could certainly be a little off on those, but as writers, I think we need to be getting these pieces (and the core action) in place sooner than many of us want to!
So helpful! Thanks a lot for your ideas. Will look up more of your videos.
What about a "rush for survival"? Thrillers often have this. A threat to the protagonist appears, and they have to escape to survive. Perhaps after the midpoint they regroup and face the threat, but the first half is a rush to survive. It's not "A Great Crime Against Me" because there's no righteous seeking justice. It's just straight-up, "That person or think wants to kill me, I need to react quickly and figure out how to survive." An example would be something like Cujo or Three Days of the Condor.
I like that. That's definitely part of the rising action of some stories. An inciting incident would be the emergence of that threat though (which is usually a type of inciting incident in an action story).
Thank you for this
Love this video Joe! - Appreciation for the coordination of your bookshelf also!
🙌
Your video is great. Thanks
Thank you sir im from Nepal 🇳🇵 ❤you ❤️❤️
Hook is not the same as Inciting Incident...
Thanks for the video!
Different story structure frameworks call it different things. Personally I don't find the "hook" a very useful term, but some people do indeed define it in the same way as an inciting incident. That being said, I agree with you that they're distinct.
This is fantastic. Your explanation makes it easy to understand and execute an inciting incident. I hope you upload more videos soon. Thank you. Btw, I would subscribe but it has been one year since you uploaded a video. God bless-I hope all is well with you.
hello, nice list, may i know where you got this list? must be you collected it by def source but may i? interested enough to find another cuz inciting incident can happen interweavenly plus it got a heavy gravity to suck us up, a very decent tool to have... or you could add up more inciting incident types.. thank you for the list. ive read the mckee book and things, but i say we should expand it a little more... in your channel? thanks for the list gagan, God bless!
yow, II can be tactic or strategic, it can help us figure out things, or complexes things up a little hehe but! lets expand this topic mr. lets make a wiki of some sort out of this
This is a combination of many different sources including Save the Cat, Robert McKee, Gustav Freytag, Story Grid/Shawn Coyne, and our own observations. Glad you found it helpful!
@@TheWritePracticeTV helpful and really inspiring, waiting for more on this pal. see this topic at once soon..
Thank you for these. I knew you would mention the Count of Monty Cristo when you said A great crime against me.
I’m working on a novel. The prequel is the backstory and I knew how to begin it but I was wondering if my first chapter is the inciting incident and yes it is.
👏🙏
He Joe, this is a good video. Somehow I arrived by accident an I'm glad it did. Great information and broken down clearly. Thanks!
Glad you're here, Paul. If you liked this one, check out the full story structure playlist. Lots of great info in it! ruclips.net/video/f4RZ8-adZbw/видео.html
Great video. Your explanations are excellent. Why am I not subscribed?
Now I am.
🙏
Thanks! I’m toying around with this a lot with my first chapter.
Good! It’s important to get it in there early, if not the first chapter, than first few.
Confused-How can an inciting incident be an interruption to anything if it has to appear at the beginning--basically before anything even starts? How would one structure a novel if considerable development is required before the inciting incident eg. chronicling a biography of sorts when the inciting incident occurs late in life? Is one forced to tell the novel backwards chronologically simply because the inciting incident 'has' to appear at the beginning?
Important question. Here are a couple of opening lines of novels that might help:
The Metamorphosis by Kafka. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
1984 by Orwell: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
The Martian by Andy Weir. “I’m pretty much f***ed.”
And Harry Potter: “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Within a few paragraphs of course very not normal things are happening.
Does that help?
Thank you, useful list.
On the tournament part of the inciting incident,I would like to think of the movie Major League starrring Tom Berenger,Charlie Sheen and Corbin Bernsen and also the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon.
Great examples!
I love the Flatliners reference. ❤👍
New sub here. Great breakdown of inciting incident types. As for the Save the Cat method you describe...what about tragedies? Do you have any detailed content about that? Because you''re basically putting them up a different tree in which a rabid dog is waiting to greet them. 😂
Tragedies begin with the same ingredients. What makes them tragedies is the arc and often the tone of the writing. More on arcs here: ruclips.net/video/f4RZ8-adZbw/видео.html
Ultimate McGuffin, the Scroll of the Dragon Warrior from Kung Fu Panda, it perfectly describes a McGuffin: "its nothing!"
Yes!
@@TheWritePracticeTV Out of curiosity, what's your favorite inciting incident?
Thanks for the ideas. Now I know why the Hero can not be killed off in the first chapter.
Ha! Yes, they wouldn’t be much of a hero if that happened!
@@TheWritePracticeTV Watch The Sixth Sense. Also The Canterville Ghost is already dead in first part but laid to rest at the end.
Thanks for the video.
I'd like to hear someone discuss books in which the inciting incident has happened before the beginning of the book, as in the books The Time Traveler's Wife and The Sparrow..
The thing is, the inciting incident is what's supposed to start your book, because that conflict changes the course of the character's life and makes them have to readjust and learn, but if you don't show how everything was before the incident, the reader can't be engaged in a change (and want to see how It's solved) if they see no change
I have a bit of an idea of the traveler's wife, and even if the incident happens "before the story begins" they show it at some point, it doesn't happen off page/outside the film
hi, I have written my inciting incident scene as you said for practice but when I'm trying to send it the website is showing me an internal error every time I try to join the write practice pro through a new account or log in through my existing account, I tried to log in again after 1 hour but I'm still facing this issue. I hope you can help me out with this
Regarding the inciting incident, a gentleman by the name 'Shawn Coyne' suggests that there two different types:
a. Causal
This happens from an active choice for example, a wife leaving her husband.
b. Coincidental
This happens from a coincidence, such as a plane crashing and forcing the protagonist to survive in the wilderness.
