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What Is an Inciting Incident? Learn How to Write a Great One

Inciting incidents hook readers. They take stories in an entirely new direction or get the plot moving faster.

It’s the moment when Lucy discovers Narnia in the wardrobe or Gandalf introduces the thirteen dwarves to Bilbo.

Every great story has a fascinating inciting incident. Here are a few tips to come up with your own.

What Is an Inciting Incident?

An inciting incident is an event that causes chaos or change in the protagonist’s life. It kickstarts the story’s plot by compelling the protagonist forward. This can happen in the first chapter of a novel or the first few pages of a short story.

There are also three types of inciting incidents:

Coincidental: an event that’s unexpected or accidental. (Someone finds gold in their backyard or crashes their car into another vehicle and finds out their best friend was the other driver.)

Causal: an action or event the protagonist chooses to do. (Your protagonist files for divorce or gives in to their lifelong urge to start a restaurant.)

Off-page: an event that happens before the story starts or outside of the protagonist’s experience. (A country drops a bomb on the protagonist’s hometown while they’re at work one day or the protagonist’s best friend goes missing ten years before your story starts.)

Tips for Writing Inciting Plot Points

Now that you know the two types of inciting incidents, use these tips to create plot-activating moments that make your audience buckle in for a long night of reading.

1. Make the Protagonist’s World Flip

A great inciting incident causes a significant imbalance in your protagonist’s life. They should start making decisions or changes they wouldn’t have before as they respond to the incident. 

Consider the almost-car-crash in Twilight. Sure, you could argue that moving to Forks is the inciting incident for Bella. It’s definitely the first incident that gets the plot going, but the story only shifts into vampire mode when Edward saves her from getting hit in the school’s parking lot. She notices his insane strength and speed, so she starts questioning who he is.

The inhuman features that intrigue Bella also hook the reader. You keep reading to find out how she discovers he’s a vampire and when/how the big reveal happens.

Her discovery that vampires exist also changes how she interacts with and understands her world. It radically alters her life path, well before she gets to know his family or the other supernatural beings in Forks.

2. Keep the Magnitude a Mystery

Sometimes major life moments happen and we don’t realize how significant they are. You could bump into a person at the grocery store, only to recognize them at a farmer’s market a week later and start a conversation. That person might be your future romantic partner who changes your life, but you don’t realize that while you’re standing between shelves of pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Don’t be afraid of leaving your inciting incident a mystery to your protagonist. Moments of excitement or terror can be great for starting your plot, but sometimes a hint of mystery intrigues readers too.

3. Align the Incident With Your Theme

You might know what your character is going to experience on their journey to the plot resolution but have no idea what your inciting incident should be.

If you can’t think of something, consider your theme. What event or circumstance would start your protagonist on a learning journey that exemplifies your theme?

Let’s imagine a scenario where you’re writing a coming-of-age story. Ultimately, you want your protagonist to recognize they have no control over their lives and find security in the community they build around themselves.

To make that initial loss of control happen, you could pick an inciting incident like someone breaking into their home. During the robbery, the criminal accidentally sets the house on fire. Your protagonist’s family loses everything and has to start over.

This event would align with your protagonist’s inner conflict. Focusing on inner conflict can be another perspective if you’re unsure what your theme is.

Let’s say your protagonist wants to go to college to provide for their family, but they get kicked off of their soccer team for cheating on a test. A soccer scholarship is the only way they could to college, but that chance disappears forever. They have to make a series of choices after that to find a new way to pay for college, which is the rest of your plot.

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Inciting incidents are important, so try thinking about yours apart from your stories. When they carry thematic weight or flip your protagonist’s world upside down, you’ll know you’ve created an incident that will hook your readers.

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Cuando puedas sembrar un arbol, en un vendabal (aun sorteando los vientos feroces) Cuando puedas regar una flor, en un desierto (necesitado de agua) Cuando puedas regalar una sonrisa, en el dolor (aunque estes constrenido adentro) Cuando puedas cocinar pacientemente, caldos olorosos entre gritos alocados Cuando puedas dar, no teniendo lo que tienes Cuando puedas... Tu universo sera diferente Y Veras

I’m pretty sure he’s not gonna show. Yet here you sit. I’ll give him ten more minutes. If there’s someplace else you have to be… Not tonight, Watson. Not tonight.

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Contracts in the Entertainment Business

Contracts in the world of entertainment are important because they involve different aspects of the relationship between artist and manager. The contract stipulates the extent to which the manager will commit to the artist. There are agreements that could only include organizing tours for the artist. There are others contracts that might include planning the professional career of the artist involving not only the creation of the artistic image but also organizing every performance, recording, and interviews.

A contract that defines a superficial relationship between artist and manager might only include planning tours. This type of contract might not be beneficial for the artist in terms of professional growth and image development in the entertainment industry. The amount of time the manager spends on the development of the artist’s career is dedicated to plan live performances and get the money. According to Howard, a manager who establishes this type of relationship with the artist might not know much about business development.

There is another type of contract in which the manager is committed to bring out most of the artist’s capabilities. The contract includes an elaborated plan, detailed organization, a meticulous design, and precise control of the professional career of the artist. The manager is also responsible for finding the financial funds that might be needed it to reach the summit of success.

According to Paul Allen the functions of a manager should include: 1. All the phases of artist’s career in the entertainment industry 2. The appropriate music and show designed for live performances. 3. Publicity, public relations, employment, and advertising. 4. Image and related matters. 5. Booking and talent agencies that work on behalf of the artist. 6. The selection of other key team members such as attorneys, business managers, accountants, publicists, and a Webmaster.

In addition to the functions outlined before by Allen, George Howard suggests that the manager should go beyond signing a contract with the artist by providing a business development scheme. The manager should not see the artist as an investment that could pay off in cash after settling a recording deal. According to Howard management is “about leveraging the brand equity to create direct revenue streams, as well as strategic partnerships where you, again, create visibility (thus increasing brand equity) and revenue.”  He also mentioned that “most of the managers are not prepared to do business development.”

  REFERENCES

  Allen, Paul. (2007). Artist Management for the Music Business

Howard, George. (2011). Artist Manager Must Understand Their Role is Now Business Development. Retrieved from http://blog.tunecore.com/2011/02/artist-managers-must-understand-their-role-is-now-business-development.html