Much love and respect to Shawn. In the case of a "causal" inciting incident, I would argue that real inciting incident would happen much earlier, for example when the wife realized their marriage was broken or when he did something to her that caused her to begin to question their relationship. Inciting incidents happen TO the character. They are not a choice the character makes. That being said, the wife leaving her husband might very much be an inciting incident to the HUSBAND! Thanks for your comment and for sharing this!
@@TheWritePracticeTV Very well said. Perhaps the wife example wasn't a great one 😂😂. I still think there are times when the incident incident can be 'causal'. For instance, I recently re-watched Doctor Strange, in which the title character 'causes' an accident because he was on not paying attention. It is this event that kick-starts his journey for healing. The accident happened to him, but he caused it.
@@buntumedia I agree with you there, that certain inciting incidents can be pretty close to "happening to" vs. "caused by." Lots of gray areas in story structure and it's pointless to get too persnickety about things (that won't stop me from trying, but still).
The karate 🥋 kid has the tournament at the end so I guess the film is really a coming of age story.
Well the tournament is a hallmark of the performance genre, which is the Karate Kid's main story type. But you're right in that Coming of Age is the internal story type!
With Luke many say it's when he's forced to run.
Verrrry good video
Does a short story have an inciting incident?
Absolutely!
ive found that this is not always so important, you dont need some big tragic moment to hook a reader. take for example Naamahs kiss by Jaqueline carey. nothing really tragic happens out of nowhere until chapter 10 or 11. even then as tragic the event was it, it only sets the stage for a big moment that changes the direction of the story in the next couple chapters. but its not some grande upheaval. yet in spite, im still hooked on the book.
What about stories in which the protagonist is ripped away from their familiar environment, either literally or figuratively, by forces beyond their control? For example, in The Wizard of Oz, a tornado whisks Dorothy from Kansas to Oz. That incident doesn't seem to fit any of the ten types of incidents in your video.
Portal fiction
I don't agree with the rule that it must happen outside the protagonists control. In Noir style stories, the inciting incident is usually caused by the protagonists actions. Why can't the inciting incident be caused by the main character? Let's say they want money for something, so they steal it. Now the police are after them. Is that not an inciting incident?
Example from a book/film you like?
In your example here, the inciting incident would be the police coming after them. Because if they just got away with it, it wouldn’t be a story. The police coming after them is outside of their control.
I see what you're saying. I guess I might be confusing "out of their control" with "unrelated".
Can you have multiple inciting incident types for a single inciting incident?
@@poetryinsession9681Often yes. It depends on how many arcs you have and which plot types you have.
You kinda ignored the entire isekai Genre, one of the biggest genres in human history, when you didnt mention the kind of inciting incident where the protagonist is transported to another setting entirely, be it to a game, to the spirit world, as often happens in folklore such as the story of Røskva & Tjalfe from nordic mythology, the bride of the dead story from north american mythology, the wizard of oz, most of the Narnia books, or more recently something like spirited away. While you can stretch the haunted house incident out to claim it covers this scenario, often these stories are not about escaping the new setting, but instead finding a way to adapt and survive in it, and the new setting may not actually be hostile as such.
Entering into a second world is an extremely common convention that can be present in any story type (and something we've been teaching for years because it's so great! thewritepractice.com/sell-100-million-book/) Entering the second world is not always an inciting incident in and of itself, but it can be. For Wizard of Oz, Dorothy being swept into the new world becomes the inciting incident for her quest for the macguffin, the macguffin being the wizard who can help her return home. For the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrob, which begins as a temptation plot, the inciting incident is when Edward is tempted to eat the queen's food. I'm less familiar with the other stories you mentioned, but Spirited Away seems like Adventure and the quest for the macguffin, the macguffin being her parents and escape from the spirit world. Another you didn't mention is The Matrix, a coming of age plot with what we're calling in this video a "here there be dragons" inciting incident, the new thing outside of his worldview being the fact that the world he lives in might not be as it seems. (My guess, without knowing the story too well, is that's the inciting incident for Røskva & Tjalfe too?) Thanks for your comment and for wrestling with these ideas with us. Happy writing. :)
I wonder how this works for sequels/series.
Does one Inciting Incident cover an entite series, in your opinion?
Or does each *need* a new Incident?
In my Dark Dayz series I feel like the Inciting incident for book 2 happens in the epilogue of book one.
From what I have read about it, there can be an inciting event that happens off screen or before the start of the story BUT there still has to be an inciting incident where the protagonist is pulled into the story.
For a series each book should still have their own inciting incident as this moment should ask a question (will they fall in love, will they survive the trials) which is answered in the climax of that book.
I like to think about it in terms of arcs, which is especially helpful in longer series. Because you might have an inciting incident that begins in book 1 or episode 1 season 1 that carries on throughout the entire series. Or an inciting incident that begins the action of book 1 but ends in the climax of book 1. the point is every arc has its own inciting incident. How long the arc last depends on the needs of the story.
What's the inciting incident in a detective story?
The crime, usually murder.
@@JoeBunting can i email you?
If you watch old noir films the inciting incident is usually a woman going to the office of a detective to hire them.
Terrible generalizing.
Lol ok! As I mentioned, these ARE generalizations, but I think you'll find these patterns in nearly every story (and for the ones we missed, we're happy to add them to the list)! The main thing is to make sure your story is working, and if these help you do that, then great. If not, no sweat. Happy writing.
Thank you so much that was so helpful 🤍